I like this author but this is the third book with the same premise. Another weather related event, another murder or two and Fiona the unluckiest policewoman has to save the day. All in all an okay read.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the Arc in return for an honest review.

With thanks to the author and publisher for this ARC copy to review. Episode 3 of the adventures (misadventures?) Of Fiona MacLeish a PC in Polis Scotland. This time the setting is a Munro in Scotland in the winter. Fiona has to use her police skills to to find who the perpetrator is. Like previous books welisten in to Fionas thought processes. Maybe a little too much. The last third of the book increases the tension as in the previous books. I feel an empahy for Fiona due to the history she has. Once it got into gear the story flowed fast and it became hard to put down as I needed to know the outcome. Another well written book by GN Smith.

Fiona is meant to be hiking for fun with her friends Donna and Jack but a body and a blizzard changes everything, I read this as a standalone and it was fine that way. The plot might seem familiar (which of the people In the shelter is the villain, the blizzard, and so on) but Fiona is a dynamic character, Thanks to netgalley for the ARC. Would make a good travel book.

I really enjoyed the previous books in this series, but this one not so much. I found the pace was very slow, with not much action for long periods of time. there is only so much to describe whilst walking in a snow storm. The plotting was good and I liked the characterisation. The story never really gripped me and I found myself longing for the ending as Fiona really began to irritate me! Thanks to Net Galley for my ARC.

Once again Fiona is up against the elements when a murder is committed. That is the only similarity between the books. The plots are entirely different. This could be read as a standalone book, but it's one series I've actually read in order and they get better with each book. Here, stuck in a shelter with a killer and no apparent motive, she has her work cut out for her, but struggles on. I can't wait for book 4

Hello Fiona MaacLeish!

This is the first book in the series that I have read and it was a great introduction. Fiona is obsessed with becoming a detective in the department so that she can investigate a tragedy that is close to her heart.

While on a trip with one of her closest friends and her spouse, she gets trapped in a snow storm and stumbles across a dead body. Fiona is quickly able to determine that there was no "accident" in this storm and that the victim was murdered. Using all of her skills of deduction, Fiona has to evaluate which of the strangers around her committed the murder, while trying to hide her profession.

As the body count increases, it becomes increasingly more urgent for her to identify the murderer and help find someone to rescue them before everyone's time runs out.

I really enjoyed this book! Although there were some very obvious clues and some threads that were not picked up on, it was suspenseful enough for you to suspect several people. The relationships ( Fiona and her friend, suspect to suspect) are also interesting, and you get a good insight into who Fiona is as a person, along with her bravery. I was especially impressed with how Fiona was always aware of her surroundings and the potential dangers and making plans in her head as a "just in case," as I feel that is what is missing in a lot of stories like this one.

I will go back and read the books before this one, and I am very much looking forward to the next!

This review was given in exchange for an honest opinion by NetGalley and the publisher.

This is a common review of the books in this series: The Flood, The Island, and The Shelter.
This is a good series: gripping, tense, and a quite dark.
Fiona is not a character you will like since the beginning: flawed, damaged, obsessed by the murder of ther parents. She grew on me and I appreciated her after a bit.
The stories are well plotted and and the solid plot kept me guessing.
I recommend it as it's an intriguing set of mysteries.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

This book was written well, it just wasn’t for me.

~This book was given by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Will not be going on with this series at all , after reading the first 2 books I just found it to be somewhat repetitive,

Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture for the opportunity to read "The Shelter" in exchange for my honest opinion.

This is book three in the Fiona MacLeish series and like the previous two, she finds herself in a "locked room" style mystery, only this time she is on a Munro in Scotland called Beinn Bhuidhe. Natural disasters and Fiona seem to travel together. This time it is a blizzard on the Munro where and her friends Donna and Jack were hiking. The storm arrives sooner than predicted and they meet up with a group 6 travelers Kevin, Steve, Thomas, Neil, Frances and Alice who are also braving the storm to get off the Munro. After a scream, they realize that someone in the group is missing.

When they happen upon a shelter they find three people in there who know the people that they have been traveling with...but how? Ivor, Sarah and Lewis are shocked to learn that one of their group has been attacked.

Fiona is a great character. She is very distrustful of everyone she meets, she always thinks the worst of everyone and to her everyone is a suspect. She spends too much time coming up with fantastic ideas, outlandish plots and theories. Everything everyone does is suspect to her - like being given a torch with a bad battery - that couldn't have been an accident, it had to have been done on purpose. Everything that happens on the Munro is a ploy to her or a ruse to attack her. Constantly on high alert she leaps to a lot of inaccurate conclusions. She is desperate to to sit her detective exams but she spends so much time speculating rather than focusing on real evidence.

Fiona is driven by the murder of her parents when she was sitting her history GSCE and that has coloured her life since. She is convinced that she can do a better job of solving the crime if she were a detective instead of just a PC with Police Scotland.

There is a lot of brilliant tension written into this story as several attempts are made to get off the Munro and get help for the injured and justice for the dead. The conclusion and why everything happened is not one that the reader expects as they start this story. The reader also "meets" the often mentioned Dave Lennox in this book and once again Aunt Mary has a small part to play.

This is one of my favourite new wonderful series and personally I can't wait to see where the next book will lead Fiona.

There she is again, Fiona MacLeish and she brings with her ... bad weather. :) This seems to follow her around. If you are a fan of locked room crimes stories, you will love this series. The locked room is not really only one room in these cases but Fiona is always trapped due to the bad weather with a killer and his victims past and present. A flood, a storm or a snow blizzard, you name it and Fiona is stuck in the middle of it often without any means of communication or help from the outside. Thank God, she always has one person she can count on to have her back more or less.

This time snow on a mountain is her warden, but Fiona would not be Fiona if she would sit down and give up. Oh no, no way. She struggles, she fights, she is like a cat with nine lives, but maybe she has used them all up this time? She really finds herself in a very dire situation, but she never thinks about stepping down. Will this be it now though?

You cannot not admire this strong lady. I like the numerous theories that float through her head during her investigations. 

I also had the feeling she was less hard on herself and I loved that.

The two previous books were very enjoyable too, but in my opinion this one is the best so far. 5 stars

Thank you

I want to start by saying thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for the e-arc of this book. All of my thoughts and opinions are my own.

What I really enjoyed about this book:
The locked room mystery formatting made for an easy, fast-paced read. I liked that the author introduced a variety of characters that were suspects so the storyline kept you guessing until the reveal of the killer at the end. It gave almost a "clue" game murder mystery vibe.

What I didn't enjoy about the book:
While the storyline was very interesting I found it a little chaotic at the start, everything seemed to go wrong almost too perfectly which made it a little unbelievable which didn't allow me to connect with the main character on the level that I would have liked to, (this might be a me problem though as I've read a lot of crime/thriller books).

Another storm .another murder or two for our unlucky policewoman Fiona. Trapped in a bothy in a blizzard with one hiker already dead Fiona must work out who is responsible. Bit slow at times but an ok read.

Police officer Fiona MacLeish is with her friends, Donna and Jack on the peaks of Scottish Highlands. When they notice the clouds have changed and are moving rapidly, they know they need to get down before the snowstorm traps them.

With other climbers making their way down too, all is going well until a horrific scream is heard. When they reach him, Fiona quickly realises he has been deliberately smashed around the head. The journey is taking longer now that they have to carry the unconscious man down.

With the storm coming in and taking its toll on everyone, they find a shelter, where another group of people have already set up. With not much food and no signal, it’s going to be a long night.

With a potential killer in their midst, Fiona has to try and see if she can work out who would hurt the unconscious man and why, before anyone else gets hurt.

This has been my favourite book in the series so far. I found this story intriguing and action packed. With believable characters, there really were some who just got on my nerves!

It is a dark story and it flowed well. You can’t help but feel sorry for Fiona, she does seem to attract trouble wherever she goes.

An entertaining read that had me hooked from the first page to the very end.

My thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for a copy in exchange for my honest review.

I have been devouring GN Smith's Fiona MacLeish series over the last month, this one started off very slow for me and it took me a while to get into it so there were a couple of false starts. However once they got to the shelter all the action started and Fiona's 'detective' skills came to the forth. Loved the locked in room feeling that the mountain gave it. I devoured the last half in one setting and just wanted to finish but not finish it was so good.

I was given an advance copy by bookouture and netgalley but the review is entirely my own.

*4.5 stars*

Despite the freezing temperatures, it’s a clear day, with a decent forecast, so off duty cop, Fiona MacLeish and her friends Donna and Jack are climbing all three thousand one hundred feet of one of Scotland’s toughest Munro’s at the head of Loch Fyne. However, as the temperature dips even lower and the wind speed increases, the first flurries of snow that were forecast for tomorrow, begin to appear and quickly turn into a blizzard.

In the silence of the snowstorm comes a terrifying scream, it was coming from a group of six hikers behind Fiona and her friends.

Quick to investigate, Fiona discovers one of the hikers has fallen over the side and is very badly injured, but something doesn’t sit right with Fiona - had he actually been pushed?

The group carry the injured hiker between them and set off back down the mountain, but as the blizzard worsens, they’re forced to take shelter in a Bothy.


It soon becomes apparent to Fiona that the potential accident was actually deliberate, and when the victim dies of his injuries, she begins to question everyone, but who would want to kill him when nobody had a bad word to say about him?


When another attack happens, it’s clear that they have a murderer in their midst. With Fiona doing much theorising and questioning, the reader finds the tension mount along with the snow - there’s danger without and danger within!

A group of people thrown together in an isolated location in the depth of winter, no mobile phone signal, snow so deep there’s no way to make it out of there, very little food, and a dead body, all come together to make this literally the perfect storm!

It’s great when a writer can make a situation so real that you feel as if you’re there - the freezing cold, the blizzard which makes it impossible to see in front of you, the tension and claustrophobia of the bothy with a murderer amongst you, and the finger of suspicion pointing at everyone. Terrific.

Where to start. There were parts of The Shelter, a Fiona MacLeish Crime Thriller, book 3 that I enjoyed and thought were especially well done. This is the first G.N. Smith, MacLeish novel, that I have read. On the surface, the concept is excellent. Isolated in a shelter during a snowstorm offers many terrific opportunities for Smith to create tension, as the bodies begin to accumulate.

Flora is not nearly as worthy of this setup as I had hoped. As a police officer she does a terrific job of interviewing the suspects. She knows how to ask questions and how to listen, as well as how to observe. In the last section of the novel, as she pursues the killer, the action is terrific. This section is very well described and is easily visualized. What does not work as well is the first half of the book. I expect a police officer to think about possible scenarios for who might be the guilty party and who is at risk, but there can be too much of that, as there is in The Shelter. Over and over again, with the same ideas explored in endless ways is the sort of writing that forces readers to either put down a book or to skim way too much. However, since all this thinking occupies so much space and time, it begins to read like filler. The object isn't to fill space and make the novel longer. There needs to be a purpose and at some point, it does read like filler. Some judicial editing would be helpful.

I want to thank the author and publisher, Bookcouture, for providing this ARC for me to read and review. I am undecided by how to grade this novel. Half of the book is excellent, and so while I am inclined to think this novel is 3 1/2 stars, I suspect this series is much stronger than the first half of Book 3 appears. Smith fans will no doubt love The Shelter, and thus based on that view, I will increase my score to 4 stars.

An Icy Blast..
The third outing in the Fiona MacLeish series of thrillers arrives with an icy blast as a group of hikers become stranded on a snow bound peak in the Scottish Highlands. Fiona stumbles upon the scene and quickly realises that a murder has taken place and that the killer must be among them. Stuck in an isolated cabin with the group and a killer, she also realises that her profession is likely to make her a target. Chilling locked room style mystery, packed with atmosphere and an icy edge, and with a plot populated with a deftly drawn and credible cast makes this quite possibly the best addition to the series to date.

#TheShelter #NetGalley
Awesome locked room mystery.
Police officer Fiona MacLeish is hiking with friends Donna and Jack as the weather suddenly changes, plunging them from autumn into winter in minutes. They are joined by another group who follows them on their way down the mountain. As the snow deepens, one of the group disappears. Has he fallen off the mountainside? Was he pushed? Although Fiona knows her friends well, she has no idea of who this other party is. She has little time to wonder because after they recover the injured man, they are all forced to take shelter in a stone cabin on the path. There is no way they can continue down the mountain. There is no way a rescue helicopter can get to them. There is no cell signal. Then there is another murder and Fiona realizes that the danger in the cabin is worse than the danger outside. Can she identify the killer before there is another victim?
I'm not telling more. Pre order your copy today.
Thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for giving me an advance copy.

I absolutely love a snowy, cold, trapped in a cabin in a snowstorm mystery and this ticked every box for me.
I loved Fiona's character and the first thing I am going to do is read the other two book in the series.
The setting was fantastic, I could feel the cold as much as I could feel the tension rise within the group of people stranded in the cabin.
The tension built up so well, everybody is a suspect!
An excellent read.