ARC Review: Hunter's Heart Ridge by Sarah Stewart Taylor

Hunter's Heart Ridge
Author: Sarah Stewart Taylor
Series: A Franklin Warren and Alice Bellows Mystery (Book 2)
Publication: Minotaur Books (August 5, 2025)

Description: In this sequel to Taylor’s lyrical series debut, Agony Hill, Detective Frank Warren and his formerly CIA-connected neighbor Alice Bellows return to investigate the death of a diplomat.

It's November of 1965 and the second weekend of Vermont's regular deer season when Vermont State Police detective Franklin Warren is called out to what looks like an accidental shooting at The Ridge Club, an exclusive men's hunting and fishing club for congressmen, diplomats, judges, and titans of industry: a former ambassador has been shot while out hunting. With the war in Vietnam picking up speed on the other side of the world, Warren quickly realizes that many of the club’s members are powerful men who may have ulterior motives and connections in high places.

While Warren's suspicions about the club members build, his neighbor Alice Bellows is throwing a dinner party, preparing for Thanksgiving, and worrying about her pregnant friend and fellow widow, Sylvie Weber, whose due date is coming up. When Alice's old handler and friend, Arthur Crannock, unexpectedly shows up in Bethany, Alice begins to wonder whether his presence has anything to do with the death at the hunting club.

As an early season snowstorm bears down on Bethany, knocking out power and phone lines and blocking the roads, Warren and his assistant, Trooper Pinky Goodrich, are trapped at the Ridge Club, likely along with a killer, and Alice, increasingly fearful that her past in the intelligence world is no longer in the past, will have to act fast to save Sylvie and her baby.

Sarah Stewart Taylor’s historical series combines the intricacy of a satisfying mystery with keen observation of a time and place during great transformation and upheaval.

My Thoughts: It is November 1965 and early in the deer hunting season when Franklin Warren is called to the Ridge Club for what looks like an accidental shooting. The Ridge Club is populated by movers and shakers including some in the government. When Franklin arrives, he discovers the body of former ambassador William Moulton. Franklin and his assistant Pinky begin to investigate, and it soon becomes clear to Franklin that the death was a murder. 

As Franklin is interviewing the various characters who were at the club when the shooting occurs, Alice Bellows is planning a dinner party and worrying about very pregnant neighbor Sylvie Warner. She is also dealing with the reappearance of her old friend Arthur Crannock who is still in the CIA agent. Alice has trouble believing that he is in the area only to supervise the remodeling of a nearby home he and his wife bought. 

Then an early season snowstorm begins trapping Franklin in the club with all the suspects and Alice at Sylvie's isolated farm with a woman in labor with the baby in a difficult position. 

I enjoyed the setting of rural Vermont and the 1960s time period. It reminded me of the conflicts at home about our role in Vietnam as demonstrated by the two generations of men at the hunting club and of the Cold War sensibilities of worry about Russian influences and spies. 

Fans of historical fiction will enjoy this story. Being the second book in a series, we learn more about both Franklin and especially Alice in this episode. 

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.