Beth Rivers is in a witness protection of her own devising in Benedict, Alaska, one of the smallest and most remote places anyone could think of as a new home. It’s nearing summer and folks are coming into town, socializing more, and tourists are back. She’s in hiding from the man who kidnapped her. He’s never been found but she knows his mission is to kill her.
Stacie Calder, a tour guide in Alaska, usually shows tourists the highlights of Alaskan scenery from a boat. Once the temperatures drop low enough that ice in the water becomes a problem, she’s at loose ends. As a volunteer at Juneau Wildlife World, she’s familiar with the terrain and the animals who live there. This year, she’s a paid employee. One of the perks is being able to bring her dog with her and to stay on the premises when the roads are too slippery to navigate her way home.
In Benedict, Alaska, cabins are few and far between. Even in town, there’s rarely what could be called a crowd—except on Death Walk Day. Gril, the local law, began pushing the idea a few years ago. Everyone is required to report in come spring, just so he knows they’re still alive. After all, an exceptional snowfall, bitter cold, unexpected encounter with a bear, or a slip and fall, could be fatal. He says, just show up, check your name off the list, and you can go about your business for another year.
Beth Rivers is in hiding. She’s a thriller writer who came close to the same fate as her characters. Kidnapped, held for three days, injured badly, and suffering memory loss, she left the hospital and chose as her hiding place, the most remote area she could find—Benedict, Alaska. So far, it’s worked. Only a handful of people know how to reach her and most of them don’t know her location.
Maeve Malloy is an attorney in Alaska, complete with endless hours, never enough sleep, and, as a defense attorney, some really nasty clients. When she manages to get a not guilty vote for one, based on a witness statement, she’s pleased—until she finds an overlooked note that proves the witness perjured himself. When her former client kills someone, the bar association comes after Maeve.
You probably know that 40 percent of Alaskans call it home, and that it’s about 260 miles southwest of No See Um. We highlighted our 10 favorite things to do in Anchorage with an earlier post, but since then, we’ve been thinking. What you don’t know about Anchor Town is just as interesting as the things that we all love about the place.
Out of all the seasons we chose to go to Alaska it had to be one of the worst winters for snow ever. Here we were in the back of a car after being picked up from the airport in a blinding blizzard. The snow was piled up high at the sides of the road and some cars must have ran into problems and were stuck. We continued on our journey through the dazzling but heavy snow storm to the B&B where we were planning to stay for a while.
