Hidden In the Night
Missing In Alaska Book 3
Elizabeth Goddard
Revell Pub
June 4th, 2024
Hidden In the Night by Elizabeth Goddard is the last installment of the “Missing in Alaska” series. The characters must battle a blizzard and sabotage as they search for a missing person who has a lost manuscript of the famous author Jack London. There is also murder, human trafficking, romance, and humor.
“Because the first two books in the series was about a missing person, I wanted to still have the missing part but have it as a missing theme. Ideas were tossed out and I jumped on having a missing Jack London manuscript. I loved his famous book, A Call of the Wild. My book is totally fictional. I enjoyed researching his background. I kept asking ‘what if.’”
Former FBI Agent Ivy Elliott, also known as the Sunshine Girl, decides to honor her mother’s request to find the missing manuscript of Jack London. The mom is dying of cancer and wants to make sure that her late daughter, Grace, and her late husband are honored since they wanted to open a museum with it.
Unfortunately, after arriving in Alaska, Ivy finds that the manuscript has been taken by Danna Arina and is not anywhere to be seen. She reconnects with Alaska State Trooper Nolan Long to find the girl and the manuscript. It seems both Nolan and Ivy were deeply attracted the first time they met. Readers have never witnessed their first meeting and what transpired between them, and only get their previous interaction in this book.
Ivy is a tough woman with a difficult past, since she is still trying to deal with the pain and losses she’s suffered. “She is determined, calm, and has guilt feelings over losing her sister, Grace. She is trying to work her way through the guilt and to let go.”
Nolan wants to protect her from physical and emotional harm. The Alaska State Troopers Creed is put in the beginning of the book because Nolan’s personality is incorporated in it. “It is all about standing up for what is right no matter what, and that is the kind of person Nolan is. The Creed talks about needing integrity, loyal, courage, being tenacious, a quiet professional, and is a man of action, all qualities of Nolan. He never considers himself a hero.”
As the case becomes more complicated, and they are literally fighting for their lives, Nolan and Ivy also battle the darkness of their past failures. This commonality between them helps draw them together as a unit; to become a team in the present fight. Regarding Ivy he is tender, caring, protective, and compassionate.
Per usual, Goddard has breathtaking descriptions of the setting, this one in Glacier Bay National Park. She writes a vivid picture that makes it easy to imagine the setting and readers can place themselves into the story. They can freeze when the blizzard starts, have trouble walking in the knee-deep snow, and battle the elements along with the characters. “I also put in the Alaskan State Trooper Creed because it explains how the environment is harsh and unforgiving. My next new series, ‘Hidden Bay,’ moves from this setting of Southeast Alaska to the Washington-Olympic Peninsula. I enjoy writing great environments and the new one will also have rocky coasts plus a rain forest. The first book in the series is titled, Storm Warning, and has a woman hiding from someone who is trying to kill her. The hero is a helicopter pilot who tries to help her. There will be a lot of adventure.”
The plot has many twists and turns with just the right mix of romance.
