Thin Ice by Paige Shelton – a Review

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Description:
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?

Review:

Thin Ice by Paige Shelton is the first book in her new Alaska Wild Mystery series.  We meet our heroine, Beth Rivers immediately, as she arrives in Benedict, Alaska; a small town in the middle of nowhere.  Beth is in hiding, after she suffered a severe brain injury having managed to get away from a stalker, who held her in captivity for three days, until she managed to escape.  Beth is a well-known author, under the pseudonym of Elizabeth Fairchild, and has managed to go to a place in the wilderness that her stalker can’t find her, especially no one knowing her real name.  Beth does keep contact with the detective handling her case, her mother and doctor; but she refuses to even tell them where she is.

She arranges to stay at Benedict House, which she is unaware, is a place that is housing female felons required to finish their term there.  With no real choice to stay anywhere, Beth adjusts to staying there, with Viola the woman in charge.  Though it may be scary, it was fun how Viola would take extra precautions making the girl cooking taste her own food before they all ate.  ?

With her stalker still at large, Beth slowly adjusts to life in a small town, and gets to know the police chief who was brought up to date about Beth by the detective.  No one else knows the truth about who she is, but they all suspect she is on the run from something, especially with the noticeable scar on her temple.  Beth does have flashbacks/seizures from her trauma, giving her small clues about who and what her stalker looks like; the little bit she remembers, she tells her mom and the detective.

While Beth starts to get to know the residents in the Benedict House, she also begins to work closely with others, including the police chief & another officer, as she becomes involved in an investigation on the death of one of the town residents.   She is offered a job to restore the local newspaper, and in doing so, begins to investigate more about the suicide, which could be murder.

What follows is an exciting and suspenseful story, which revolved around two different plot backgrounds; Beth’s kidnapping & the suicide/ murder mystery.  I really liked Beth, as she was smart, savvy and despite being traumatized, she still managed to focus on regaining her memory on the kidnapper, not to mention keep plugging to find the truth about the suicide or murder case. The secondary characters were very good, and I look forward to learning more about them in future books.  Though everything comes to a satisfying conclusion on the mystery, her own issues remain open as sort of a cliff-hanger.  Thin Ice by Paige Shelton was very well written, and I thoroughly enjoyed the story line.  I suggest you read Thin Ice.

Reviewed by Barb

Copy provided by Publisher