Thin Ice by Paige Shelton

Thin Ice

by Paige Shelton

Beth Rivers is on the run - she’s doing the only thing she could think of to keep herself safe. Known to the world as thriller author Elizabeth Fairchild, she had become the subject of a fanatic’s obsession. After being held in a van for three days by her kidnapper, Levi Brooks, Beth managed to escape, and until he is captured, she's got to get away. Cold and remote, Alaska seems tailor made for her to hideout.

Beth’s new home in Alaska is sparsely populated with people who all seem to be running or hiding from something, and though she accidentally booked a room at a halfway house, she feels safer than she’s felt since Levi took her. That is, until she’s told about a local death that’s a suspected murder. Could the death of Linda Rafferty have anything to do with her horror at the hands of Levi Brooks?

As Beth navigates her way through the wilds of her new home, her memories of her time in the van are coming back, replaying the terror and the fear - and threatening to keep her from healing, from reclaiming her old life again. Can she get back to normal, will she ever truly feel safe, and can she help solve the local mystery, if only so she doesn’t have to think about her own?

Reviewed by annieb123 on

4 of 5 stars

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Originally published on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

Thin Ice is the first book in a new series by Paige Shelton. Released 3rd Dec 2019 by Macmillan on their Minotaur imprint, it's 228 pages and available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately. Presumably that feature will carry through to the release version of the ebook.

This is an engaging thriller/mystery set in a very remote part of Alaska. Main protagonist Beth is a writer on the run to try to reclaim her security and heal herself from a violent abduction by a stalker fan. She gets involved in a local intrigue helping to investigate a town resident's death. The setting is beautifully drawn, stark and brooding. The plotting and tension arc never felt forced or too slow. The author is adept at her craft and the flashback interludes from Beth's point of view worked very well with the 1st person point of view.

The language is slightly rough (there are felons who are secondary characters) but wasn't completely over the top or gratuitous. There is violence and psychological tension in the narrative, but again, I never felt the author threw it in without reason. There is potentially triggering trauma (the main character was abducted, held, and tortured for days). There was also threatened sexual assault described in a flashback and in some dialogue, but nothing graphic.

Four stars. I enjoyed it and will be looking forward to the next book(s) in the series.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

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