Very enjoyable! An ongoing feeling of suspense and layers of mystery involving several characters, not to mention a great thriller setting. Can't wait for the next one! ( )

This is the second in a series that I said I wouldn't read any more of after the first. The action and characterization was better in this one so I'm glad I picked it up. Beth is still hiding out in a small Alaska town so that the man who abducted her can't find her. She is making friends and having more contact with other people in the town, including being attracted to a local resident. The plot is complicated and has several twists that kept up my interest. The descriptions of small town life in Benedict, Alaska, ring true. ( )

Great mystery that kept me wondering how it would unravel ( )

Beth Rivers is hiding. Born and raised in Missouri, she's had a successful career as a writer of thrillers. She just never knew that she'd be in her own nightmare of own. Kidnapped from her St. Louis home and held for three days in a van before her escape, she carries more than the scar on her head as a reminder. She carries scars inside her. And the fear that her unknown captor will still locate her again. The only person who knows her secret is the sheriff, Gril.

She lives in a halfway house, now empty of other guests at the moment, and runs the town's newspaper, the Petition, and writes her books in a small shed not far from her home. Her nearest neighbor is the library, run by Orin, another transplant with a past.

When she learns from Randy, who runs the mercantile, that he heard strange growling noises behind his cabin -- away from town -- she wonders what it could be. But the next day, the same noises are heard outside her shed, along with knocking. She opens the door warily to two mud-covered young girls, and takes them to Viola, her landlady.

The sheriff doesn't know who they are, and neither does anyone else...until a Tlingit man comes forward and claims them as his daughters. But Beth has questions. Questions which escalate when the body of a frozen woman is found in a shed, and the shed is behind Randy's home, and turns out to belong to a trapper.

Now there's a whole lot of questions that need to be answered, but no one seems to have any. Also, when Beth receives a call from the Detective on her own case regarding the identity of her kidnapper, it ties back farther than she could ever have imagined. Now Beth needs to find out what's going on in Benedict, Alaska; and if her kidnapper has any clues to where she is...

This book is the first in the series that I've read by this author, but there's enough background that you can determine what happened in the first book, although I would recommend that you read it first. I enjoyed the character of Beth, even if she did take chances I don't think she should have, and the other characters grow on you as well throughout the book.

We are given enough description of Benedict to know it's remote, it's beautiful, and it's cold. Far enough from Juneau that you need to reach it by plane. Far from civilization, but peopled with souls that have decided this is enough in their lives. Beth, however, is there for another reason: to escape the horror that was her past experience, and hope to put herself back together again. She doesn't want anyone to know the truth, in case her kidnapper finds out where she is. Fair enough.

The book has a lot of twists and turns, and threads that keep tangling up and reaching in other directions, pulling at one place and yanking at another, until they all wind up together in a mystery that is difficult to put down. The ending puts everything together, at least until...Beth's story continues. There is no ending, While I liked this book very much, I absolutely abhor cliffhangers, and unfortunately, the ending left me cold.

I received this book from Amazon and the publisher but this in no way influenced my review. ( )

Cold Wind: A Mystery (Alaska Wild Book 2) by Paige Shelton
An interesting part 2 for the Alaska Wild mystery series. Good descriptions of live in Alaska, capturing the overall atmosphere, and enabling the reader to have a more immersive experience while reading the book. It turns into a compelling mystery that makes you impatient for the next installation of the story. Well-developed characters, and a good read. 4 stars. ( )