FORGOTTEN TRAIL (National Parks Mystery, Book3) (audiobook) by Claire Kells







Published by Dreamscape Media in 2023.
Read by Cady Zuckerman.
Duration: 9 hours, 26 minutes.
Unabridged.

Synopsis:

Forgotten Trail is the third book featuring Felicity Harland of the Investigative Services Branch. If you are not familiar with the ISB, join the club - I had no idea that it was the "FBI" of the National Parks Service. If the local park can't deal with it, they call in the ISB. That always include murders.

Harland is partners with a park ranger nicknamed Hux. He is a big, strong guy. Harland is a short (but very tough and determined) lady. There is always of undercurrent of romantic attraction between the two, but there is caution about acting on this attraction for fear of messing up their friendship and very strong working relationship. Her dog rounds out the trio.

In this series, ISB is called out to a different park for each book. It lets the reader get a feel for a new park in every book. In this book, a brutal murder has taken place in a room at a brand new (and fictional) luxury hotel in the midst of its grand opening at Pinnacles National Park. Pinnacles only became a National Park in 2013 and its desert location offers a real change of pace from the previous two books.

My review:

 For me, part of the charm of this book series is its locations in and around the unique National Park environments. The reader gets to learn about what makes them unique and vicariously experience the challenges offered by that park's geography and biosphere.

This book was mostly set in the ultra-modern high tech hotel. There was a lot of talk about security cameras and key cards vs. traditional keys vs. app-based room entry system. It was very pedestrian compared to the other two books.

The resolution of the actual mystery was overly contrived in my mind. 

Bottom line - I like the characters a lot, the mystery was so-so. I hope there are more books in the series. I would love to see get around to lots of different parks all over the country.

I rate this audibook 3 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Forgotten Trails by Claire Kells.

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