Atria Books and NetGalley provided me with an electronic copy of A Sharp Solitude. I was under no obligation to review this book and my opinion is freely given.

A Sharp Solitude is part of author Christine Carbo's mystery thriller series in the surrounding area of Glacier National Park in northern Montana. FBI investigator Ali Paige gets involved in the case of a dead journalist, although not in any official capacity. The last person seen with the woman was Reeve Landon, as she was interviewing him for an article regarding the scientific canine research program for which he worked. Complicating matters for Ali is the fact that Reeve is her ex-boyfriend and father of her daughter, a fact that she has kept from her colleagues. Will Ali's lack of objectivity cause problems for the case or will her intervention be the only thing keeping Reeve from a jail cell?

I liked aspects of this book, especially the way in which the author describes the vast landscape and the wilderness that surrounds the town. The story itself was good, but I found too much of it hard to believe. A sworn officer of the law would never compromise her integrity by getting involved in a case for which she has a personal stake. Reeve Landon's reactions and interactions with the police were realistic, especially given his background. I did like the twist at the end and thought that the author did a good job of setting the conclusion up without giving away too much of the story. Readers who like police procedural mystery thrillers will like A Sharp Solitude and I personally look forward to reading more by this author in the future.

A Sharp Solitude, Carbo’s 4th title in the Glacier Mystery series, reminds me a lot of the C.J. Box mysteries. The writing is beautiful, lyrical. Nature is as much a character as the people populated in the story. And the mystery, though compelling, is on equal footing with the deeper truths about people, their relationships, and how the two can collide. In this, FBI investigator Ali Paige unofficially works to discover the truth of who killed journalist Anne Marie Johnson. Why is Ali interested in a case she hasn’t been assigned? Because her ex-boyfriend and father of her child is the prime suspect. Beat that for a setup. A Sharp Solitude is a slow burn that will make you want to go back and read the earlier entries in the series.

I absolutely love suspense novels that have an outdoors theme. This is the first book by Christine Carbo that I have read....and OMG....I have to read this entire series! I loved this book!

Reeve Landon works in Glacier National Park with his dog, McKay, as part of a canine research program. McKay sniffs out wildlife scat...Reeve bags it up....and researchers analyze it to gain insight about the wildlife in the park. Landon works alone most of the time, and likes it that way. Then his boss requires him to let a journalist tag along. Anne is writing a story about the canine detection program. Landon reluctantly agrees to the interview, and Anne accompanies him out into the difficult terrain of the park. The journalist is mysteriously shot to death, and Reeve Landon finds himself the main murder suspect. His ex-girlfriend and mother of his daughter is an FBI agent. Ali knows that Landon is not a murderer and although she has no jurisdiction in the case, she begins to investigate to clear his name. The chapters alternate point of view, adding dimension to the plot and developing the characters expertly.

I enjoyed this book because both main characters are strong, but deeply flawed. As the story develops, a true picture of their lives, former relationship and characters form alongside the murder investigation. The plot moves at a perfect pace clear up to the twist at the end. And the backdrop of Glacier National Park is superb!

This book kept my attention from beginning to end. It is well-written and maintained suspense until the very end. Very enjoyable read!!

I have already backtracked and bought a copy of the first book in this series, The Wild Inside. There are now four books in the series. I will be caught up and ready by the time the next book comes out!

**I voluntarily read a review copy of this book from Atria Books via NetGalley. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.**

A classic who dunnit set in an extraordinary place! I adored the setting of this novel, Glacier National Park is awe-inspiring and you really get its power, beauty and solitude come across in this novel. The mystery itself was layered and there were many possible suspects without any obvious red herrings, not normally and easy task for a writer. I loved Agent Paige, she was the perfect heroine, smart and strong but still vulnerable. Reeve, Emily and her partner were all characters I would love to see more of as well. The only fault I found was that they're was some lag in the story about 3 quarters in before the killer's identity was revealed and it got a bit repetitious, but once the reveal happened I couldn't put it down.
This is the first book in the series that I have read but it didn't affect the story in any way, you could definitely read this as a stand alone. I am excited to read more form the series!

Two stoic individuals who share traumatic childhoods and fiercely independent streaks, as well as a daughter from their brief relationship, rally the narrative duties back and forth in Carbo's fourth mystery set against the spectacular backdrop of the Glacier National Parks and rural Montana.

Reeve Landon became an unwanted poster boy for changes to gun laws in Florida after a childhood accident with his best friend. He went off the rails as a teenager, before finding some degree of salvation in the Montana wilderness. He spends most of his time with his dog, searching for signs of wildlife, and living in a cabin. It's a quiet, mainly solitary life. The way he likes it.

But then a journalist is found dead. Anne Marie Johnson said she came to Glacier to interview Reeve about the canine research programme he and McKay, his chocolate lab, were part of. But she was asking an awful lot of questions about gun laws and gun deaths, tempering Reeve's attraction.

Tabbed by authorities as the last to see Anne Marie, Reeve quickly becomes the prime suspect. Which is a huge problem for FBI investigator Ali Paige. Like Reeve she left a troubled past behind on the East Coast, and enjoys the space and solitude offered in Montana. She's a mother to Emily, but keeps her private life private. Can she keep doing that when her daughter's father is a murder suspect?

Carbo delivers a fascinating tale that blends a tight mystery storyline with a great sense of the Montana setting - the place and the people. A SHARP SOLITUDE is character-centric crime fiction, seasoned with plenty of interesting psychological and societal issues. Challenges for individuals and the broader community. There's a really nice balance - the story feels 'well-rounded' for want of a better phrase: strong mystery, good characters that are interesting and have depth, great setting.

The narrative switches between Reeve and Ali's perspectives, building tension and deepening characterisation along the way. Carbo brings rural Montana to vivid life (I've visited for a few days on my travels, and things rang very true for me, as well as deepening my perspective on the region).

There are a few 'what the?' moments along the way, where characters make some poor choices, but rather than feeling like dropped notes or 'author hand' clunkiness to force a story, these end up fitting with their characters and the world Carbo has crafted. There's a messy humanity to it all. An authenticity that deepens our understanding of angst-ridden characters scrabbling through life.

This is the kind of book you can just sit back and enjoy as the tale unfolds, but will have you thinking too. And caring. There's some nice texture and depth as well as plenty of intrigue in the storyline.

It was a couple of sittings read for me, a book I kept wanting to get back to. And when I closed the back cover, I immediately wanted to read more of Carbo's Glacier Mysteries.

So I went and bought books one to three.

Thoroughly enjoyable mystery. The characters were interesting and the setting was compelling. I will be buying this entire series for my library.

"A gripping new mystery from the “fresh new voice in the thriller genre” (Steve Berry, New York Times bestselling author) and author of The Wild Inside, set in the magnificent and brutal terrain of Glacier National Park—for fans of C.J. Box and Nevada Barr.

In the darkening days of autumn, in a remote region near the Canadian border, a journalist has been murdered. Anne Marie Johnson was last seen with Reeve Landon, whose chocolate Labrador was part of an article she had been writing about a scientific canine research program. Now Landon is the prime suspect. Intensely private and paranoid, in a panic that he'll be wrongfully arrested, he ventures deep into in the woods. Even as he evades the detective, Landon secretly feels the whole thing is somehow deserved, a karmic punishment for a horrifying crime he committed as a young boy.

While Montana FBI investigator Ali Paige is not officially assigned to the case, Landon—an ex-boyfriend and the father of her child—needs help. Ali has only one objective for snooping around the edges of an investigation she’s not authorized to pursue: to save her daughter the shame of having a father in jail and the pain of abandonment she endured as a child. As the clock ticks and the noose tightens around Landon's neck, Ali isn’t sure how far she will go to find out the truth. And what if the truth is not something she wants to know?

A Sharp Solitude is a study of two flawed characters, bonded by a child, trying to make their way in an extraordinary place where escape seems possible. But no one can ever really outrun their demons, even in the vast terrain of Glacier, the ultimate backdrop for a journey of the soul."

I'm in Northern Exposure withdrawal, I need my wilderness!

This is the first book that I have read in this series, and I enjoyed it. The book appealed to me because we frequent national parks when we vacation. The plot was interesting, and the resolution a bit of a pleasant surprise. I was not a huge fan of Ali’s old boyfriend (and father of her child), but that did not ruin the book for me.

I love CJ Box’s Joe Pickett series in which Box incorporates issues related to Joe’s job as a game warden. I was hoping this series was going to be similar; however, Carbo’s book focuses more on the characters and their lives and less on Glacier National Park and issues arising there. Previous books may incorporate the setting more; that certainly would be a big selling point for me in future installments. I received this book to read and review; all opinions are my own.

The dangers of the wilderness play a role in this novel, but they don't take center stage. Instead, the book focuses on two damaged transplants to Montana, FBI agent Ali Page and the father of her child, Reeve Landon. Both are reclusive, sharing their personal lives with no one and having found their solitude impossible to share even with each other. Thus, when Reeve ends up as a suspect in a murder case, he is less than forthcoming with the police, eventually disappearing into the vast unpopulated forest. For her part, Ali, believing in Reeve's innocence, becomes a rogue investigator including no one in her inquiries until it's almost too late.

This book is something of a departure for Carbo’s series, in that it strays away from Glacier National Park and from a focus on the outdoors that has the wilderness almost playing the role of a character in her previous books. Here, the focus is on the psychology of the characters. Ali grew up in a dysfunctional family, and Reeve accidentally shot his best friend when he was nine years old. Both of them deal with resultant doubts in their professional and personal lives, and their interactions with others are colored by these early experiences. The book progresses through alternating chapters told from Ali’s and Reeve’s perspectives, and from the past and present, and this keeps the reader engaged and anxious to follow the plot lines as they converge.

In keeping with the nature of a psychological mystery, even the secondary characters are well developed. In the end, Carbo provides the reader with a twist while not letting either Ali nor Reeve escape the consequences of their actions. The last quarter of the book is un-put-downable.

A Sharp Solitude is a very introspective thriller, following the inner life and reasoning of its two main characters. When a journalist is found murdered near Glacier Park, detectives naturally look at all the people she spent time with there. When FBI agent Ali Paige discovers the father of her daughter is being questioned as the possible last person to see the journalist alive, she "checks out" the investigation to see if he or someone else will be charged without telling anyone of her connection. When Reeve Landon, her daughter's father, is brought in for questioning, he gets angry with the detectives attitude towards him, and does not give the whole story. The bulk of the book is of the two of them digging their holes deeper and deeper (and why) which I found extremely annoying. Both knew better but once they headed down that road, there was no turning back. Will Ali find the real killer before she loses her career, and Reeve his freedom? Will Reeve head into the wilderness for Canada or face the music? Who did kill the journalist and why. A good mystery viewed from the minds of the two main characters. What I found as annoying will just add to the suspense for other readers. So much exposition of the characters' mindset, even though it added depth to the characters and events, still slowed the story down in places. A good read, recommended.

I've been reading Christine Carbo's suspenseful novels set in Glacier National Park since NetGalley offered the first one (The Wild Inside) in 2015. The natural beauty of the park and the often terrifying threats of the wilderness are always crucial elements in the novels. The park itself is more than setting; it is character as well.

Carbo's tendency to take a minor character from one novel and give him or her a lead in the next novel is much the same as in Tana French's novels. This penchant of developing secondary characters contributes a freshness and energy to each succeeding plot.

A Sharp Solitude features FBI investigator Ali Paige and Reeve Landon. Landon is Ali's former boyfriend and the father of her daughter. When Anne Marie Johnson (a journalist who was last seen accompanying Reeve Landon and his service dog for an article she was writing) is murdered, Landon becomes the chief suspect. Intensely private and with a secret past he is desperate to keep hidden, Landon is arrested after not admitting that Anne Marie visited his cabin.

Ali Paige refuses to believe Landon is guilty and gets involved in the investigation using her FBI position to get information. But Ali is not authorized to do so and is jeopardizing her own career. She is also afraid she may discover something she doesn't want to know.

I thought I knew where the novel was going because issues concerning gun control appear early, but while that is an interesting aspect, the truth is something different.

Shifting between Reeve Landon and Ali's perspectives, the reader learns of the events in their pasts that contribute to the situation in which they find themselves.

Monte Harris and Gretchen Larsen have only cameo appearances.

A fine addition to this series, but I wonder who will take the lead in the next installment.

Read in March; blog review scheduled for May 17.

NetGalley/Attria Books

Suspense. May 29, 2018. Print length: 368 pages

Anne Marie Johnson has been murdered, killed by a shotgun at close range. She was a journalist, and had come to the wilds of Glacier National Park in Montana to find out more about guns, gun safety, gun use, and how people feel about guns.

Told in alternating first person chapters, Reeve Landon and FBI Agent Ali Paige reveal their stories. How they used to be "an item" which resulted in a baby, Emily who is now five years old, but they never married. How Reeve, as a child, found a gun under his parents' bed, and accidentally shot and killed his best friend Sam. How Reeve is being questioned in the murder of a visiting journalist, Anne Marie Johnson.

This is a great thriller with an unexpected ending that will keep you guessing until the very last page. Don't miss it!

I read this EARC courtesy of Net Galley and Atria Books. pub date 05/29/18

Set against the breathtaking beauty of Montana with Glacier National Park as a fitting background, Christine Carbo does it again with this gripping, surprising mystery with flawed characters dealing with their own demons and past transgressions. This one will keep you guessing until the very end with a twist that you won’t see coming..

Highly recommended!