Winter's End
A Mystery
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
The fourth installment in the gripping, atmospheric Alaska Wild series, Paige Shelton's Winter's End.
It’s springtime in Benedict, Alaska, and with the warmer weather comes an unseasonably somber local tradition...the annual Death Walk. 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...
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Mary Higgins Clark finalist Shelton's captivating fourth Alaska Wild mystery (after 2021's Dark Night) finds thriller writer Beth Rivers, who moved a few years earlier from Missouri to remote Benedict, Alaska, after a traumatic incident, still getting used to local customs, such as the annual Death Walk. Each year, with the approach of spring, all citizens living in or near the town are asked to report in, so that local law enforcement teams can make sure everyone survived the winter. (A search is mounted for those who don't turn up.)This year, searchers are scouring the area for quiet, unassuming Kaye Miller, a dog-walking companion of Beth's, whose body turns up by the creek behind the community center, her head bashed in with a rock. Beth is shaken by the woman's death and sets out to discover why Kaye was targeted for murder. The rugged Alaska landscape lends atmosphere, and while this entry can be enjoyed as a standalone, there's great pleasure in reading the series from the beginning and observing Beth, a wonderfully complex character, growing stronger and more confident with each book. Hopefully, she'll have a long run.
