Thank you Minotaur Books, #partner, for the advanced copy of Winter’s End in exchange for my honest review. I borrowed the audiobook from the library.
Publisher: Minotaur Books / Macmillan Audio
Published: December 6, 2022
Summary:
The fourth installment in the gripping, atmospheric Alaska Wild series, Paige Shelton’s Winter’s End…
It’s springtime in Benedict, Alaska, and with it the warmer weather comes an unseasonably somber local tradition…the annual Death March. At the end of each brutal winter, citizens gather downtown and then break into groups to search the community for those who might have somehow gotten stuck at home. Beth Rivers sets off with her friend Orin and dog Gus, toward the cabin of an elderly resident, intending to check on him.
When they reach the cabin, the old man is alive, but not in the best shape. Beth stays with him while Orin hurries to town for help, but it’s not Orin who returns. Gril comes back with shocking news, and it soon becomes clear that Orin has also vanished. When they discover that their friend has been doing some top-secret research, they start to worry he’s been exposed, or worse.
Meanwhile, Beth continues on her own search, for her father, who allegedly is alive in Mexico, but won’t return her calls. Still, she’s making progress in healing from her own trauma, though can’t quite shake the feeling she’s being followed…
My thoughts:
This is the fourth book in Paige Shelton’s Alaska Wild Mysteries series and I think these books just keep getting better and better! The series has such a dark, gritty feel to it and each one is so completely atmospheric!
Once again, my favorite part of this series continues to be the combination of police procedural and amateur sleuthing. It just works so well here. While each book in this series contains a self-contained mystery, which in this book is about the people found missing during the annual Death March, there is the over-arching thread of Beth’s stalker that has been continuing since book 1. The author does provide some backstory to this continued storyline, though of course you will have a richer understanding if you start at the beginning of the series. And there is quite a bit of development in this plotline that has me very excited for the next book!
Setting is really important to this series and I love how the author uses it in each book. The whole idea for the Death March, the town coming together to check-in after the long winter, was just fascinating to me and I loved how she was able to then use that to set the scene for what came next. Again, these books are so atmospheric and it’s why I love reading them. The Alaskan landscape has always been so compelling to me and Paige Shelton has a way of bringing it to life in her stories.
I cannot wait to read the next book in this series, Lost Hours, which is due out later this year.
Audio thoughts:
I decided to listen to this one and thought the narrator, Suzie Althens, did a great job bringing the story to life. Her pacing was spot on and she was able to infuse just the right amount of emotion and tension into her voice as needed.
Books in this series:
- Thin Ice
- Cold Wind
- Dark Night
- Winter’s End
- Lost Hours – due out December 2023
