If you enjoy locked room or country house mysteries, here is a new twist. Someone vanishes on a tour boat off the Alaskan coast, meaning that if they didn’t leave the boat voluntarily, one of the passengers or crew must have been responsible. Stacie Calder is the puzzled tour guide, left to BEAR WITNESS to police in Juneau about the day’s events.
Alaska has a stunning amount of wildlife, from seals and seabirds to wolves and bears. Stacie, a former zookeeper, loves her job and normally copes just fine with the tourists. She gets on well with Captain Palmer Clementos and crew in a business run by a family. She joined ClemTours the previous year. We learn lots about the tours. Stacie’s husky, Sasha, is a loyal and friendly dog that’s allowed to accompany her on the boats. Behind the scenes, though, rivalries and antagonisms sour the local atmosphere.
Another character likely to reappear in this new Alaska Untamed cozy mystery series is Liam Amaruq, an Alaska State Trooper. He seems pleasant and competent, surely essential given his job dealing with a wide spread of the population in town and out in the woods and mountains. He’s somewhat of a stock character, because almost every amateur sleuth who lacks a man in her life seems to meet a handsome tall detective who fortunately happens to be unattached and reciprocates her interest. The budding romance is overdone, I thought, given a trooper would be clearly in the wrong to involve himself with a witness. But with a surname like that, Liam must be related to Alaskan Native families, which is a fine indicator of respect for local people.
For me, the most puzzling part is that the tourists are not asked to post their photos and videos on social media like Instagram later and tag the boat cruise firm. Free marketing and something most travelers would consider doing anyway. The business just seems out of touch.
Lark O. Jensen is a pen name for prolific mystery author and former lawyer Linda O. Johnston, so if you have read any of the Pet Rescue series or other stories of sleuthing, you’ll probably be keen to pick up a story set in a scenic location. I’d like to learn more backstory about our new friends in BEAR WITNESS. As for the guided tours of glaciers, inlets, and wildlife, sign me up!
No nine-to-five cubicle career will suit Stacie Calder—the naturalist much prefers working in the great outdoors. Specifically, the spacious and spectacular Alaskan wilderness, whose rugged charms she shares with sightseers on the top deck of the tour boat where she works. But one May afternoon, Stacie’s passengers see more than glittering glaciers, frolicking harbor seals, climbing bears and soaring seabirds…they also witness a man lying dead in the frigid Alaskan waters. And it seems likely that someone gave him a fatal push. Stacie didn’t know the unfortunate victim, but he sure wanted to know a lot about her. He spent most of his final afternoon bombarding her with questions quite awkward to answer. And when he wasn’t in her hair, he was arguing incessantly with the boat’s beleaguered crew. Which makes for a suspect list about as long as the passenger manifest. Furthermore, as police helicopters relentlessly circle her boat in search of any clues, Stacie is shaken to find herself on that suspect list. Before the tour boat reaches shore Stacie—accompanied by her beautiful blue-eyed husky, Sasha—must deduce just who sent the testy tourist tumbling into the turgid waters and have the authorities take custody. Because if she can’t, then the killer might aim a fatal ice-cold stare at Stacie.
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