Thank you Minotaur Books, #partner, for the advanced copy of Perfect Storm in exchange for my honest review.
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Published: December 3, 2024
Summary:
The next installment in the Alaska Wild series a gripping, atmospheric, traditional mystery series with a great wilderness hook.
Beth Rivers needs to disappear. Her one-time kidnapper, Travis, is on his way to her town in Alaska, and she’s losing time to get out quickly.
The perfect spot for Beth and her boyfriend, Tex, to hide, presents itself in a camp in the woods, away from Benedict. But when their trip takes them by Blue Mine, a small community that has seen tragedy over the last couple months, plans get diverted. Beth and Tex bring the widow of a recently murdered man back to Benedict, for Police Chief Gril to investigate, only to find that nothing is quite what it seems. When the woman vanishes, Beth must be on the alert for further danger. Who knows what further unwelcome disappearances–or appearances–might be lurking in the unforgiving Alaska storms.
My thoughts:
This is the sixth book in Paige Shelton’s Alaska Wild Mysteries series and I cannot tell you how much I have enjoyed these books! The series has such a dark, gritty feel to it and 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 what appears to be some suspicious deaths in a mining community, 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 curious as to what is in store for Beth next.
Both the Alaskan wilderness and the weather are really important to the storylines, almost acting as characters themselves. Here we have the isolated camps throughout the mountains, as well as the rain that leads to overflowing creeks, not to mention all that mud, making tracking an issue. As I already mentioned, these books are so atmospheric, which just pull me right in. 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 was completely invested in this story, wondering not only who was behind the murders in the mining community but also how the community of Benedict was going to keep Beth safe from her stalker. There were so many red herrings that threw me off target, though I did have my suspicions. Nevertheless, I still enjoyed watching it all unfold and am quite eager to see what comes next considering all the developments!
Books in this series:
- Thin Ice
- Cold Wind
- Dark Night
- Winter’s End
- Lost Hours
- Perfect Storm
- ???
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