Wednesday, June 07, 2023

A Ghost of Caribou by Alice Henderson

 
First Line: Fourteen months ago Amelia Fairweather had just entered her tent to sleep when a strange hum sounded from outside.
 
Alex Carter is brought in to investigate the possible sighting of a mountain caribou on a remote tract of land owned by the Land Trust for Wildlife Conservation. If the blurry image caught on a remote camera is indeed of the caribou-- thought to be extinct in the contiguous U.S. years ago-- Alex hopes to track the animal and put a collar on it.
 
When she arrives on scene in the Selkirk Mountains of northeastern Washington, that mountain caribou is only one of her concerns. The nearby townspeople are upset over the body of a  murdered forest ranger found strung up in the town park, loggers and activists are up in arms over a swath of old-growth forest marked for clearcutting, and a backcountry hiker has also gone missing in the same area within the past year.
 
As Alex hikes into the forest to maintain the cameras and look for the caribou, she finds herself fighting for her life. She's caught between the factions warring over the future of the forest... and a killer stalking the dense groves of ancient trees.
 
~
 
Alice Henderson's Alex Carter novels have become my Go-To Reads whenever I need a vicarious adrenaline rush with a one-two punch of wildlife and the great outdoors. A Ghost of Caribou is no exception. 

There's always the opportunity to learn with Alex Carter. In this book, it's remote locations, camping, caring for remote cameras, how to collar an animal... and how to avoid getting killed. I enjoyed learning about mountain caribou as well as the Selkirk Mountains and setting up remote cameras, and my craving for an adrenaline rush was certainly fulfilled.

Alex Carter is one of the best female characters in the thriller business. Her father may be a guest artist at a different national park each year (in A Ghost of Caribou, he's at the Grand Canyon), but her mother was a fighter pilot who played survival games with the growing Alex, and-- boy howdy-- does she ever use everything she learned at her mother's knee! (It's also nice to have a main character with two loving and supporting parents.) Alex is well able to take care of herself, and readers won't catch her doing anything stupid.

But there's more to this series than a kick-ass main character, thrilling action scenes (how about that ultra-scary "UFO"!), and wildlife. There's Sheriff Maggie Taggert, a capable, take-charge woman who works well with Alex. There are the unexpected laughs amid all that tension ("If she kept taking these gigs, she'd have to invest in a satellite phone"-- something that I'd been thinking), and the chilling hunt for a killer targeting older women. There's also the fact that Alex learns more about herself each time she takes one of these assignments, so she's not the typical "action figure" who never changes. 

If you're in the mood for fast-paced excitement in the great outdoors with a strong, capable female lead character, head straight for Alice Henderson's Alex Carter books. They're fantastic.

A Ghost of Caribou by Alice Henderson
eISBN: 9780063223028
William Morrow © 2022
eBook, 317 pages
 
Thriller, #3 Alex Carter mystery
Rating: A
Source: Purchased from Amazon.

18 comments:

  1. This sounds really exciting and the main characters excellent women to read about. If I ever come up for air, I'll look for Alice Henderson's Alex Carter's novels. I'm going to check now at your reviews. What a change of pace and environment, which is worth checking out.

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    1. I think you would probably enjoy them, Kathy.

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  2. I do like a strong female protagonist, Cathy. And what a great setting - not something I read about a lot. I like it when the author can pump the adrenaline without resorting to 'scare tactics' and gratuitousness.

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    1. Henderson lives part of what she writes about. She's a wildlife biologist, and I enjoy the photos she shares on Twitter.

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  3. I'm not familiar with this series but I think I would like to make Alex's acquaintance.

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  4. I always like those remote wilderness settings in a book. This sounds like a great thriller!

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  5. Off to look this series up as it sounds perfect for me!

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    1. And when I checked I saw the first book is the wolverine one and I already have it on my Kindle. Lucky I don't have a brain cell or I might be a danger to life and limb...

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    2. I've been there more than a few times myself, Cath!

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  6. I'm enjoying this series as well, for much the same reasons.

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    1. Yay! But then, I knew we shared some reading DNA, FR.

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  7. I told a friend about this book and A Blizzard of Polar Bears and she just read both and liked them. Now I must try one of them.

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    1. I really like this series, Kathy. I think A Solitude of Wolverines is the first one.

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