Note: Thank you to NetGalley, Storm Publishing, and author Ellie Alexander for the advanced reader copy of this book. This review will also be posted on NetGalley. What follows is my unbiased review of the book.

I’ve read a few of Ellie Alexander’s books since becoming a reviewer at NetGalley. I like the easy, cozy mysteries she writes as a break from some of the heavier topics I sometimes tackle. They give me a nice break from all the craziness in the world as well. I was happy to give the first book in her newest series a read.

A Murder on the Mountain is the first book in what looks like it will be a new series centered around Meg Reed. She’s a recent graduate from college as a journalism major who’s been unable to land a job. Right now, she lives with her friend Jill, crashing on her couch in Portland, Oregon. Besides Jill, she’s friends with Matt. It’s pretty obvious to everyone except Meg that Matt is in love with her. Meg is somewhat estranged from her mother, and her father passed away fairly recently, too. She’s close to her maternal grandmother. “Gam” is a bit on the eccentric side. She’s into crystals and Reiki and seems to have some clairvoyance.

By a stroke of luck, Meg lands a job with Northwest Extremes, an outdoor-centered magazine published in Portland. She’s the youngest person on the staff and has a boss, Greg, who is in his 30’s and good-looking. Meg is smitten with him the moment she lays eyes on him. The magazine is currently one of the sponsors of Race the States, an Amazing Race-style reality show. With one of the main reporters out sick, Meg is tapped to write up a story for the magazine.

They follow the contestants and staff on a hike to one of the picturesque spots in the area. Meg tries to fake it, but she’s afraid of heights and doesn’t really go hiking. Following the contestants takes a toll on her physically, and she nearly slips off the mountain. As she’s scrambling to stop herself, she witnesses one of the contestants, Lenny, falling from the mountain past her. Was it just a terrible accident? As Meg digs into the backgrounds of the cast and crew, she learns that a number of them have secrets that could be worth killing for.

First of all, I positively loved the author’s descriptions of the scenery in and around Portland. I didn’t really have “Oregon” on my list of places I needed to visit, but after reading this, I think I would like to. She makes the area sound extremely beautiful and interesting in a way I didn’t expect. There’s one highway that Meg travels down that sounds so beautiful. I would have liked to go out and find it right away. The hiking does sound treacherous, but there is enough scenery that is on Meg’s level that I could see myself enjoying the place.

The characters are interesting. I grew to like Meg much more than I did at the beginning. She’s struggling to find direction in her life and is not too sure what he place is going to be. Her father, “Pops,” was a star reporter for the Oregonian, and she thought she would follow in his footsteps. Between his death and the state of the newspaper industry, it’s not panning out for her. At times, she did come across a bit whiny and neurotic, but I felt like that made her all the more human. At times, she makes silly choices, like debating whether or not to call the police when she thinks the murderer is after her. Gam is the most interesting character, of course. She’s quirky, fun, and smart. She loves Meg very much and seems to intuit what she needs to hear at various times in the book.

The contestants aren’t really as fleshed out as they could be. It doesn’t seem like they will be around after this book, so that’s okay, although I felt like they were written to be disposable. Lenny was the misogynistic character who saw himself as a ladies’ man, Leaf was the environmentalist always worrying about being “green,” and then there’s Alicia, who seems to be driven to win at all costs. It felt like they were stereotypical in many ways, and there were not many surprises there.

The mystery itself resolves with a few too many coincidences. Still, I did enjoy reading A Murder on the Mountain. It wasn’t a difficult read and was just the right level to keep me interested while not being too weighty. Meg grew on me from the beginning until the end. I will definitely check out other books in this series.