Thin Ice is the first book of a new series by Paige Shelton, The Alaskan Wild Mysteries Series. I find Alaska fascinating and really enjoy books set against the backdrop of this unique environment.⁣
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A blend of a cozy mystery and a thriller, Thin Ice was a very entertaining escape into the Alaskan wilderness and way of life. The unconventional cast of townspeople was an excellent sampling of the variety of characters found in a small town. The mystery in this book is solved but the overarching story about Beth's stalker and kidnapper is carried into the next book, so happily ever after fans beware (at least for the time being!).
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Thin Ice was a new type of read for me and one that I found very entertaining. I'm invested in the characters and look forward to the next book in the series!⁣

I have read other books by Paige Shelton. Those books were more of a cozy mystery but with this book, “Thin Ice”, Ms. Shelton breaks out into a suspense-filled mystery.

The book is the beginning of a new series, so while there is closure on some issues, others are just beginning to take shape.

Beth, a writer of very popular books, is fleeing. From whom, she doesn’t remember. She has a form of amnesia about the events regarding her kidnapping. All she knows is that she must get far, far away from where she lived before to feel free from the horror of having been abducted and held against her will.

She heads to Alaska to get away from it all. She doesn’t quite realize quite how remote a town she has picked, until she lands in it. Still, she is happy to be free from the shadows that had been taking over her life.

Within a few short days, a mystery arises which she feels compelled to help solve.

There are serious moments and issues in the book; however, there are moments of laughter as well. Some of the characters simply strike my funny bone, such as Beth’s mother and the librarian in her new remote home town.

I’m looking forward to reading more of this series in the future. I’m on pins and needles to find out what happened to Beth.

I was provided a digital advance reader copy of this book by the publisher via Netgalley.

I was given an early copy of Thin Ice to read in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks so much to NetGalley & Minotaur and
of course to Paige Shelton.

It took me a while to finish this one as it’s
Just not really my thing I did enjoy it once I finally got into it and made myself focus and finish it.

Can I talk about that ending though. Ugh- I truly dislike books that leave you hanging and make you read/buy the next book in the series to find out what happens. 🤦‍♀️🤷‍♀️ That’s just me though.

Overall I enjoyed the character of Beth and the story - although it was slow for me.

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 3.5 stars from me.

Thin Ice by Paige Shelton is the first book in the Alaska Wild Mysteries series, and it was great. Beth Rivers escaped to a small town in Alaska to escape and recover from a recent attack, and until her attacker is caught. While rooming at a half way house, the only place to stay in town, someone dies. Beth worries her attacker has tracked her to Alaska. I love this book, and am anxiously waiting for the next book in the series. There are so many twists and turns that kept me reading until the end. If you are looking for an exciting and spooky book, I strongly recommend this book. You will not be disappointed.

I reviewed a digital arc provided by NetGalley and St. Martin's Press. Thank you.

Thin Ice by Paige Shelton marks the author's first departure from cozy mystery to full blown serious mystery and she makes a success of it. Beth, a well-known author, has escaped Missouri to land in Alaska, at the back of nowhere, in an attempt to flee a mysterious man who means her harm after holding her hostage for three days. She escaped by jumping out of a moving van, doing serious damage to her head requiring brain surgery. No one in town knows who she is except for the police chief who continues to monitor people arriving on the island. No one from her old life knows where she has gone. She has set up an anonymous email and has a selection of burner phones to help her keep in touch, safe until her abductor is found. Once in Alaska nothing is as it seems. What she thought was a hotel turns out to be a halfway house for women. The local librarian is an odd guy who claims he used to work for the government in a variety of nefarious positions and is now a pothead, but a genius at searching the Internet. The police chief appears to be a nice guy, helping Beth adjust, although not on the way either of them expects. Then there is a murder or is it a suicide or is it a murder? Beth's natural curiosity leads her into an unexpected investigation, al the while having flash backs, not only about her ordeal but also about her early life and her run-away father.

Shelton has done exemplary job writing so the reader feels the terror that Beth is living. She basically has PTSD and along with flashbacks come blinding headaches and a voracious appetite. Her Alaskan village is different than anything she has experienced and she is not sure she relishes the differences. Everyone knows everything about everyone, except the things they don't know. She lives in terror that her abductor will appear there, which is highly unlikely, but even knowing that, can not control her emotions. Her mother is a hoot, back in Missouri investigating. She seems to be making progress, but at what cost? The mystery has not been solved. There will be more. The final words of the book make that clear. Can't wait. I recommend this book to fans of Shelton and to mystery fans in general. It is far from a cozy mystery.

I received a free ARC of Thin Ice from Netgalley. All opinions and interpretations contained herein are solely my own. #netgalley #thinice

Thin Ice is an intriguing story that grabs you from page one. The characters will keep you involved and reading until the end. You'll wonder if some of them will succeed at hiding in plain sight.

Thin Ice is the first book in Paige Shelton's newest series Alaska Wild Mysteries. I've only read one other book my Shelton, the cozy mystery The Loch Ness Papers. I enjoyed Shelton's writing and I'm kind of burned out on cozies so this looked like the perfect read.

Beth Rivers has had the harrowing experience of being abducted. She managed to escape but thanks to a traumatic brain injury, she remembers very little about the abduction or how she escaped. With the sociopath still at large, and her inability to identify him, she runs away to a remote town in Alaska. On the very day she arrives in town, a local resident is found dead and foul play is suspected.

The abduction of Beth Rivers is the ongoing mystery of the series, the latter mystery is solved within the pages of this book. The two mysteries are balanced well throughout the story. As they are both given about equal time, and I had forgotten that this was a start of series and not a stand-alone, I was confused when there was less than 10% left of the story and we were no closer to discovering the identity of Beth's kidnapper.

Thin Ice has enough suspense to add a nice tension to the plot, but it is not the anxiety-causing, nailbiting suspense of a thriller. While I love heart-pounding thrillers, sometimes life is too stressful to be getting stressed out over characters in a book. It had just the right amount of suspense to be a good escape read. If you are looking for a book to curl up under a cozy blanket with and escape real life for a few hours, you definitely should get this book.

The mystery and the people are much more realistic than what you find in a cozy mystery. There are still some interesting characters - those that you wouldn't find anywhere else except in a very remote, very small village in Alaska. I'm still wondering about Donner. Is that his first name? If so, were his parents high on something when they named him after one of Santa's reindeer. Is it his last name and he's related to the Donner Party? Orin is an interesting character, though I feel like we only got a glimpse at him. Actually, character development is a bit think for most of the characters in the book. Outside of Beth, we only get to know 3 or 4 characters rather well and two of them leave the town at the end of the book. Perhaps future books will develop the other characters in the book more fully.

Overall, this was a really good book. The writing is great. It is a pretty quick read if you can spend a couple of hours at a time reading. You want to get to know the characters and pretty early on I cared for Beth and was compelled to keep reading to be sure she was safe.

I recommend Thin Ice if you are looking for some "me time" during the holidays.

My review will be published at GIrl Who Reads on Tuesday, Dec. 3 - https://www.girl-who-reads.com/2019/12/thin-ice-by-paige-shelton-review.html

First off, thank you to Minotaur Books for an ARC of Thin ice in exchange for an honest review.

About to go into unpopular opinion territory BUT this book just didn’t do it for me!

The premise is a fantastic start. We meet Beth who has run away to small town Alaska after a frantic event. As a famous mystery author, she was kidnapped by a sociopathic fan. She escaped with a brain injury and little memory of the event, but the police are still searching for her kidnapper. Once she arrived in Alaska, she starts getting herself involved within a mystery of the small town.

Promising enough premise and the setting was fantastic! Small town Alaska means a lot of descriptive locations and excellent characters to be introduced. However, I am personally not a fan of books that leave so much on the table! The kidnap part of the book is the piece that is by far the most interesting but somehow it takes a back seat to the local story? I couldn’t get Into the local parts enough to justify that as the major plot.

When you spend the better half of the book waiting for the events to happen, that’s always a challenge, especially with thrillers which I prefer to be fast paced. I really do think a lot of other people would enjoy this story based on reviews I’ve seen, but sometimes you just don’t love a book no matter how much you want to.

This one comes out December 3rd and is the start of a series which I can only hope has stronger conclusions moving forward!

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.

"First in a new series set in Alaska from beloved author Paige Shelton, Thin Ice will chill your bones.

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."

At this time of year I go through severe Northern Exposure withdrawal and yearn for Alaska. Thankfully this year I have a fix!

This first book in a new series for author Paige Shelton is quite a departure from the cozies she's written, and for me, it's a roaring success. (For you fans of her Farmer's Market, Country Cooking School, Dangerous Type, and Scottish Bookshop mysteries, Thin Ice may not be a cozy, but it's still a mystery that you should be able to enjoy.) Shelton's descriptions of Alaska drew me right in, and I particularly loved a scene that involves a bear and a moose.

Benedict House-- the hotel that's actually a halfway house for women-- will be a rich source of characters for future books, and speaking of tales, the woman who runs the place is full of them all by herself.

We aren't given Beth's story all at once, and when pieces are doled out, that heightens both the suspense and the readers' worry for Beth's health. Beth isn't a complete stranger to small-town living. When she's asked to work on the town's "newspaper," she realizes that the building will be a good location for her own writing as well as a source of information, and if gossip is what she wants, the local knitting classes should be a rich vein to tap. However, I think she's forgotten how nosy villagers can be. Just how long will it be before everyone knows what really happened to her?

I'm looking forward to finding out as this series progresses. The story, the setting, and the characters all have me waiting impatiently for the next book. Hurry up, book two!

Thin Ice is several mysteries in one. We spend most of this first book getting to know the heroine Beth Rivers aka thriller author Elizabeth Fairchild who is recovering from a traumatic event that has sent her hiding in small town Alaska where she is drawn into a mystery not her own. This is a fast paced ride that kept me rethinking the villain and rooting for the good guys. I look forward to future installments as Beth heals and grows into her new reality.

Thriller in small town Alaska

Thriller writer Beth Rivers was kidnapped by an obsessed fan, kept captive for three days and escaped by jumping out of his moving van. The kidnapper was not found. She sustained a substantial wound and a brain injury and cannot remember many details of the kidnapping.

She checks herself out of the hospital and escapes to a remote small town in Alaska, hiding out so her kidnapper can't find her.

This was an okay thriller, although it seemed like a rather sophomore effort by the author.

Beth stumbles into a murder mystery just as she gets to town and rather improbably gets involved in helping solve it.

Also, even though the story takes place in Alaska, I really didn't immersed in the descriptions of the setting. I couldn't help comparing it to the excellent Anna Pigeon series that takes place in small town Alaska by author Dana Stabenow. This one didn't even come close to being that good.

And...one of the WORST cliffhanger endings with NO resolution that I've read. I won't be seeking out any more of the series - and I usually enjoy books about Alaska.

I received this book from Minotaur Books through Net Galley and Edelweiss in the hopes that I would read it and leave an unbiased review.

Beth is doing the only thing she can think of to remove herself from a dangerous situation – she's running away from home. A well-known author who became the object of a fan's obsession, she was kidnapped and held for days before escaping. Determined to stay as far away from the situation as possible, she heads for a remote Alaskan village, which turns out to be full of people who seem to be hiding or running from their own issues. A local death, however, makes her question the safety of her new home.

This is the first book in a new series by Paige Shelton, an author whose books I have enjoyed for years. I was really looking forward to reading the book, and I am happy to say that I was not disappointed. The setting was described in a way that made me feel like I was there, even down to the sudden storm and the random wildlife appearances. The characters were an entertaining group of people, and I look forward to getting to know them better as the series progresses. The mystery was a good one, and while the villain was on my list of suspects, it wasn't until late in the book that my suspicion was confirmed. I'm eager to read the next book in this series.

5 Stars for Thin Ice by Paige Shelton! This one was a nail-biter y'all. Literally, I have no nails left to paint for Thanksgiving. I finished this book at 1:30am this morning and wanted to sneak away for a few minutes and let you all know about it. I hope you each find some time to read over the holiday. I'm so thankful for this book community, full of writers, readers, and people who get me.

I read this book in 2 sittings. Not because I had the time, but because I just couldn't put it down. I made my husband drive everywhere yesterday so that I could read. Set in Alaska, this book will practically freeze you to death. The book starts out with a detailed, harrowing flight on a teeny plane and Paige Shelton works her magic. Before you know it, you're with an author, hiding from her killer in Benedict, Alaska. Benedict, Alaska may as well be called Nostoplightsville, Alaska with a population of 500 where everyone knows everyone.

Running from her kidnapper and recovering from the life-threatening escape, Beth has a hard time trusting anyone, and when a murder in the small town brings them together, Beth finds herself in the middle of it all.

I highly recommend this one. I felt like the characters were all crafted around people that we would be able to point out if we visited this fictional town in Alaska. By the time I got to 85% (thank you, Kindle) I still was wide-eyed and freezing as I tried to piece together how Paige was going to package up the ending. Beautifully written, full of winter, warmth, ice, and plenty of suspense.

Thank you to @Netgalley @stmartinspress @minotaur_books @paigebooks for this gem of a read. I was provided this book in exchange for an honest review. #5stars #finishedreading #holidayreading #thinice #suspense #booklover #sendmebooks #loveabook #readmorebooks #bookworm #bookstagram #instabook #oakcity #thanksgivingbook #bookreviewer #bookblog

I need to find a place to warm up after reading Thin Ice. Thin Ice is a great thriller that has great characters and a fantastic storyline.

Much darker and more serious than what I am used to from this author but enjoyable nonetheless. I liked Beth as a character, her PTSD was pretty realistic, and her agency and common sense were never in question. I like the way the meta arc has been set up, the twist at the end was a nice unsettling touch. I love forward to the rest of the series.

Beth Rivers, a crime novelist, basically absconded from the hospital where she was being treated for a subdural hematoma, to Alaska in order to hide out from Levi Brooks, the man who kidnapped and held her hostage for three days. Now she's found herself in a small town, sharing a boarding house with three women who are there because it also serves as a halfway house and she's helping the local police chief solve a murder. Oh, and he's also given her a job running the town newspaper. There are only 500 people in and around Benedict and Shelton has created some fun characters to populate it. This is the first in what's clearly going to be a new series (there's a teaser and a question at the end) but at times it did feel as though I'd missed something, especially with regard to what exactly happened with Levi. The mystery of what happened to Linda was less interesting to me (honestly) than the Alaska minutia but that said, it's an enjoyable read. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. Looking forward to the next chapter and one more answers.

I have to start off by saying I am not sure I’ve ever given a book 2.5 stars, but sadly that is my honest feedback for this book.

The synopsis sounded promising - After being kidnapped and managing to get away from her captor, Beth Rivers escapes to Alaska in the hopes of healing from this traumatic event and hiding from her kidnapper, Levi Brooks.

Upon arriving in this small Alaskan town she learns of a local death where foul play is suspected. Beth becomes involved in trying to solve this local mystery while also trying to remember anything that would be helpful to catch Levi Brooks.

Here’s where this book fell apart for me...Levi Brooks seemed like it would be the front runner of this story, but truly it faded into the background so much so that the main story was the local death. I just couldn’t get into this story and it felt like nothing major happened to pull me in. I kept waiting it out hoping there’d be some event that would change the pace of this book, but the story just crawled along. Based off the final chapter there is likely going to be a sequel to Thin Ice. However, I found the ending incredibly frustrating because we are left with no answers about the kidnapping and I have no desire to continue this series.

Thank you Netgalley and Minotaur Books for this advance reading copy in exchange for my honest review. This book will be published 12/3/19.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I've never been able to "get into" a Paige Shelton book but that definitely changed with Thin Ice. Poignant, life affirmative, astounding characters in black & white. This is a fantastic book and I highly recommend it. Enjoy! 📚