As the 3rd book in the Alaska Wild series, DARK NIGHT picks up where COLD WIND left off. Each book centers on a crime in this fictional town in Alaska, plus adds a continuing story that will pick up in the next book. Book #1, THIN ICE, introduces us to the town of Benedict, Alaska where the main character, Beth Rivers, has landed after running when she escape her stalker/ kidnapper. She is finally beginning to feel safe in this small town where everyone knows everyone else. With winter on their doorsteps, the townspeople are getting ready for the COLD to come. When the ferry docks this time, it delivers two strangers to the village. The reason most of the villagers live here is to avoid strangers. The story starts it's speedy pace when murder comes to town too.

Life in the villages is hard. The weather affects every day, every hour of their lives. It is a living, breathing thing. Every plan of every day starts with a consideration of the weather today and the weather tomorrow. Each family has the story of at least one relative that "lost it" from the cold and dark. Paige Shelton has done an excellent job of portraying life in the extremes of Alaska. Her writing has brought the harsh elements into the personal space of the characters and the readers. An excellent story of murder and how to investiagte when everyobe is a suspect and everyone else is determined to help investigate but it's extrememly hard to tell which is which.

3.5, maybe 4 stars. Lots of twists and turns. Mill is highly unreliable and not likable. Beth is great and the setting is wonderful.

2.5 Stars

DARK NIGHT is the first book that I have read by Paige Shelton and is the third book in the Alaska Wild Series.

Mystery + Thriller + Sleuthing + Alaskan Wilderness = Why, Yes, Please, And Thank You!!

As I mentioned, DARK NIGHT is book three is the series, set in Benedict, Alaska wherein mystery thriller writer Elisabeth Fairchild a.k.a. Beth Rivers, who—seven months ago, highlighted in previous books—was kidnapped, hurt, tortured, held captive for three days in her hometown of St. Louis, Missouri, before she managed to escape from her abductor, Travis Walker.

Seven months after the abduction, Beth is living in a room at Benedict House, a halfway house for female felons, where she spends her time writing her next book, working on the one-sheet local newspaper, and helping out local businesses when needed.

Life takes an interesting turn when Beth’s Mother, wanted for shooting Walker in the leg, tracks her down, a man conducting a census goes missing, a battered woman stubbles into a bar whose husband is later found murdered—all in a Alaska town cutoff via ferry or plane due the incoming storms.

I have to admit, I am a bit puzzled as to why Beth—writer of Thrillers—knowing her abductor knows both her real name and the pseudonym she writes under, never changes it when she goes into hiding.

After reading the book, I understand who Travis Walker is, but what reason is there behind the kidnapping and torture, to me, doesn’t make any since.

Another question I have is about Beth’s mother, Mill, specifically, the reason she had to go underground as it relates to her actions at the end of this book and her daughters future well being seems to be dismissed.

Overall, I love the characters, murder mystery, amateur sleuthing, and the setting, though the storyline, in parts, has me a bit confused.

I would like to dive into books one, two, and four, THIN ICE , COLD WIND, WINTER’S END, for possible clarification, as I wait patiently for book five, LOST HOURS, scheduled to release in December 2023, though subject to change.

Thank You, NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press (Minotaur Books), for providing me with an eBook of DARK NIGHT at the request of an honest review.

I loved the first book in this series but the next couple have not worked well for me. I do love the setting of Alaska.

Beth Rivers is still hiding out in Benedict, Alaska. The winter is long and the days are short. Strange things are occurring at night; a wife beater is stabbed and killed, odd noises and whispers seem to be coming from outside and Beth keeps waking up in places that are not her bed and finding her boots wet. Benedict certainly has an eclectic group of visitors currently, Beth’s mother, Mill, has tracked her down, an unusual census bureau worker is poking around and several wanted felons. Is one of them the murderer? With the weather impeding travel Beth and her friends are in for one long, cold, dark night.

I am enjoying this Alaskan mystery series. I love the storyline about a famous writer hiding out in a small Alaskan village. Each book is a mystery within a mystery.

Dark Night by Paige Shelton

Excellent book. I enjoyed it very much. Lots of suspense and many twists & turns. The looks at Alaska was cgreat. Many criminals and devious incidents to sort out. I recommend this book.

Beth Rivers is living in Benedict, Alaska. Well, it’s more like hiding out in Benedict, Alaska. In the Lower 48, she was kidnapped and held in a van for three days before escaping. Her kidnapper remains at large. She’s a writer of dark, suspenseful books but it wasn’t her fame that put her in the van. The man drops a few hints that it’s her real name that caused her trouble, and he seems unaware of her pen name.
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Now isolated during the brutal winter, she’s looking forward to the arrival of the ferry. The local sheriff receives a manifest of passengers and none sound like the kidnapper. There is a rumor that Beth’s mother Millicent, Mill for short, might be on board. Beth has no idea how her mother could have found her, but the bigger question is, if Mill could find her, could her kidnapper?

There’s a mysterious census taker in town. No one remembers ever having a government man come around to ask questions before. Most clam up. After all, if you want to get lost and stay lost, a small Alaskan town is the place to do it. Nobody else needs to know your business. One night a young wife stumbles into town, bloodied and dazed. With a snowstorm on the way, the only place to put her for safekeeping is in the jail and to let her husband, the culprit, stay in their home. After all, where could he go in a blizzard?

He could go far enough to get himself killed. Suspicious of strangers, the townspeople want to blame the census taker but he’s disappeared too. And Beth’s kidnapper is still at large, hopefully, not in Alaska.

This is book three in the suspenseful series. Beth is a likable character and fits well into the town of Benedict. There are current crimes but with the constant thread of her kidnapping running through the story—and not solved yet. Readers will be anxious for book four’s clues and news of what’s next for Beth.

Paige Shelton returns to Alaska and protagonist Beth Rivers in “Dark Night” (Minotaur Books). Beth, a novelist, has been hiding in Benedict, a place where many keep their secrets close. When her mother, Mill River, shows up, Beth is worried that if Mill can find her, perhaps her former kidnapper can as well.
When a man turns up dead, suspicion turns to a recent visitor to town, but when he can’t be found, there are plenty of other suspects to choose from.
Although this is a good series, I have to admit I prefer the Scottish Bookshop series myself.

What is the appeal of living in a practically off-the-grid Alaskan community? For Beth Rivers, who writes popular thrillers under the name Elizabeth Fairchild, the allure of Benedict is its remoteness. Folks in Benedict (a fictional town) respect one another’s privacy. Thin Ice was the first in Paige Shelton’s Alaska Wild mystery series. The series begins with Beth arriving in Alaska in a two-seat prop plane. She’s just escaped from the terror of having been kidnapped by a lunatic who claims she belongs to him.

Beth suffered a serious head injury during her kidnapping by Travis Walker so her memories of her short imprisonment come through flashbacks. Her forehead bears a significant scar. A salient fact—Beth suspects Travis knew her as a child, and that he was close to her father and another man. Beth has been searching for her father for years, with help from her mother Mill (Millicent) Rivers. That was then.

Beth’s carved out a good life for herself: she has a job, writing the weekly newspaper, the Petition, a room at the Benedict House, a halfway house for female felons, and friends and acquaintances (like her almost-boyfriend Tex). Only the police chief Gril Samuels knows her back-story, or so Beth supposes. Take her conversation with Elijah Wyatt, the guy you call if you need a tow.

“You’re pretty popular around here. I haven’t needed a tow yet, but maybe someday.”



“I’ve heard of your . . . scar.” He smiled sheepishly. “Wow, that was terribly inappropriate. I’m sorry.”



“Don’t worry about it. It’s hard to miss.”



My hair, now white from the trauma of being kidnapped, had grown out some from the hospital bathroom haircut I’d given myself, but the scar would probably always be obvious. I didn’t care what I looked like as long as it wasn’t brown-haired novelist Elizabeth Fairchild.

Dark Night opens as winter is closing in. In Alaska, winter stretches roughly from October until March: the sun rises late in the morning and sets early at night, and the temperature drops way below freezing. If a suspect is on the run, where do they hide, especially if they’re from the lower forty-eight? Most outsiders don’t have the wherewithal to prepare adequately for the extreme conditions.

There’s a new man in town—Doug Vitner, the census guy. People give him a wide berth, preferring to keep their business to themselves. Vitner visits Ned, a surly man who lives on the outskirts of town, and his wife Claudia. When Vitner asks how many people live in their house, Ned gets agitated and upset. Later that evening Claudia staggers into the town bar, battered and bloody. The townspeople know what to do, starting with Benny the bartender: they whisk her off to the local halfway house.

“Who’s tending the bar?” I asked Benny.



“Someone will take care of things,” she said. She was correct; someone would. It’s what we did in Benedict. “All right, Claudia, tell me what happened. Did that son of a bitch do this to you?”



Tears filled Claudia’s eyes. “It wasn’t like that, Benny. He . . . thought he was in trouble. I didn’t explain it all well enough. It wasn’t his fault.”



It was textbook victim denial, and I didn’t even know the circumstances.

Complicating the situation, Ned’s sister Lucy, who has been secretly staying with him, is on the lam (she’s been accused of stealing jewelry). He hid her in a building on his property but Vitner discovered her presence. What a mess. The police chief puts Lucy in the halfway house, on house arrest. He wants to transport her to Juneau but when winter sets in, the ferry from Juneau only runs once a week. The weather isn’t much more hospitable to planes.

The next morning Gril asks Beth, Claudia, and Viola, Benny’s sister, to accompany him outside. Viola wants to know why. Reluctantly, Gril tells them they’ve found a body.



“It’s my Ned!” Claudia shrieked. “It’s my Ned!” How did he die?



“What happened?” The words jumped out of my mouth. I took a step closer to the scene, but Viola put her hand out to stop me. I couldn’t see anything—no body, not even a spatter of blood.



For a long moment, no one said anything as Claudia wailed.



“He was murdered,” Benny finally said. “Stabbed, we think.”



“Murdered?” Viola said. “Are you sure? The weather last night. The elements . . .”



Donner shook his head slowly. “No, not the elements. It was murder.”

Complicating life further, the police chief tells Beth that there’s a rumor Mill is on the ferry from Juneau. Beth really doesn’t need this. Mill isn’t on the ferry’s manifest but Gril and Beth wait anyway.

“Darlin’!” Mill smiled and waved in our direction, an unlit cigarette hanging from the corner of her mouth. “You came to greet me! Hold on, I’m coming.”



“Your mother, I presume,” Gril said.



“Yes. That’s her.” I blinked back some unexpected tears and told myself to keep it together.

Mill is no ordinary mother: she’s on the run like Lucy. The town of Benedict takes most things in stride but Mill is a chaos creator. A chain smoker, fiercely protective of her daughter, Mill is judgmental and leaves havoc in her wake. She thinks nothing of destroying evidence or going out on her own to investigate. There’s been a murder, the census man has gone missing, Beth has received a suspicious note—perfect timing for Mill to join forces with Beth and figure out the truth. Dark Night is a page-turning roller-coaster of a book—prepare to be surprised.

Thanks to Netgalley and Mintour Books for granting this book for me to read.

This is the third book in the Alaska Wild series by Paige Shelton and they just keep getting better.

In this installment we finally meet Beth's mother Mill. Mill comes with quite a reputation and has finally tracked down her daughter. Beth is on the run from the man who kidnapped her and she thought she had done a good job until her mother walks onto the island. It just so happens that Mill is on the run herself as she is wanted for murder. It just so happens the night before Mill arrives a man has been murdered. A man known for beating his young wife and all in all a horrible man. Did he deserve to die? Who had a grudge against him? Can Beth even trust the Sheriff even though he's done nothing but support her.

There are so many secrets and twists in this book which makes for a very compelling read. The author does a great job with her characters and they are fully developed and interesting from the main characters down to the supporting staff. There are so many different colors of humanity in this series and each has a story of their own.

I cannot wait for the next book because they are just that good.

Dark Night is a brooding mystery set in wintery Alaska. Paige Shelton continues the adventures of thriller writer Beth Rivers who was kidnapped and abused and sought shelter under an alias in Benedict. In this episode her mother pops up and an abused woman's husband is murdered. Abundance of suspects and thriller aspects as Beth starts unravelling the story of her family. Enjoy this fast moving read.

The Alaska Wild series by Shelton is developing into a solid mystery/thriller series. Great character development, interesting plots, and intriguing location all make for great reading!

I received an advanced reader copy of this book from NetGalley--all opinions are my own.

I have recently discovered Paige Shelton’s Alaska series and have been hooked! Love the character of Beth, the town of Benedict and all the people who have become her friends. In Dark Night Beth is still hiding out in Benedict, after escaping from her kidnapper, when her mother suddenly appears in town. A great, fast paced read involving secrets, mysteries & murder - I will definitely be reading more by this author!! Thank you NetGalley.

In this next book of the series winter has reared its ugly head in Benedict and with it comes the census man. Its makes the people uncomfortable when he shows up because most people live in Benedict for privacy or they are hiding something. Beth is doing her best to avoid the man but ends up getting a huge surprise from a different direction. Her mother has shown up in town and Beth isn't sure why she has come and if she may have lead any one in her direction. Meanwhile a woman who has been beaten very badly makes her way into town. When the police go to arrest her husband they find him dead. The investigation takes them in several direction even towards the census man but he soon disappears. Did the census man do it or did something happen to him too? Follow along as Beth tries to help the local cops in finding a murderer and at the same time trying to make sure she herself is safe. This was a great read with some great twists and turns.

Winter is settling in in Benedict, Alaska. The days are dark and frigid, the snow is piling up, and contact with the outside world is getting harder. Some residents of the small town are able to cope better than others so it is not much of a surprise when Claudia Withers comes into the local bar beaten and bruised. When her husband Ned is found dead the next morning, novelist Beth Rivers is worried that the police chief, who is the only person in town that knows about her past trauma, might have had something to do with it. As if this was not enough to deal with, Beth’s mother Mill arrives in town on the run after shooting Beth’s kidnapper. Beth worries that if her mother can find her can her kidnapper find her, too. There are clues to weed through and secrets to uncover as Beth helps Chief Gril get to the bottom of things.

Author Paige Shelton does an outstanding job depicting the hard life in small town Alaska in the dead of winter. The sense of place is solid – I felt the stress of the cold and the endless darkness and isolation. The characters are so well drawn yet continue to evolve as the series moves along. The pace of the writing is brisk, and there is a palpable urgency to continue reading. Protagonist Beth is flawed but makes considerable progress dealing with her past trauma within these pages. She shows tremendous growth by telling another resident the secrets of her past. Her mother Mill is quite the loose cannon; she is fascinating and a bit scary all at once. The supporting cast provides so much color, and I love getting to know their secrets and personalities better.

Yes, there is a murder to solve, but there are so many other layers of the story that reading became a compulsion for me to find out all that Shelton had to reveal. This is a series that I think should be read in order to best get to know Beth and the other characters’ histories. Read them – you will not be disappointed! DARK NIGHT is one of my favorite reads of 2021.

I received an ARC of this title from Minotaur Books through NetGalley and voluntarily shared my thoughts here.

Dark Night
Alaska Wild Book Three
Written by Paige Shelton

Someone has killed Ned Withers.

It’s winter in Benedict, Alaska, an isolated town in southeast Alaska. The temperatures are frigid, the daylight is short, and Ned Withers has been murdered sometime during the night. He’s discovered by his wife, a woman he had beaten the day before. Benedict is only accessible by plane and, since it’s winter, a once-a-week ferry that travels back and forth from Juneau. Suspicion falls on the census taker, recently arrived in town. The people of Benedict don’t appreciate outsiders asking personal questions and Ned had an argument with the census taker before his death.

The deepening cold and dark of winter, combined with a murder, sets the town on edge. Then the census taker disappears. Beth Rivers, living in Benedict with secrets of her own and already constantly looking over her shoulder, is startled to discover her mother is on her way to Benedict to visit Beth. Beth, fearing for her life, hasn’t told anyone, including her mother, where she is. If her mother can find her, can Beth’s secrets discover her as well?

Shelton’s Alaska Wild series is one of my favorites. The Alaskan atmosphere is easy to experience through Shelton’s writing; she immerses the reader into the long dark Alaskan night and the mental strain such darkness can put people under. Throw in a murder and the intensity increases.

Beth Rivers continues to grow throughout this series. She’s still a deeply damaged woman, still struggling with both the physical and mental aspect of her ordeal. She looks over her shoulder, locks her doors, and is constantly battling the fear her tormenter unleashed in her life. The twist at the end is one I didn’t see coming, but I’m glad Shelton wrote it into this story.

I highly recommend this series.
Other books in the series:
Thin Ice
Cold Wind

*I received a free copy of this novel from NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for my honest review.*

Beth Rivers is facing her first winter in Benedict, Alaska where she ran to recuperate from her attack. With a census man and her mother facing the winter in Benedict with her, there is sure to be some excitement.

I am really enjoying this series! I have long wondered what Alaska is like and the series just makes me want to go and spend a year. Very unlikely I can do this, so I will enjoy the town through Beth's eyes.

I feel as though in every cozy series, there are certain characters that really make the series and help keep your attention as well as moving the story forward. This series is no different. The women's inn manager is one such character and I can't wait to hear what her whole backstory is as I am sure there is something that led her to where she is. But there are many more in this series.

I have read some cozy series where the author shies away from the thrill aspect of a story and I don't feel like Shelton does this at all. I highly recommend this book and series to everyone I can!

From my blog: Always With a Book:

This is the third book in Paige Shelton’s Alaska Wild Mysteries series and I really enjoy these books! The series has such a dark, gritty feel to it and is completely atmospheric, too!

Once again, my favorite part of this series continues to be the combination of police procedural and amateur sleuthing. It just works so well here. I will say that while this book can absolutely be read as a stand-alone with its contained mystery, there is the continuing thread of Beth’s kidnapping and with the introduction of Beth’s mother showing up, that is really developed here in this book.

Having Beth’s mom, Mill show up brings so many questions, the biggest being just how she ended up finding her. It’s definitely a case of what you see is not what you get with her and I definitely found myself completely suspicious of her motives the entire time.

This book is such a great addition to an already fantastic series and while we do get some answers to some of the questions that have been brought up, we of course are left with more. I cannot wait to see what comes next and hopefully get more answers soon.

I have books 1 & 2 in this series on my book shelf but I read book #3 first. Even though I have a pretty good idea of what happened in the first two books, I am going to have to pull them off my shelf and give them a read. I thoroughly enjoy Paige Shelton's books and I cannot wait to read the rest of the series.

Quick pace, intriguing story, fantastic characters, and a cliff hanger, what more could you want in a story.