A Sharp Solitude

Glacier Mystery Series, Book 4

By: Christine Carbo

Narrated by: Johnathan McClain, Therese Plummer

A gripping new mystery from the author of The Wild Inside, set in the magnificent and brutal terrain of Glacier National Park

In the darkening days of autumn, a murdered journalist's body is discovered in a remote region near the Canadian border. Before she was found, Anne Marie Johnson had been writing an article about a canine research program that uses trained dogs to track scientific data. She was last seen with a man named Reeve Landon, whose chocolate Lab was one of the subjects of the piece. Now he's the prime suspect.

Back in the FBI's regional office in Montana, investigator Ali Paige is not officially assigned to the case since the crime was committed outside federal land. But Landon happens to be an ex-boyfriend and the father of her child. He calls Ali for help while he is being questioning, but soon he goads her to find out what really happened to Anne Marie.

Intensely private and paranoid, Landon ventures deep into in the woods to avoid being arrested. But even as he evades the detectives, Landon secretly feels the whole thing is somehow deserved, a karmic punishment for the horrifying crime he committed as a young boy. As for Ali, she has only one objective in mind: to save her daughter from the pain of abandonment she endured as a child.

As the clock ticks and the noose tightens around Landon's neck, Ali isn't sure how far she will go to find out the truth. And what if truth is not something she wants to know?

©2018 Christine Carbo (P)2018 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Best Carbo so far

Best Carbo so far. I will definitely get the next one.
Pros: interesting character development; I liked the alternating chapters ie Ali and Reeve.
Both narrators were pretty good at speaking as the "opposite sex". I think it's harder for a female narrator to "speak like a man" ie assume a lower register, and I appreciated the male narrator not relying on falsettos when portraying the voice of a woman. The relationship between Reeve and the reporter was extraordinarily described and from a man's POV, hard for ME to describe, just that it was so subtle and none of this "me Tarzan you Jane " supposedly intimate baloney some authors come up with. It was exquisite, the whole relationship from woods time to the (yes or no) seduction. (No spoilers).
Carbo inserts a lot of environmental background into her novels, (welcomed!) yet what I call the "wolverine one" was so far overdone with bartenders and drifters sounding like they had inhaled Sierra Club wolverine data. Not so in this novel. She used the persona of a woman reporter regarding environmental topics and a surprisingly well-balanced discussion of gun topics. The author has toned down the comparisons that she used to overdo, the only one that baffled me in this novel was "The lake looked like teflon". Huh? Like a teflon frying pan, which is the only thing I could think of? Comparisons like this cause the reader to blurt out "say what???" Completely breaking the "escape" a remarkable book provides. Some authors like Burke have carried these (similes?) to a ridiculous level....the sun was like....the sunset was like.. Carbo's extensive vocabulary serves that purpose perfectly, there is no need for "the sunset looked like molten lava" ie from the most recent Burke novels.
Cons: I had to roll my eyes at (a little) at the outcome of the long hike. I hate spoilers, so I will just say.......hmmm. Another "con" is that no wildlife biologist I know of would reward play time to their dog in the thick of the woods in a national park, full of alder patches, etc, but throwing a ball far out into the brush for the dog to charge after at full speed. And this, while collecting samples of fresh bear and other mammal scat. Just something I have never run across in years of living in the bush. Dogs shouldn't be trained to run full blast into the wild woods....obvious, I think. In fact, if a park ranger saw a hiker throwing a ball as hard as he could into the alder patches and thick woods in a national park it would probably result in a fine and a ticket. I saw this "boisterous dog in the woods" theme as a means of creating suspense, yes, it worked, but was "not fair".

Anyway! Loved this Carbo and listened non-stop. Good job!!

suspenseful story!

This was a really great book! I have some hearing loss and did struggle a little to hear when the male voice spoke softly, but other than than I give it 5 stars.

Entertaining!

Both narrators did a good job and I appreciate that there are two. Enjoyable listen! I finished it in two days.

Best of the series

Of the first 4 books of the Glacier Mystery Series, I like this one the best.

Didn't See That One Coming

This was another good, solid read in this continuously entertaining series. The author tends to feature different agents from various agencies (Park Police, FBI, Sheriff's Office, etc.) in each story, giving every book its own unique feel. This makes it possible to enjoy these books out of sequence or as stand-alones as well.

This tale featured Ali, an FBI agent who keeps her family life completely separated (and largely hidden) from her work world. No small feat, considering who her ex is. While the story itself was good, it was the intricacy of the character's personalities that really made this novel such a treat. Ali and Reeve are nicely fleshed out characters with a cemetery full of skeletons in their proverbial closets. But they're both interesting and enjoyable personalities caught up in an intense storyline with one twist after another.

Sensitive readers won't have to worry about steamy sex scenes or gratuitous adult language in this story: the author demonstrates her top notch skills and imagination without having to fall back on such things. The audio narration is also superb.