Alaska Deadly by J.L Askew is a thrilling novel about a private investigator who travels to Alaska on what seems to be an ordinary missing persons case - that's what he is good at. He follows the trail to a remote, small town in the North Slope. After some investigation, Warren uncovers a tribal cult involved in animal worship and mutilation.

There is suspicion that a supernatural power entity may be connected to a local death.

Joining up with his original suspect, Warren finds himself suddenly immersed in a world teeming with crime and death. As they try to rescue his suspects daughter they are thrown into a race for survival.

Asker's writing pulls you in straight away, not bothering to go slow or feed us information, instead you are thrown into a thrilling race against time where you're holding your breath every so often as you wait for the next twist.

I did find it a bit full on at times, but that just kept me on my toes as the author tells a story of a shapeshifting cult, flattering us with a gripping, intense climax.

Honestly, I would read this again and soon, just so I could soak it in.

Five stars and highly recommended.

I came across this one while trolling fellow GR member and friend, Thomas, read list. While the review was a good one, it was his mention of the AK environment and shapeshifters that had me adding the book to my to-read list. I love stories in AK and I’m a long-time fan of the paranormal.

The book summary pretty much lays out the entire premise as well as most of the plot so I’m not going to repeat any of that here. One of the things that I like about the crime thriller/murder mystery genres is the thrill of trying to figure out “whodunit”. With this book summary, we already know whodunit and we pretty much know why and it’s all just a matter of finding out how the story ends. Not sure why the publisher would put out a book summary like that or why a writer would approve it because it reveals so much of the storyline. What do I know though? I’m neither a writer nor a publisher; I’m just an avid reader who likes to fancy herself as an armchair detective.

There is also a secondary storyline of a team of anthropologists and a biologist, Dr Hartley, that are in AK to study the Inuit community in a desolate part of AK. Dr Hartley is also going to be collecting data on the wolves and the relationship that the Inuit community has with them. It is also rumored that a native shaman of the Inuit is engaging in some dark rituals resulting in shapeshifting; Dr Hartley has a history with this particular community. Enough said. None of this is a spoiler since it is all revealed in either the book summary or really early in the story.

I found the first half of the story kind of slow in many parts and I struggled to stay engaged. Around the halfway point, storylines begin to merge and the pace picks up and became the kind of story that grabbed my attention to the end. Even got a little scary in some parts. I liked the Author Notes too (I always read those) and I look forward to the sequel. I want to thank NetGalley, the author Jimmy Askew and Covenant Books for sending me this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

#NetGalley #JimmyAskew #CovenantBooks #Alaska