Book Review: Thin Ice by Paige Shelton
Whenever I start a new series by an established author, I always proceed with caution, since I'm used to characters in their previous works. The start of this series is no exception, and it does start off a little shaky.
Author Beth Rivers (pen name Elizabeth Fairchild) has left the lower forty-eight to hide out in Benedict, Alaska. She's recently been released from the hospital after recuperating from a kidnapping by an overzealous fan.
She arrives in town with a scar on the side of her head, which she tells the locals happened due to a horse accident and since she hurriedly left the hospital, she booked herself into the Benedict House and didn't realize that it's a halfway house for recently released female criminals.
Run with a tight fist by Viola, she's scolded by Donner Montgomery, a National Park Ranger and assistant to police chief Gril Samuels, when he finds out that she's been renting rooms again. Beth is a little apprehensive about staying at the boarding house after Viola tells her that the girl who has cooking duty has to taste the food before serving it to the others.
When she meets Gril, he tells her that he knows who she is and what happened to her but promises not to say anything to the locals.
As Beth becomes acquainted to the town, Gril takes her out to an old shed in the woods and tells her that the late Bobby Macon ran The Benedict Petition from there and asks if she'd like to start it up again. She thinks about it and decides that she'll start it up again since it will help her get back to writing.
The town learns that Linda Rafferty has died, and they think it was suicide, but her husband George is missing and Gril enlists Beth into helping him with the investigation, since she used to work as a secretary when her grandfather was the police chief in her small Missouri town.
While this first installment basically introduces us to the various characters and setting, the main plot of Beth having been kidnapped is the crux of the story.
When the book starts, she's already looking over her shoulder and is in contact with the detective of her case, who's always running into a dead end. And with this plot, it carries over into the next installment since Beth begins to remember some of her kidnapping but can't focus on who her kidnapper is.
Her mother, Mill, has gone rogue and is also looking for Beth's kidnapper, along with the disappearance of her father years earlier. I'm hoping that Mill is featured more throughout the series since she's probably the character who stands out the most, and I can see her and Viola butting heads.
My only problem with the book is that it's written in the first person and as I've said before, I'm not a fan of first person writing, but when there's dialogue, the story picks up steam.
For now, I'm on the fence, but having started the second installment, I think the bugs have been worked out and I'm looking forward to a good read.
