Alone in the Wild is the thrilling fifth installment of Kelley Armstrong's Rockton series (This Fallen Prey). Detective Casey Duncan is enjoying a rare camping vacation with her lover, Sheriff Eric Dalton, when she finds a body in the forest, buried in the snow. Casey uncovers the dead woman and makes an even more startling discovery: a newborn baby is tucked inside the woman's coat--still alive.
Besides finding the woman's killer, Casey and Dalton must track down the baby girl's family in order to return the infant. But what if her relatives wanted her dead? What starts out as a straightforward case turns into a dangerous game in the wilds of the Yukon winter, with Casey and Dalton as both hunters and prey.
Rockton is an off-the-grid town for people, innocent and criminal, who are hiding from the world, and it prohibits children. The baby, temporarily named Abby to honor a former resident, throws a monkey wrench into Rockton's daily routines. The town has no baby supplies, but Armstrong comes up with clever workarounds, and it's amusing to see the cranky, sketchy, murderous characters come together to care for and protect the infant. Abby also brings up feelings Casey and Dalton would rather avoid--Casey can't have children and Dalton had a complicated childhood. Five books in, the two are still an engaging couple, if a bit too conflict-free (they agree on almost everything). And despite the exceptional setting, Armstrong tackles real-world issues, reminding readers that no matter the environment, human nature--including savage, basic instincts--often remains the same. --Elyse Dinh-McCrillis, blogger at Pop Culture Nerd