UNDER THE ALASKAN ICE is the second book in Karen Harper’s Alaska Wild series. Anyone who has ever visited this amazing state recognizes the sights and sounds that provide the settings for this story. Like the first book in the series, UNDER THE ALASKAN ICE starts out slow and quickly escalates into a gripping crime novel. Even in the remote areas of Alaska, there are elements of danger outside of the climate, weather, and wildlife. In UNDER THE ALASKAN ICE, the biggest threat once again comes from human beings and their greed. It seems no place is too frosty to host a hot crime scene.
We again meet up with Meg, her young son Chip, and her twin sister Suze. They work as a team to run their Alaskan bed and breakfast lodge for skiers and other sightseers. Lots to see and do in this terrain even when conditions seem so extreme. You must be tough to live in Alaska, but those that do absolutely love it.
Meg and Chip witness a small craft crashing into the lake. Nothing they can do to save any of the people on board, in fact the plane is quickly sinking. The NTSB – National Transportation Safety Board sends Bryce to oversee excavating the pilot and inspect the plane to find the cause of the crash. Bryce is there to determine whether it was pilot error, or malfunction of the actual plane.
But this plane crash exposes a slew of secrets, and its destination is also unknown. Even its cargo is questionable. During one of his initial dives into the lake Bryce retrieves items that seem incongruous to the crash. This is going to be one heck of a challenging case for the inspector Bryce sent by NTSB.
So here is where it gets dicey. The more I say, the more I expose the plot. The list of suspects grows exponentially. No one is off the possible list of folks that had a hand in the events following the crash of this plane. And at a certain point you begin to wonder if the crash was indeed accidental.
As Bryce and his organization import more manpower the dangers increase. Alaska is the land of wide-open spaces, lots of places for people to hide – disappear. In the case of UNDER THE ALASKAN ICE it appears that more than just people have been in hiding in this vast snowy, icy, seemingly wasteland and perhaps someone is coming back to retrieve their lost items. Folks here are friendly if even a little eccentric. The problem is - where does eccentric end and evil begin?
UNDER THE ALASKAN ICE has some interesting intersecting storylines. Through Karen Harper and her creative mind, we get to meet some intriguing folk. Some we like, others not so much. Meg winds up being an unexpected hero in this story. As a recently widowed single mom Meg was still in recovery mode. But with the arrival of Bryce and his can-do attitude Meg seems to rise to the challenge of keeping up with this dynamic man. Karen Harper once again rewards us with the inclusion of historical references that fit her ingenious storyline taking literary liberties which make you wonder where fact veers off from fiction.
When a small bush plane smashes through the ice at Falls Lake Lodge, it’s a chilling reminder of everything Megan Metzler has lost. Three years ago, Meg’s pilot husband died in a similar crash, a tragedy Meg and her young son, Chip, have struggled to move on from. Still, Meg does everything she can to assist when Commander Bryce Saylor arrives to investigate, even as working alongside the handsome pilot stirs up painful memories—and an attraction that catches them both off guard.
Bryce knows time is of the essence as he plunges into the frigid water in search of clues. But when vital evidence is destroyed, it soon becomes clear this downed plane was no accident. With someone tracking them from the woods, Meg and Bryce must race to unravel a mystery as indomitable as the Alaskan wilderness, or they might be the next victims to crash and burn…
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