She’s trying to rectify the past. He’s trying to forge a new future…
I never expected to write Alaska Mountain Rescue. But when I was halfway through the first book in my K-9 Alaska series, K-9 Defense, a secondary character leapt up and demanded her own book. Alanna Morgan was kidnapped when she was five years old. She spent fourteen years with her kidnappers, who raised her (and her “siblings,” who were also kidnapped) as their own children. At nineteen, Alanna slipped a note to a store owner and changed the rest of her life. Her “parents” were arrested, and she was returned to a family she barely knew anymore.
Five years later, when her “mother” Darcy Altier escaped from prison and grabbed another child, Alanna decides to return to Desparre, Alaska, to help police find her. It’s a hard journey back to Desparre. It’s where she spent her childhood, so in some ways, nowhere else feels like home to Alanna. But it’s also tainted by the knowledge that this remote town had been used to hide her from her real family for fourteen years.
Returning to Desparre is her chance to redeem herself for not turning in her “parents” sooner, to ease some of the guilt that has never faded. For Alanna, Desparre represents a past – and a guilt – she’s trying desperately to put behind her.
For rookie police officer Peter Robak, Desparre represents one last chance. A former war reporter who lost some of his hearing when a hostage victim blew herself up during a botched hostage exchange, Peter made a major career pivot. The challenges of living in a place as remote as Desparre meant the police department was desperate enough for officers to bend the rules and allow him into their ranks despite the hearing loss that would normally disqualify him. But that disability has made his fellow officers wary of trusting his skills. When he meets Alanna, Peter sees a chance to prove himself, a chance to be accepted within the department. If she can lead him to the kidnapper, it could solidify the new future he’s trying so hard to build.
It hasn’t been easy to leave his own past behind. He misses being a war reporter, a job that he felt destined to hold. And Alanna reminds him too much of the woman who destroyed that career for him – the hostage who bonded so closely to her captors that she was willing to blow herself up to save them. Because no matter what Alanna says, Peter can see that she still loves the people who raised her. When it comes right down to it, he’s not sure she’ll be able to turn in Darcy, no matter the consequences for everyone else.
But as Peter and Alanna (alongside her therapy St. Bernard, Chance) form a wary bond in their search for Darcy, Peter begins to understand why Alanna is so conflicted. It’s something that forces him to see his own past from a new perspective, and to realize he hasn’t truly let it go. For Alanna, working alongside Peter makes her realize that she’s spent so long trying to make up for her past that she’s never truly embraced what she wanted for her future. The deeper Alanna and Peter venture into Desparre’s frigid mountain wilderness in their search, the more it becomes clear: if they want a future together, first there will need to be a reckoning with the past.
I’m excited to share that Alaska Mountain Rescue is back in stores, this time as part of a duo K-9 book, along with Nicole Helm’s Hunting a Killer, in the specially priced Tracking a Fugitive. Grab your copy now to find out how two dangerous fugitive searches (with the help of two very capable dogs) turn out!
You can catch up on the first book in the story (where Alanna’s sister Kensie comes to Alaska to find her, and seeks out the help of an ex-Marine and his Combat Tracker dog) in K-9 Defense (or in the duo book with Elle James’s Six Minutes to Midnight in Valiant Tracker). You can also grab the most recent books in the series, K-9 Cold Case, where a police chief and an FBI Victim Specialist (and his K-9) try to stop a bomber with a connection to the chief’s past, and K-9 Hideout, where a woman on the run from her stalker seeks the help of a rookie police officer and his K-9.
If you’ve already read my K-9 Alaska series books, you’re also in luck! Sniffing Out Danger, my new K-9 book that’s part of the multi-author K-9s on Patrol series, hits stores later this month.
On the trail of justice
Alaska Mountain Rescue by Elizabeth Heiter
A jailbreak brings Alanna Morgan on a collision course with the woman who stole her childhood. To prevent other helpless victims from being abducted, she sets out with Chance, a therapy St. Bernard, by her side. But rookie police officer Peter Robak has other plans for the civilian investigator. Together in the frigid mountain wilderness, they forge a wary alliance to catch a desperate fugitive.
Hunting a Killer by Nicole Helm
When K-9 handler Selena Lopez discovers her half brother’s a fugitive from justice, she must find him—and his dangerous crew. It’s a good thing that her partner is infuriatingly efficient and handsome lead agent Axel Morrow. But as smart and cunning as the duo may be, it’s a race against time to catch the armed and dangerous criminals before they kill again.
Previously published as Alaska Mountain Rescue and Hunting a Killer
Romance Suspense [Harlequin Selects, On Sale: March 29, 2022, Paperback / e-Book, ISBN: 9781335473776 / eISBN: 9780369718655]
Publishers Weekly bestselling author ELIZABETH HEITER likes her suspense to feature strong heroines, chilling villains, psychological twists, and a little bit (or a lot!) of romance. Her research has taken her into the minds of serial killers, through murder investigations, and onto the FBI Academy’s shooting range. Her novels have been published in more than a dozen countries and translated into eight languages; they've also been shortlisted for the HOLT Medallion, the Daphne Du Maurier award, the National Readers' Choice award and the Booksellers' Best award and won the RT Reviewers' Choice award.
The heroine of Elizabeth's Profiler novels was called "one of the most amazing characters created in print" by Fresh Fiction. Her novels have received praise from Lee Child, J.T. Ellison, Jeffery Deaver, Tess Gerritsen, R.L. Stine, Allison Brennan, Laura Griffin, Suzanne Brockmann, Hank Phillippi Ryan and Zoë Sharp.
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