I love this series...it's got a "Northern Exposure" vibe (though unfortunately, you need to supply the soundtrack!). A fun series with lots of twists and turns that I enjoy reading

Thanks to St Martin's Press for access to a digital ARC on NetGalley. ( )

Spring has arrived in Benedict, Alaska, and I liked the idea of the Death Walk. Instituted ten years earlier, it's a way for the small town to check on all its' residents and if they made it through another long winter. Beth Rivers heads up the mountain with town member Orin to check on an elderly resident. Al winds up being fine, if a bit dehydrated, but Orin disappears after delivering the message to town. Two members of the Miller family--Beth's new friend Kaye and husband Warren--are also missing. After Kaye's body is found, Beth learns of a decades long feud between the Millers and Oliphants. ( )

Another great installment in the Alaska Wild mystery series and I am looking forward to reading book #5 when it gets published. I love Beth's character and all of the time Paige Shelton put into creating Beth's back story; this character has endured major trauma and yet still cares enough about the people in her new home town to be worried when she doesn't see them for a day or two.

Suzie Althens narrated this audiobook and at first I wasn't sure if I would like her narration, not because she was doing a bad job of narrating but because I had already read books 1 through 3 and I had a voice in my head for Beth and the narrators voice doesn't always match the voice in my head. By chapter three, I had decided that Suzie was doing a great job of representing Beth and by the end of the book I was very much looking forward to hearing more books narrated by Suzie in the future. ( )

I really enjoy Paige Shelton's Alaska Wild series, a series she calls "Cozy ++" due to its slightly more intense nature. Winter's End is another winning installment that uses an annual Death Walk as its starting point. Most of us in the lower 48 never experience brutal winters that keep us shut up in our homes for months on end. Living in such a climate calls for special measures, like getting out when the weather warms up to make sure everyone is all right, and-- as one resident tells Beth, "...when you live with people, locked together over a winter, you need to make damn sure you're good with their company." If there are conflicting personalities within a home, winter gives those folks plenty of time to come to loggerheads with each other.

Having started Shelton's Alaska Wild series from the beginning (Thin Ice), one of the best things is watching thriller writer Beth Rivers's recovery from the trauma that sent her running to hide in Benedict. Beth is stronger and more confident, and as a result, she's making friends, being accepted by the other residents, and feeling comfortable in sharing her history with them. This confidence will only help her as she continues to search for her elusive father-- and to hope that law enforcement back home can find the man who kidnapped her and turned her life into a nightmare.

This is a series where all the various threads are being woven together, a series where the main character-- fascinating to begin with-- grows and changes in each successive book. This is a series to savor, and I'm looking forward to doing just that with the very next book.

(Review copy courtesy of the publisher and Net Galley) ( )

Alaska, amateur-sleuth, counselling, family-drama, family-dynamics, famous-author, feuding-families, friendship, isolation, journalist, law-enforcement, murder, murder-investigation, psychological, PTSD, read, rural, seasonal-affective, sled-dogs, small-town, suspense, thriller, unputdownable, winter, writers*****

Just to catch you up a little earlier (the book gets around to it, but I hope this helps):
Beth, an author, is still hiding out in a remote area of Alaska from the man who kidnapped/traumatized/brain injured/stress disordered her in her hometown of St Louis. A fiction writer and journalist, she has assumed the local paper and uses its building as a writer's retreat and even uses a typewriter to work on a novel to keep off the grid while staying in a former hotel, now a sort of minimal security women's rehab and only using burner phones. She has confided in the local law and an interesting man who has more than enough secrets of his own.
Now to the current story!
Intense!
In the isolated wilds of a part of Alaska there is a group activity called the Death Walk which aims to locate each member of the town. Alive or dead. One old man is found alive but uncharacteristically ill in his own remote cabin and taken to the resident MD and later to the former hotel to be monitored while he gains strength. Later this usually all female establishment is host to a white-collar criminal at the request of the state authorities. Then Beth inadvertently gets involved in a feud between two local families and things get bizarre. As if that wasn't enough there are important persons of the town who have gone missing. Then the body of a woman with ties to both of the feuding families is found. And don't forget about the dogs. Beth and law enforcement are stretched to the limit trying to solve things while some very interesting secrets are unveiled.
I requested and received a free e-book copy from St. Martin's Press/Minotaur Books via NetGalley. Thank you! ( )