I’ve been following this series since book one, and I’m glad I have, because I might have been a bit confused if I hadn’t read all the adventures of Beth Rivers. A few years back, Beth had been abducted and kept in a van. She escaped – with grievous injuries – with her kidnapper still on the loose. She headed to tiny Benedict, Alaska, to hide out, more or less on a whim, leaving her Missouri home behind. The “hotel” she found was actually a halfway house, but it suits her, as do the residents of Benedict, who don’t make a fuss but form a solid community around her.

Beth is also a well known thriller writer as Elizabeth Fairchild, and under cover of maintaining the local one sheet paper, she continues to write her novels. One book saw her wild-ass mother, Mill, turning up; the last one sees her long absent father, Eddy, arrive in town. In this outing, Eddy and Beth are beginning to re-form their relationship. Eddy is running a tourist fishing boat business. Beth keeps her distance but it’s starting to thaw.

As the book opens, Beth and her boyfriend, Tex, are out on a big tourist boat to see the glaciers. Before they can see them, though, they’re passing an island and they see a woman covered in blood waving at them from the beach. It turns out she’d been kidnapped and her kidnapper was killed by a bear, so she was able to escape. Because both she and Beth had been kidnapped they form a shaky bond, and the woman is taken back to Benedict to stay for awhile in the same halfway house where Beth lives.

Beth also agrees to go out with her Dad as he takes a tourist family out for a day of fishing – the daughter is a big fan of Elizabeth Fairchild’s books. Beth is a bit weirded out but agrees. Eddy has agreed to stop back on the island where the woman was found, and while they are there, the daughter vanishes.

So there are two stories here. One involves the kidnapped woman, Sadie, who is being watched by law enforcement and is waiting for a federal Marshall to come and get her as she’s in a witness protection program. There are all kinds of moving parts into the investigation surrounding Sadie, and Beth is not privy to all the facts, though as she and Sadie are living in the same place, she does glean some facts.

The other story is the more breakneck hunt for the missing girl, Gracie. As connections begin to appear, Beth is a help in discovering the solution to this mystery. This book had some good parts – all the Alaska parts are wonderful. The way Shelton includes nature and the way she’s set up a community of characters surrounding Beth, not to mention the smooth way she has with suspense. Ultimately, however, I felt the plot was a bit too complicated and convoluted, almost confusing at the end as all the threads of the story are tied together.

However, this is still a fun series (one I think of as cozy adjacent) and I really like Beth and want to see what happens to her next. Shelton is a sly enough pro to leave the reader with a giant cliffhanger for the next book. I would really recommend starting at the beginning, though, as the first novel is spectacular and beautifully establishes the series.

Normally I don't mind when a book has a lot of characters and trying to understand them all is interesting. But it was hard in this book because they were not interesting. I know this was a short book but felt so long because nothing was happening.
I don't if I will try other books from this series.

Beth Rivers moved to Alaska to get away from a situation in which she had been abducted by a stalker. She is an author and is well-known. In the small Alaska town where she has settled, she sometimes works with Gril, the police chief, and solves crimes. She also writes a local newspaper. This story begins with a woman being found on an island where she claimed a kidnapper took her, but he was attacked and killed by a bear. Beth tries to help the woman, Sadie. She and her friends, along with her father, Eddy, who runs a tour boat, try to figure out what happened on the island. Sadie claims to be in witness protection, a fact she probably should not be sharing publicly.

There are other books in this series, but I have not read any of those yet. As such, this one stands alone just fine. I felt like the author caught us up on the details that we needed to know fairly well as the story moved along. We get glimpses of Beth's past and it is enough to keep the reader interested without giving too much information.

The suspense built throughout the story and the ending was really well-done. The twists and turns will leave you guessing until the end. I thought the last few twists were great! I think the ending does sort of set up a segue into the next book in the series, so I may have to start reading the rest of them.

Beth's character is not a detective, but she is an amateur sleuth who takes on a lot of responsibility for investigating the crimes. She enlists others for their help, including her father and friends. I also liked the setting in Alaska. It's a small town, but there are tour boats that regularly go to see the glaciers nearby, so it has a lot of activity. The island was the big mystery. What was on the island? I felt anticipation that the story would finally move to the island, since I wanted to see what was there. Why couldn't they find the bear or the cave?

Overall, a well-done mystery with plenty of suspense and action. Great characters who I would like to read more about.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Lost Hours is the fifth book in Paige Shelton's unique Alaska Wild series and is available now. I have read every book in this series, and must admit that the first book, Thin Ice, is still my favorite. It's not quite a cozy series but even though it's often tense and suspenseful, there aren't any gory scenes.

The main character is author Beth Rivers who moved from Missouri to Benedict, Alaska after she escaped from a stalker who had abducted her. Beth learns to live in the extreme conditions of Alaska, edits the local newspaper, cautiously makes new friends, and helps the Benedict police chief investigate crimes. I have enjoyed watching Beth adjust to life in Alaska and forming close bonds with some of the people she meets. Lost Hours starts out strong when Beth gets involved helping a woman who says she was abducted, but was able to kill the man who took her.

The woman is fuzzy on the details and Beth helps law enforcement learn the whole story. That story is way more complicated than expected with seemingly unrelated subplots being folded into the main plot. It is often confusing and the middle portion of the book was a slow read for me as I tried to keep all the various characters straight. However, things pick up again and a development at the very end sets up the next book. Although there are others in this series I enjoyed more, I'm still looking forward to seeing what happens next for Beth!

I received an advance copy of this ebook from NetGalley and Minotaur Books, but my review is voluntary and unbiased.

Beth Rivers confronts two intriguing mysteries in the latest Alaska Wild installment. See my compete review at www.reviewingtheevidence.com

A kidnapping, a dead body found, a missing teenager, and a woman in danger are all part of the story. This is the first book that I have read by this author. She does a good concise way of filling in the relevant past from earlier books in this series. I am intrigued enough by this book to read the earlier books. I received a free copy of this ebook from the publisher through Netgalley. This is my honest and voluntarily given review. I thought the characters are pretty realistically drawn for people that live in a remote area. This is an excellent mystery. I am looking forward to the next book in this series.

I've been a fan of this series but this one this one was a slog for me. It won't be easy as a standalone because the reader is thrown into Benedict, Alaska and Beth's world with only small hints as to her all so critical backstory and, worse, with little info about the other characters. And there are just so many characters. Beth escaped to Benedict a year ago (and so many murders in the last year!) after a kidnapping back in the lower 48. Her mother is off on some sort of quest but her father Eddy's, who had been missing for years, is in Benedict and running a fishing tour boat. Sadie, who claims to be in WITSEC, is found on the bank of an island where she said she was taken by a kidnapper who has just been eaten by a bear. Really? And then there's a teen on Eddy's boat who first fan girls Beth and then goes missing on the island where it seems one of her friends from back home is spotted. Who is Sadie? Where is the teen? How do the stories link up? I admit to fatigue trying to keep everyone straight. This just got too out of hand and away from the pleasure of a small town in Alaska. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. Regardless of how I feel about the installment, I'm looking forward to the next one.

Cozy-ish Mystery in which a novelist living in Alaska joins forces with the police chief to investigate two different kidnapping cases that just might be connected.

5/5 stars: Shelton's a favorite author and this fifth entry in the Alaska Wild series doesn't disappoint. Shelton's character work is top-notch. Beth's tough yet incredibly likable and while her backstory is heartbreaking she's finally getting to a good place and I love seeing her character continue to grow. I also like seeing how her relationship with her father's plays out. Additionally, it's great catching up with all the folks of Benedict and of course one must not forget Beth's sweetheart of a dog Gus the Husky. Shelton's descriptions of the landscape paint evocative pictures of the beautiful Alaskan settings that continually draw me in. Most importantly, Shelton's crafted a perfectly balanced mystery with the clues, red herrings and suspects that come together effortlessly and will keep you guessing until the final reveal. This is an excellent series for those looking for something different that has that “Cozy Mystery” feel but is a bit grittier. As this books tackles tougher topics, take care and check the CWs. While you could read this as a stand-alone, you'll gain so much more by reading the series from the beginning; so be sure to check out book one, Thin Ice.

I received this eARC thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press, Minotaur Books in exchange for an honest review. Publishing dates are subject to change.

Beth is finally starting to relax and feel comfortable in her new home in remote Alaska, and even ventures out on a tourist boat to see the glaciers. While navigating around an island, a woman is seen standing on the shore, bloody and waving for help. She is rescued and taken to town – and everything changes for Beth and police chief Gril.

This is book #5 in this series, which I have loved since the first book – no great surprise, since I’m a big fan of Ms. Shelton’s work. The setting of these books, a small, remote town in Alaska, is described so well I can feel the cold and imagine the people who live there. I like Beth and have enjoyed watching her learn to trust again as the series has progressed. Most of the rest of the town’s residents seem like good people, although there are some who I’m not quite sure about yet.

There were several puzzles to be solved in this book, and they seemed to be intertwined, so there were plenty of twists in the story. I eventually gave up trying to figure out what was going on and who might be responsible for all of it and just went along for the ride. Because I was so befuddled, the eventual resolution wasn’t a great surprise, but the book ended with a hook that will necessitate reading the next book in the series. That’s not a hardship, since I would have wanted to read it anyhow, I just don’t like to wait!

Entertaining mystery in Alaska with a some twists. I enjoyed Lost Hours even though I have not read any of the previous books I was not lost. I think I would have been more invested in the individual characters. Paige Shelton had me feeling like I lived in Benedict, Alaska and the main characters were my neighbors. Always a win! The ending screams to get the next book. #LostHours #PaigeShelton #Minotaur #StMartinsPress #NetGalley

Paige Shelton brings atmosphere, mystery, and danger to Lost Hours , the fifth book in the Alaska Wild series set in fictional Benedict, Alaska. This well-written novel combines traditional police detective work and amateur sleuthing. Secrets, murder, and a horrific experience that continues to haunt and traumatize the main character make for a suspenseful and riveting read.

Beth Rivers, a successful thriller writer known as Elizabeth Fairchild, is still recovering in Alaska following her abduction a year ago. Until recently, only a few locals knew Beth’s story including police chief Gril Samuels and his deputy Donner. She now feels at home in Alaska, even as tourists return to the area for the summer. When she and Tex, Beth’s boyfriend and local search and rescue expert, decide to take a tour boat to view the glaciers, the boat is diverted to an island to rescue a woman covered in blood and waving for help. She claims she was kidnapped from her home in Juneau and that a bear killed her captor.

Beth’s character is well-developed. She continues to be a flawed protagonist who has shown some growth through making friends and learning to deal with her traumatic past, but she still finds it hard to trust people. However, readers will see a dynamic character change in attitude and outlook as she responds to events. She is curious, somewhat nosy, and has become an amateur sleuth. Several of the secondary characters gained depth in this book as secrets are revealed. This is especially true of Tex as well as Viola, the owner of the house where Beth rents a room. There are numerous characters in this story, but many of them were introduced in the earlier books so it felt like I was catching up with old friends.

The author’s writing style continues to hook me quickly, and the story builds momentum that leads to an action-filled conclusion. It’s suspenseful and there are twists and turns and surprises along the way in an intricate plot that kept me guessing. The atmosphere is tense and serious throughout the novel. From the quirky and eccentric residents to the descriptions of Alaska to the various mysteries, I thoroughly enjoyed the story. The author does a great job of portraying the lack of amenities as well as the friendships, pace of life, the wonders, and the dangers of living in and around Benedict. I could easily visualize the setting and felt transported to Alaska. I also enjoy the way she works with the local police. My biggest quibble is that the ending was more telling than showing. While the mysteries in this story were nicely wrapped up, the set-up for the next book also occurs leaving this reader anxiously awaiting book six in the series. Several themes run through the tale including death, trust, found family as well as biological family, disappearances, secrets, lies, family dynamics, vengeance, and much more.

Overall, this enjoyable mystery was engaging, suspenseful, atmospheric, and full of adventure. Darker than many cozy mysteries, the well-developed ideas with good pacing from scene to scene kept me turning the pages. If you enjoy well-written amateur sleuth mysteries, then I recommend you check out this series. The books are best read in order. I’m looking forward to book six.

St. Martin’s Press, Minotaur Books and Paige Shelton provided a complimentary digital ARC of this novel via NetGalley. All opinions expressed in this review are my own. The publication date is currently set for December 05, 2023. This review was originally posted at Mystery and Suspense Magazine.

Lost Hours by Paige Shelton is another chapter in the ongoing story of Beth Rivers, who has escaped her kidnapper by hiding in Alaska. At first, no one knew, but after he was captured and incarcerated her story became public. Her friends and neighbors in Benedict understood and supported her. Now she had relaxed into her life, despite the fact that her father had reappeared after all those years of being missing. He was running a small fishing boat business and living with Gril, the policeman living in Benedict and Beth’s first friend. As the story opens she and her man friend, Tex, were on a sightseeing boat to visit a glacier when instead they saw a bloody woman frantically waving from the shore. The boat picked her up and discovered none of the blood was hers. She had a fantastic story about being kidnapped and her kidnapper being attacked by a bear. Not too many days after that Beth accepted her father’s invitation to join him and some passengers on his boat. She was not overly fond of water but the teen girl appeared to be a fan and he promised he’d stop at the island where they’d found Sadie. Tex and Gril had been all over it; she wan’t sure what she wanted to find. Then, Gracie, her fan, disappeared while she and her dad were hiking the island. Everyone kicked into search mode.

Benedict was made up of people who wanted privacy. Beth lived in a big house with Viola which acted mostly as a halfway house for women leaving prison. It had previously been a hotel of sorts so each of the rooms had a locking door. That is where they took Sadie and her ever growing story. Viola wanted her to move out for a few days, but she was resistant. She wanted answers. It was in her nature. Beth is a thriller writer and full of endless curiosity. She was also a researcher. She couldn’t let it rest. Her friend, Orin, who worked at the library when he wasn’t undercover for a federal agency, was her best source. He could tap information that was not available to her. Fortunately, Gril saw him the same way. Gril was an excellent law enforcement agent. He was older than Beth, and gruff and taciturn, but caring and honest. He was one of her best friends. The characters in this book often drive the excellent mysteries they contain. This was a good one, all parts of it interesting and deep. It kept me on the edge of my seat; excellent plotting. Shelton knows just when to share information with the reader. Excellent read.

I was invited to read a free e-ARC of Lost Hours by St. Martin’s Press, through Netgalley. All thoughts and opinions are mine. #Netgalley #StMartinsPress #PaigeShelton #LostHours

Thanks to Netgalley for the early copy of Lost Hours in exchange for a review.

The book has a cool setting- small town Alaska, and a nice community with interesting characters. It is the fifth book in a series, I had not read the first four books. Did not miss out on anything, as adequate descriptions of history and status was given. I enjoyed the book, would rate it as a cozy mystery, when at first I thought I was reading a thriller. Because of some of the improbability of the "nosy neighbor" being given free reign to all crime scenes and information regarding a murder and missing person, some suspension of reality is needed. The end got quite far fetched which did affect my overall enjoyment of the book, but overall it was a cute easy read. At the beginning I was thinking I would definitely go back and read the first books, but towards the end as the resolutions got more and more out there, I am not sure I will rush to pick them up. If the mood strikes, I still may. I am curious about the backstories of some of the town residents.

Thanks to Netgalley for an ARC: And enjoyable mystery set in Alaska--it's part of a series and as I'd never read any of the other books, I found some of the many characters to be confusing. The sense of place in Benedict Alaska is well conveyed and the mystery moves quickly. The protagonist is a horror mystery writer who was abducted and has moved to Alaska to escape her past. There are many supporting characters. The story moved quickly and it was an enjoyable read. As a stand alone, it could benefit from some more character development, but overall it's a well written, well plotted mystery with interesting characters and a strong sense of place.

I liked that this was set in Alaska. The story dragged a little forme but all in all it was a decent mystery.

This is book #5 of the Alaska Wild series and it’s my very first book by this author. It read great as a stand-alone but now I want to read the first 4. Alaska - a place I dream to visit one day! This book just makes me want to go more! Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this early release in exchange for my honest review. To be published December 2023.

I received a free copy of this book from St. Martins Press through netgalley.com. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Alaska, the remoteness, and the small town play a major part in these books.

I loved the interaction between Beth and her father, the struggle to forgive him being missing for most of her life. Trusting him is tough but you can feel Beth starting to thaw. I loved the idea of a remote island with spooky caves, not so thrilled about bears though which I think all of these characters would agree with.

With a woman who claims she was kidnapped and a missing teenager This small village has its hands full. With no cell phones and limited numbers of people everyone pitches in when needed. Beth used to help her Grandfather who was a police chief so crime is not new to her and the local sheriff often asks for her help.

Overall this is a fun installment of this series with a set up at the end for the next book.

I love the setting for this series. This book was a bit harder for me to follow, even though they did explain it all at the end of the book. Ended on a nice plot twist. I will definitely read the next book in the series.

This is the fifth book in this series set in Alaska, I haven't read the previous books but this book stands alone. It is a fast-paced story that had me guessing figuring out who were the guilty parties. I enjoyed the setting a plot, and plan to read the first four books.
Thank you, NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC.

Thriller author Beth Rivers fled to Benedict, Alaska, after being kidnapped. She has made a new life for herself and finally feels confident enough to go on a tourist ship to see the glaciers. What she doesn't expect to see is a blood-covered woman calling for help from one of the remote islands as the ship passes it.

Sadie claims to have been kidnapped and escaped her kidnapper when he was killed by a bear. She is also quick to tell Beth that she is in the Witness Protection Program but doesn't tell her why. However, there is no evidence on the island to support her story. At least there isn't until Beth's boyfriend Tex discovers a body in one of the island's inlets. Sadie claims amnesia about the events of her kidnapping leaving Beth and her friends including Gril who is the sheriff to puzzle out what happens on that island.

Meanwhile, Beth's father Eddy invites her along with a family who hired him to go on a fishing trip. The teenage daughter claims to be a big fan of Beth's writing. Beth agrees as long as Eddy makes a stop at the island where Sadie was found. Beth wants to take a look herself. But when she and Eddy return from their hike, the young daughter is missing. A thorough search of the 5-sware-mile island doesn't uncover her leaving her parents and the residents of Benedict puzzled.

Beth begins to wonder if those two occurrences are connected and wonders if the prison break-out of a young man soon to be tried for murder also fits into the puzzle. Beth also has stressors in her personal life too. The man who kidnapped her has hired a high-powered lawyer to defend him and she's already got one piece of evidence thrown out. Beth worries that he'll get away with his crime.

Beth and her friends in Benedict manage to untangle all the various pieces of the mysteries which are connected and Beth does finally get to see the glaciers. But a phone call from her police friend back home in Missouri leads to a cliffhanger ending to this story.