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Winter's End: Alaska Wild #4    by Paige Shelton Amazon.com order for
Winter's End
by Paige Shelton
Order:  USA  Can
Minotaur, 2022 (2022)
Hardcover, CD
* *   Reviewed by Hilary Williamson

Winter's End is the fourth (following Dark Night) in Paige Shelton's Alaska Wild mystery series. Elizabeth Fairchild, a popular thriller author, took the name Beth Rivers and fled to remote Benedict, Alaska after escaping from an obsessed kidnapper, still at large. She suffers memory loss after a severe head injury and neurosurgery.

Beth stays at a halfway house for parolees, given lack of other accommodation. She runs the local paper and has helped Benedict police Chief Gril solve murders. She's in a developing relationship with Tlingit Tex Southern, who has two adopted daughters, but is unsure where it's headed.

This episode opens in springtime on the community's annual Death Walk - to check on all residents. Beth, her dog Gus, and her librarian friend Orin (who has done secret government work) head to Old Al's cabin and find him in poor shape. Beth stays with the ninety-four year old, while Orin heads back to get help. The cavalry arrives - but no Orin.

There's a feud between families, a Romeo and Juliet relationship, a murder, and a missing baby. As always, Beth can't keep herself from investigating. She does find the infant, gets the surprise of her life, and sheds her writing block. I enjoy the Alaska setting of this series at least as much as the mysteries themselves.

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