An Alaskan cruise or an impromptu vacation in Alaska may not have been the brightest of ideas.
Greg Martin and his wife Elese are honeymooning on an Alaskan cruise. She goes off the ship to get a better look at the northern lights and never returns.
Fast forward about 3 or 4 years. Nina Granville has joined a friend for a spontaneous trip to Alaska to escape NYC and the coming media crush of her future nuptials to Terrance Donnelly, a New York congressman said to be on the fast track for the White House in the not too distant future. At some forgotten hotel in Seward, Nina takes a short walk in the evening to counter her jet lag. What appears to be a homeless person suddenly clamps a chloroform rag over her face and whisks her away leaving not a clue.
The homeless man isn't what he seems. Baer is a trapper/survivalist who lives so far off the grid that the grid hasn't even mapped his home. Via a stolen car, a manipulated bush pilot, and his own skills, Baer takes Nina to his home way, way, way the hell into the interior of Alaska and imprisons her in a large animal kennel. She is to be his third (that we know of) wife.
Baer wants to break her down and make her totally dependent on him. Caged, beaten, raped, abandoned for days at a time while hunting, raped again and again, Baer forces his considerable will on her.
Nina is sure Donnelly has marshalled a massive search, but who will find her this far out in the bush and with the full Alaskan winter fast approaching?
Donnelly has even offered a cool million dollar reward for whomever finds her, but Greg Martin also continues to pester the police about his wife's disappearance, forming an uneasy alliance with Seward Sgt. Evan Hamilton who just happens to think Greg had something to do with his wife's disappearance.
Nina, too, tries to find a way to escape. When digging at the floor planks around her kennel, she pries a floorboard out to find a hidden diary of sorts rolled up in an empty caulk tube.
It's from Elese.
And it's this diary that gives Nina both hope and encouragement for a way out.
For months, Nina studies, learns, and plots her escape. On the outside, Greg and the Sgt. creep ever close to Baer's identity and rough location.
Russell's book is, essentially, a story about the motivations of four people. Baer's desire for a wife and family that would repopulate the wild after the SHTF. Nina's pursuit of survival. Greg's attempt to resolve his guilt for letting Elese out of his sight on their honeymoon. And Hamilton's obsession with finding both Elese and Nina; cases he failed to solve. All played out in the Alaskan wilderness and its inherent dangers. A riveting tale expertly told. Looks like Nina is a continuing character for Russell. Have to check back in with her . . . and soon.
East Coast Don
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