"solid Alaska mystery"

Sled dog racer Jessie Arnold feels the world is looking up as she rebounded from knee surgery, recovered from a DEATH TRAP, and is back with her beloved State Trooper Alex Jensen. Jessie accepts an invitation to a paint party thrown by close friends Laurie and Jim Trevino, who are renovating a fixer-upper Five Finger Lighthouse on Alaska's Inner Passage; Alex has a meeting that he must attend so he cannot accompany Jessie, but tells her to have a good time.

However, thinking this will be fun though hard work, Jessie goes leaving Alex behind. However, the idyllic gala of paint and panorama ends when Jessie finds the corpse of another guest. Assuming a tragic accident occurred Jessie changes her mind when she tries to call for help by phone and radio; neither work as a killer has severed the lines with the objective to snuff the life out of the party one death at a time.

The latest Sue Henry Alaska mystery will remind readers of Agatha Christie's classic Ten Little Indians. The story line is action-packed once Jessie stumbles over a dead body and never slows down as the sleuth realizes a murderer is amongst the guests. The scenery as usual is breathtaking, but it is the cat and mouse game between the culprit and the detective that will have the audience spellbound.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted May 1, 2005

Summary

Sled dog racer Jessie Arnold stars in a series that's "suspenseful, intelligent, and filled with the spectacular beauty of the northern wilds" (The Dallas Morning News). Jessie has just gotten back together with her ex-boyfriend and sleuthing partner, Alex Jensen, and she's looking forward to some peace and quiet. But even deep in the wilderness, trouble has a way of finding her.

Jessie's friends Laurie and Jim have acquired their dream—an old lighthouse on the Alaskan Inside Passage—and they've decided to throw a party. Not a party in the typical sense, but one where guests earn their keep by scraping, painting, hammering, and generally restoring Five Finger Light, named after the long, low islands over which the house stands guard. So Jesse decides to leave Alex alone for a few days and help Laurie and Jim.

With the company of old friends, the smell of fresh paint in the air, and a view to die for, Jessie won't soon forget this weekend—especially when she stumbles across a dead body. The death seems like an accident. But even as a frantic Alex learns that someone's cut the phone lines and wrecked the radio, Jessie realizes there's a killer loose on the island. Worse yet, the killing spree might not be over—even though the party certainly is....