Thin Ice
A Mystery
by Paige Shelton
Pub Date 03 Dec 2019
St. Martin's Press |Minotaur Books
Mystery & Thrillers


Netgalley and St Martin's Press have provided me with a copy of Thin Ice for review:


When Beth Rivers finds herself feeling the need to disappear, she's already faced far worse than the stunning wilds of Alaska. So how hard could it be?


The world knows Beth Rivers as Elizabeth Fairchild, a bestselling novelist. While her page-turning thrillers have given her a legion of fans her her story-telling has also landed her in an even more terrifying situation than she could have ever imagined. Levi Brooks, a crazed fan of Elizabeth Fairchild, stalked and kidnapped her, holding her captive inside a van for three days. Despite suffering a severe head injury and memory loss, she managed to escape the speeding van by throwing herself from it.


While still healing from her injuries, she escapes to Benedict, Alaska, a beautiful and very remote place. It's the only place she's certain no one will find her. However, just prior to Beth's arrival, Benedict's population was reduced by one. In this close-knit community, no one quite believes that Linda Rafferty commited suicide not even the sheriff.


Beth takes on a project to revamp the Benedict town newspaper while waiting for her attacker to be arrested in the lower 48. It's clear there's a story behind Linda's death, and she knows where to look. The rumors of murder spread, and suspicion falls on Beth and the felons staying at a local halfway house. Intrigued by both the mystery and the wary folks who call Benedict home, Beth starts asking questions—only to find her investigation stirring up memories she’d much rather had stayed forgotten…She begins asking questions, intrigued by both the mystery and the wary people who live in Benedict. But what she discovers stirs up memories she'd rather have forgotten...


I give Thin Ice five out of five stars!

Happy Reading!

Unfortunately, this one just wasn't for me. The writing style was not what I expected and I did not really enjoy.

Review published on Goodreads, 23 March 2020:

I like novels set in Alaska, so I wanted to give this series opener a go. While I enjoyed the setting, its few quirky characters, and the fact that the plot kept me reading, I can't say I loved THIN ICE. The main characters had no personality or any real chemistry. Beth made for a sympathetic heroine, but not a particularly likable one. She felt very victim-y as well as super pushy to me. I had a hard time believing people in a small, close-knit community like Benedict would just open up about all their secrets to a nosey stranger. Several other plot points seemed far-fetched to me as well. Add in a mystery that wasn't overly intriguing or twisty and yeah, this one just didn't engross me as much as I wanted it to. I doubt I'll move on to the next book in the series.

3.5 Rounded Up.

I received a reviewer copy of Thin Ice by Paige Shelton from the publisher Minotaur books from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

What It’s About: Beth Rivers, mystery writer, is on the run after almost being killed by an obsessed fan, Levi Brooks. She decides to move to a small remote town in Alaska. This small town seems to be a refuge for others seeking an escape. But then a murder occurs and Beth worries that Brooks is in charge and becomes engulfed in the investigation.

What I Loved: I loved the setting and concept. Escaping to small town Alaska sounds like a partial dream. The stakes of this novel are clear and immediately you are taken into the mind of Rivers and know what she’s facing and it feels like everything is heightened. The atmosphere is set. This book is a good mystery and I believe the start of a series.

What I didn’t like so much: Some of this was unbelievable. It seemed to not really be feasible with some of the aspects of the thriller but alas that’s common.

Who Should Read It: People who love atmospheric thrillers. People who love books with writers. People who love books set in Alaska.

Summary: An author on the run ends up in a small Alaska town in the face of a murder.

Paige Shelton is a great cozy writer and have loved everything she has put out, including this book. I loved that it was set in Alaska and cannot wait to read more.

The setting in this book was everything. I love a good wintery cold setting and this delivered. I really enjoyed Beth's backstory and learning of the dark events that are now forcing her to flee. This novel was full of enjoyable characters and also intense scenes that made it hard to put the book down. Definitely will continue to read this series and will check out more by this author.

Thanks NetGalley for my review copy!

"I'd prefer to just help illuminate the truth."

Thin Ice follows Beth Rivers who has recently suffered a traumatic brain injury after having escaped being kidnapped. In order to stay safe, she has run away to Alaska and is staying in a small town until her kidnapper is found. The problem is she hardly remembers anything and keeps having flashbacks to what happens that fills in the blanks of her memory slowly.
While in Alaska though she is given a job of sorts by the local sheriff to keep her busy and to use her writing skills for the town newspaper as they haven't had it for a little while. Along the way, we get to meet several different people of the town, and Beth even ends up helping with a murder case as she does have some crime-solving skills due to her past of working for her grandpa as a police secretary.

Overall I enjoyed reading this book and trying to figure out why Beth was kidnapped and who did it, while also learning about the crime that happened in the new place she is living. I really liked a majority of the side characters we met and I have a feeling they will be helpful the farther into the trilogy we get. Beth ends up becoming the new town's newspaper person and because of that, she ends up talking to a lot of the people in the town. She wants to make it so that the town newspaper is more than just a place for announcements and for it to have actual stories. There is some resistance to this, but it does also allow her to help investigate and get more answers than the sheriff is able to get on how own. This also puts her in a rather dangerous position though, because she does tend to just go with the leads and not just tell others and instead goes right into certain situations because she wants answers. While I get that, it's also frustrating because she is still recovering from this injury as well as her just not knowing much about Alaska and Alaskan wilderness in general which is also dangerous. Somehow it ends up being okay, but there are some pretty scary situations that she gets herself into.
I did leave this book with a lot of questions because not a lot was found out about Beth or what happened to her, they just keep reaching dead-ends, and its rather frustrating considering I thought that was going to be the main part of the story, instead of the Alaska mystery becoming the main part and Beth's becoming kind of the side mystery story. Very interested to see where this goes in the next one and what we find out next.

A huge thanks to Minotaur Books for the gifted copy in exchange of an honest review.

Probably a 3.5/4 for me. This one was pretty good. Beth heads to a small town in Alaska outside of Juneau after she was kidnapped by a stalker and escaped. Beth doesn’t remember much from the attack, except his name was Levi Brooks. While Beth is helping solve a death in the town, she has flashbacks to her attack.

I felt like I needed to keep reading because I wanted to know more about Levi Brooks. The murder/suicide of Linda didn’t draw me in too much. I was more intrigued by the people of the town and Levi Brooks. I was really hoping this would be more of hiding from Levi but then he comes back for more because they never caught him. Since this is a series, it seems, the ending left room for there to be more with this in the next books.

A slow burn mystery. Not much action, but I was on my edge a little bit because the book seems dreary and dark and Beth is struggling with PTSD from the attack.

Miraculously, Beth Rivers managed to escape the clutches of a madman. Although she uses a pseudonym as a thriller writer, the fanatic managed to discover her identity and kidnap her. She goes to the furthest place she can to hide from the man, and that is to the remotest part of Alaska. Despite her feeling safe, a local murder near where she is staying makes her worry that the killer is again close on her heels.

This thrilling story sets off at breakneck speed and the tension never lets up. Beth does what she can to investigate the small town's residents in order to flush out the man that took her, all while desperately striving to stay alive. I couldn't tap my Kindle fast enough to see if she would be able to continue to elude him. Now I am eager to continue the series with Cold Wind, which is set for release at the end of the year.

Many thanks to Minotaur Books and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.

This was a great start to what looks like a new series. Popular author Beth Rivers heads to a very remote Alaskan town while her stalker eludes police back home. Lucky for her, most these days know her by her pseudonym and hiding under her real name seems realistic. Her background as an author and the work she did before hitting it big for her grandfather's police department makes her useful as a newbie in this town. Benedict has just seen the death of a resident--suicide or murder remains the question. I liked getting to know the small town folks and the secrets that are still waiting to be revealed about some of them. I look forward to the next book in the series.
Publication date
2019

Thank you for the opportunity to read this. I will be posting a full review to Goodreads, Amazon, and Instagram.

Thin Ice was a really great beginning to this new mystery series that I'm really excited to read more of! I have a fascination with all things Alaska so when I realized that this book was a mystery set in Alaska I knew that I had to read it. It didn't disappoint in the slightest! Besides the Alaskan setting, I really enjoyed Beth's character and the mystery behind everything that happened to her. It is almost like there are two separate mysteries in this book - the one that is currently happening with Linda Rafferty and the one with Beth and everything that previously happened to her which brought her to Alaska in the first place. I was intrigued by both and it helped keep me turning the pages as fast as I could. This is a book that has left me itching to get my hands on the next book in the series. It is going to be a LONG wait for that second book. The book itself has really great characters though and the Alaskan setting is just icing on the cake. I'm going to leave my thoughts on this one really brief as I don't want to spoil anything. Just know that this is a mystery that is definitely worth reading! I will be continuing on with the series as soon as the 2nd book releases. And I'll probably end up checking out the other books this author has written since I enjoyed this one so much. I would recommend this book to fans of mysteries, suspense, and cozy mysteries as well. I wouldn't necessarily classify this one as a cozy mystery but I can see it appealing to fans of cozies as well. An easy book to recommend!

Bottom Line: A great beginning to this new mystery series that has me seriously pining for the 2nd book!

Disclosure: I originally received a copy of this book thanks to the publisher and courtesy of NetGalley.

I wasn't sure what to expect from this book, but I've read all of Paige Shelton's books and she never disappoints.
This is a new series, the Alaska Wild Mysteries and unlike the cozy mysteries Shelton writes, this is a mixture of a cozy and a suspense thriller.

She has created another memorable character in Beth Rivers, a writer who runs away from a traumatic experience where she was kidnapped. The perpetrator who hurt her has not been found, and Beth wants to go as far away as she can and hide. She goes to a small town in Alaska, where she settles in only to get involved with solving a murder.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and look forward to the next book in the series.

Thanks to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. Thank you NetGalley.

Beth Rivers is running from an obsessed stalker while he's out on the loose. She's already been kidnapped by him once, so she's obviously terrified. She decides to run to a far off town in Alaska. As she arrives, she learns of a local's death. While it's not connected to her, she is wondering if it will hep her rmember the details of her own attack. She learns quickly that locals don't trust strangers. She also figures out that her new home is basically a halfway house for petty criminals. How willl she use this experience? is she safe?

unique storyline. interesting main character.
good read overall.

Wow talk about all the mystery and suspense packed into this book! Beth Rivers is hiding and running from the worst time in her life. The man who kidnapped her is running lose. She runs to a far away bay town in Alaska. It's a good place for people to run to.

As soon as she arrives she learns of a local death. Beth knows it's no way connected to her past but she wonders if it might help her remember the details of her attack. She learns quickly that most people dont trust strangers in Benidict Alaska. Beth finds that her new home is really a half-way house fo pretty criminals. Can she use her experience as a thriller writer to help put together all the pieces of this mystery town.

Talk about turn every direction! It even ends one cliff hanger, what will Beth discover about her father and the man who kidnapped her. This book definitely kept me on my toes! I cant wait for the next one.

I admit that I wasn't sure what to expect from Ms. Shelton and this new series. I've enjoyed all her precious cozies but was just a bit apprehensive that this may be too much 'thriller' for me. Although was suspense it also had all of the things that I love in cozies.

I thought the description of the Alaskan town seemed typical of many of their small towns where people are trying to 'escape'. I'm looking forward to watching these likable characters develop. But, I have a feeling that it's going to be a long winter until we get to see them again.

This book is first in the series and my first from Paige Shelton. I love atmospheric reads and liked this setting in Alaska.

Beth Rivers is a thriller author and was kidnapped by a fan. Beth miraculously escapes capture but sustained a brain injury, which caused her to lose her memory. She heads to this remote Alaska town to hide while she recovers. She partners with the police chief to work on a case involving the death of a woman. I am very interested in the next installment in the series.

I enjoy Paige Shelton’s cozy mysteries so I jumped at the chance to read THIN ICE, and I was not disappointed. It reads like a cozy mystery on steroids, edgy and suspenseful.

Beth, a successful author, escapes her fanatic kidnapper with a pretty serious brain injury. With the kidnapper still on the loose, she chooses to leave her home and hide in Alaska, figuring she can write anywhere. While trying to remember more details of her experience, she soon becomes involved with the murder of a local Benedict woman.

THIN ICE is compelling. Beth is resilient and interesting. All of the characters seem to have yet unknown back stories that lead them to remote Benedict. The rugged isolation of Alaska is also a character, fascinating and engrossing. I particularly like the sheriff and look forward to learning more about all of the characters. There is so much potential for future adventures within these characters’ secrets.

Shelton does a great job of weaving Beth’s trauma and history with the local death, providing a taut puzzle to unravel. I did guess the killer’s identity, but there were enough twists and turns to keep me second guessing. The story ends with a sudden revelation that, though not a cliffhanger, makes me impatient for the next book in the series.

I enjoyed THIN ICE and recommend it to any fan of thrillers and suspense.

I received an ARC of this title through NetGalley from St Martins Press and voluntarily shared my thoughts here.

Beth Rivers who writes thrillers under the name of Elizabeth Fairchild has gone into hiding. And what better place to hide than the wilds of Alaska?! Benedict is a small rural town that is sparsely populated.
The object of obsession for fan Levi Brooks, Beth survived a kidnapping attempt, she was held captive in his van for days. Severely injured during the escape, most of her memories of the events are gone.
Until he is caught, she must keep safe.
She books herself into a halfway house, thinking it is a hotel. Despite rooming with women who are non violent offenders, she feels safer than she's felt in a long time.
When local resident Linda Rafferty ends up dead, murder is suspected.
Does her death have anything to do with Beth or her crazy stalker?!
This atmospheric cozy mystery has some heft to it, not the usual light fare of some.
This is a suspenseful, interesting book with a cast of quirky characters.
I'm so intrigued by this storyline, I can't wait for it to continue.
Thank you to St. Martin's Publishing Group for the e-ARC via NetGalley.

Perfect time for this book! It was different than any book I’ve read and I enjoyed the characters. I can’t wait to read more from this author.