Author: Paige Shelton
Publication: Minotaur Books (December 3, 2019)
Description: First in a new series set in Alaska from beloved author Paige Shelton, Thin Ice will chill your bones.
Beth Rivers is on the run – she’s doing the only thing she could think of to keep herself safe. Known to the world as thriller author Elizabeth Fairchild, she had become the subject of a fanatic’s obsession. After being held in a van for three days by her kidnapper, Levi Brooks, Beth managed to escape, and until he is captured, she's got to get away. Cold and remote, Alaska seems tailor-made for her to hideout.
Beth’s new home in Alaska is sparsely populated with people who all seem to be running or hiding from something, and though she accidentally booked a room at a halfway house, she feels safer than she’s felt since Levi took her. That is, until she’s told about a local death that’s a suspected murder. Could the death of Linda Rafferty have anything to do with her horror at the hands of Levi Brooks?
As Beth navigates her way through the wilds of her new home, her memories of her time in the van are coming back, replaying the terror and the fear―and threatening to keep her from healing, from reclaiming her old life again. Can she get back to normal, will she ever truly feel safe, and can she help solve the local mystery, if only so she doesn’t have to think about her own?
My Thoughts: Beth Rivers has run to a small town in Alaska after escaping from the stalker who kidnapped her. Her escape caused an injury which required brain surgery and has left her with amnesia, killer headaches, and flashbacks which bring back all the terror of her kidnapping. The kidnapper wasn't found and she fears that he will find her again. She finds herself resident in a halfway house for non-violent offenders sent in from Juneau. She also finds that there was a suspicious death just before she arrived.
It is a town where everyone has secrets and many are fleeing from their pasts. Beth's secret is the she is a best-selling author of thrillers who got her start working for her grandfather who was Chief of Police in the small town where she grew up. Her father disappeared when she was seven and her mother had been obsessively looking for him until Beth's kidnapping which added finding her kidnapper to her obsession. She was left to her grandfather to raise while her mother searched for her missing father.
Beth begins to get to know the various residents of the town as she tries to find out if the suspicious death was suicide or murder. The town is filled with interesting characters from the pot-smoking librarian to park ranger with secrets to the police chief who reminds her of her grandfather. I liked the descriptions of Alaska and the wildlife that was all around. I liked that Beth was resilient and struggling to get over a very traumatic experience.
The one thing that I didn't like about the story was it ending which left Beth's story unresolved even though the crime Beth learns about on her arrival is solved. The ending which leads to her next case makes a real "cliffhanger" ending.
Favorite Quote:
It was an anxiety-riddled ride to the Petition. I felt exposed. I felt stupidly out of shape, ridiculous as I maneuvered around the dirt road's divots and fallen foliage. No one was watching me, but it felt like the world was. I didn't know what parts of "all the wildlife" lurked behind branches, but no animals showed themselves. If they were watching, they were probably too amused to attack.I received this one in exchange for an honest review from Edelweiss. You can buy your copy here.
Sounds like it could be an interesting story
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