Bea Reviews Cold Wind by Paige Shelton

Series: Alaska Wild Mysteries #2
Read As A Stand Alone: Yes
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: December 8th, 2020
Buying Links: Amazon* | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Google Books | Kobo |
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Blurb from goodreads:

Second in a new series set in Alaska from beloved cozy author Paige Shelton, Cold Wind will chill your bones.

Beth Rivers is still in Alaska. The unidentified man who kidnapped her in her home of St. Louis hasn’t been found yet, so she’s not ready to go back.

But as October comes to a close, Benedict is feeling more and more like her new home. Beth has been working on herself: She’s managed to get back to writing, and she’s enjoying these beautiful months between summer and winter in Alaska.

Then, everything in Benedict changes after a mudslide exposes a world that had been hidden for years. Two mud-covered, silent girls appear, and a secret trapper’s house is found in the woods. The biggest surprise, though, is a dead and frozen woman’s body in the trapper’s shed. No one knows who she is, but the man who runs the mercantile, Randy, seems to be in the middle of all the mysteries.

Unable to escape her journalistic roots, Beth is determined to answer the questions that keep arising: Are the mysterious girls and the frozen body connected? Can Randy possibly be involved? And―most importantly―can she solve this mystery before the cold wind sweeping over the town and the townspeople descends for good?

My Thoughts:

I requested this for review then requested book one from my library. I think, though, that it would work fine if you jumped in with this one. Book one wowed me; it was suspenseful, engrossing, and had intriguing characters. "Cold Wind" didn't wow me but I liked it, and I'm on board to read book three, if there is one. I hope there will be. The setting, an isolated small town in rural Alaska, was fascinating; the characters interesting, if sometimes overly quirky; and the writing engaging.

Now, the story did drag at times, and I just don't buy the motivations and behavior of some of the suspects and guilty parties. Honestly, while the mysteries were interesting, the solutions were weak and not entirely plausible. What did engage me was Beth's recovery journey and her mother's antics. It was engrossing getting into Beth's head and seeing and feeling her thoughts and emotions. She's trying to regain her memory, navigate this new environment she's living in, re-learn how to trust people, and get back her writing mojo. Beth is fascinating and full of flaws. So is her mother; she's on a hunt for Beth's kidnapper and nothing slows her down. Not even pesky things like laws. I fully expect her to be arrested at any time. She loves Beth fiercely though and will do anything to protect her daughter.

Meanwhile, Beth helps with the local investigations, sometimes with the blessing of the police and sometimes not. The book was a mix of cozy mystery, police procedural, and suspense. Beth did work as a police secretary and dispatcher many years ago and the Benedict police chief sometimes asks for her help but he also tells her when to back off. She doesn't always listen though. Her behavior was questionable at times; she shared info freely, broke into houses, grilled people, and didn't always think before acting. All of this did help with the various investigations but I have to wonder how well some of it will hold up in court when the cases get there. Yes, I know they are fictional but I can't help but wonder.

Overall, "Cold Wind" was interesting, exciting, and engaging. While the plausibility was weak and the pacing occasionally erratic, Shelton kept me engaged and intrigues. I do hope there will be more in the series.