Quick Review: This book and series is a fun, easy, read, but I'd enjoy it more with a little more time spent on character development and a little less objectification of Hux.

I got this one free from Netgalley. I had not read this author before but I have read a lot of books about crimes in National Parks and I really enjoy this subgenre of books so I had high hopes! Also, before digging in to this one, I went back and read the first two books in the series.

All three have enjoyable and complex crimes/plots and none of the books disappoint in that area. I did guess the bad guy in this one but I still enjoyed the overall story.

I really like the two main characters working as partners to investigate these outdoorsy crimes. What I really don't like is the possible romance angle between these two. There really is no romantic chemistry between them at all. It clear that Harland really, really finds Hux attractive (he's maybe too perfect in her eyes?) but we get absolutely nothing from him to make me think that he is interested in her in that way. No fun banter, no sweet displays of protectiveness, no flirtation. I LOVE a romance but in this case I think we are probably better off without it.

It's funny that in most action stories we have a well rounded main guy character and a one dimensional, hottie, female, sidekick but these books flip that dynamic. Guess what? I still don't like it!

Forgotten Trail ends with two juicy cliffhangers. If I started the series here I'd be excited about both of them but since I read the first two books in the series, I am a little irritated that the backstory of Harland's husband changed quite a lot for Book 3 to set up one of the cliffhangers. (This might be a problem specific to me because I read all the books in quick succession. People who space out their reading might not remember those little details and in the scheme of things.) ( )

ISB Agent Felicity Harland is busy working on cold cases when she is called to the new Pinnacles Grand Hotel recently opened in Pinnacles National Park. A body has been found in one of the guest suites during Grand Opening week.

It is a 4.5-mile hike to the hotel. Harland meets her partner Hux there and the two begin their investigation. The FBI should be involved but a credible terrorist threat at the airport in San Francisco is keeping every agent busy. The case looks open-and-shut. After all, the estranged wife was found standing over the body. However, nothing is as it looks at first glance.

The victim - Chris Denton - checked into the resort with a woman who was not his wife. His wife's private investigator told her about the rendezvous, and she decided to confront him. She claims that she didn't kill him but found him in his hotel room. And the woman he checked in with is missing. Nothing is left of her in the hotel room.

But the murder isn't the only case in the park. A woman's dress shoe has been found on a trail with no sign of the woman. Harland and Hux find a driver's license stuck in a tree outside the suite where the body was found. It says Aria Privar who might be the missing person in the murder and who might also be the owner of the shoe in the park.

As Harland and Hux try to unravel this complicated case, they find hints that it might be related to a suspected murder-suicide that took place in the park back in 1994.

This was an engaging mystery. It is the third in a series. I enjoyed getting to know more about Harland in this episode and am curious to know where her relationship with Hux will go. ( )

This may be the best in this series yet! Felicity and Hux get called to anew hotel in Pinnacles National Park that looks like an open and shut case.--a dead man is found with his estranged wife standing over him. But the missing girlfriend bothers Felicity, and since the FBI is distracted by possible terrorist threats at the airport, Felicity and Hux are given leeway to spend some time investigating. This book went unexpected places as it moved to resolution. There's some foreshadowing that a trip to Australia to look for Felicity"s missing and presumed dead husband maybe in the cards.

Thanks to Crooked Lane Books for access to a digital ARC on Netgalley.com. ( )

crime-thriller, California, survival, suspense, revenge, search-and-rescue, dog, federal-agents, ex-FBI, ex-SEAL, Pinnacles, National Parks, series, friends, friendship, family, park-ranger, action, missing-persons, due-diligence, working-partners, murder, murder-investigation, lies, secrets, hospitality-industry, hotel, unputdownable*****

I absolutely love this series and this one is the most ambitious in terms of depth of characters and their perspectives.
Felicity Harland is former FBI out of Chicago and now with Investigative Services Bureau of the U.S. National Park Service currently in California and sent in a rush to Pinnacles National Park to investigate a purported murder at the very brand new hotel. dog Ollie. Her partner on this assignment is Ferdinand “Hux” Huxley, park ranger, former navy SEAL, expert tracker, trainee into the ISB, and has brought with him Felicity's marvelous dog Ollie who is learning search techniques. This investigation has more complications that could possibly be summarized, plot twists that boggle the mind, and an ending that I never saw coming! Great read!
I read the second courtesy of NetGalley, then bought the first in audio, and hope for the fourth.
I requested and received an EARC from Crooked Lane Books via NetGalley. Thank you! ( )