Mountain Mystery

Set in Alaska, this is the fourth story in the Alaskan Courage Series about the McKenna family.  This book opens with the death of a climber that turns out to be murder.  Kayden McKenna and Jake Westin team together to solve it.  As the mystery concludes, another story-line comes into focus that includes a dangerous stalker.  Discovering the identity of the stalker is before someone is killed and time runs out, is the subject of the rest of the book.

A lot of characters from past books appear so that readers of the series can catch up, and get some clues about future books.  This story can stand on its own, but I think it would be more enjoyable for the reader if other books in the series were read first.

I have read every volume in this series, and have liked most of them.  The excellent first book is a tough act to follow.  In this one, I really didn’t like the two story-lines.  The first part of the volume, which focuses on the murder investigation, seemed to go over the same ground repeatedly.  Then when the murderer is discovered, it seemed so out of left-field that I thought something else would come along that would uncover the “real murderer”–but that didn’t happen.  The murder story-line was not wrapped up well, but just chopped off.

Next, a side story moved in to center stage.  I didn’t think the tale transitioned well, and the story really fell apart for me there.  I did not like the stalker part of the story, it was really dark, evil and uncomfortable to read.

I really appreciate that this is a clean story, and written from a Christian point of view.  I also liked getting “inside” the head of Reef, the youngest male in the  McKenna Family.  It is pretty obvious, though, that his story will be the next book in the series.  I would really like to see a return of the surprise twists and turns to the McKenna stories contained in the first book.  I wish I could rate this book higher than four stars.

The publisher has provided me with a complimentary copy of this book through Bethany House Publishing for the purpose of review. All opinions expressed are my own, and I have not been compensated in any other manner. Despite my receiving the book free, it has not influenced my judgment, and I have given an honest opinion.

The author’s website:  http://www.danipettrey.com/

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