A Ghost of Caribou audiobook

Plot wise this was my least favorite of the series but I still really enjoyed learning about a rare species of Caribou scientists thought were extinct. Great on audio with all the trademark wildlife biology info and edge of your seat suspense and another really informative author's note included at the end. I highly recommend these books! I had them on my shelf to read for ages and I'm so glad I finally picked them up. I read all three in a matter of days.

I can’t decide what I love more about this book—the beautiful descriptions of nature and wildlife, the terrifying action sequences that kept me turning pages too late into the night, or our heroine herself— Alex Carter—a super bad-ass with a heart. I love reading about all the different animals and the ways that biologists are saving these incredible species. And on top of all that, you get an amazingly creepy and tense action plot. It's so clear Alice Henderson is on top of her game. This series keeps getting better and better.

Overall this book was a page-Turner just like A Solitude of Wolverines and A Blizzard of Polar Bears. As someone who is passionate about wildlife management, I relate a lot to Alex Carter. This book starts off heavy in wildlife management and her project while the latter half is action packed. I really enjoyed this book, although I do wish Casey had been more involved in this story like he was in A Blizzard of Polar Bears. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this ebook in exchange for an honest review.

I wasn't sure whether I would enjoy this book but I am glad I gave it a chance. It was very well done and kept me engrossed throughout the whole story. Alex Carter is sent to Washington state for proof of the elusive mountain caribou. That might be the easiest part of her quest. There is a lot more to this area than meets the eyes but persistence is the key. I don't want to ruin any of the plot but there are plenty of twists and turns to keep the story rolling. After reading this, I plan to pick up the author's other entries in this series.

This book is the third installment following wildlife biologist Alex Carter. Alex comes across an unsolved murder in a town in turmoil over logging and with saving the old growth trees. She is in search of caribou, to be studied and collared.Alex finds one caribou in the Selkirk Mountains, near the Canadian border.As Alex ventures into the forest to collect camera forage of animal movements, she finds herself in the fight for her life.

This is the 3rd Alex Carter mystery and they just keep getting better and better. Alex is on the trail of the mountain caribou and if anyone can find it, she can. But there is more out in the forest than just elusive caribou. Something or someone doesn't want Alex to live through her latest adventure. And there are other women that have gone missing. Will she be able to solve this mystery and perhaps find the missing women before it's too late? In this third book, Alice Henderson highlights another endangered animal, the mountain caribou. In an instance of synchronicity, we are reminded that the author is a bioacoustician, among other things, and one of the other books that I am currently reading is all about bioacoustics and using it as a means of preserving all number of endangered species. I love it when the books I'm reading have a connection.

Best of the Alex Carter series so far.

One of the joys of reading Alice Henderson is that I always learn something new about vanishing animals and habitats while being scared out of my seat with a dangerous cat and mouse style thriller.This time we join our favorite wildlife biologist in the wilds of Washington state tracking down what may be an illusive mountain caribou. It wouldn't be an interesting adventure if she wasn't plagued by angry loggers, protestors living in the tall trees as well as strange alien lights and missing hikers.A beautiful mix of peaceful nature and majestic scenery with dangerous people screwing it up and not taking kindly to Alex being in the middle of it. Another solid addition to this growing series and a good pick for those armchair explorer/detectives who like the Joe Pickett books by C.J. Box or those by Paul Doiron. My thanks to the publisher for the advance copy.

One of my new favorite series! The action is non-stop, the wilderness setting is dangerous and unknown, and the interesting facts we learn about caribou top it all off!

What do you get when you combine a wildlife researcher's knowledge with a gripping plot and an admirable and likable protagonist? You get the books in Alice Henderson’s highly acclaimed series, the third installment of which is A GHOST OF CARIBOU.In each title, Henderson cleverly uses the group noun for the animal that Alex Carter is researching. She wrote about “a solitude of wolverines” and “a blizzard of polar bears” in the first two entries, and now the focus shifts to caribou. In addition to the fine writing and the characters I have come to care about, I love learning about the wildlife. Caribou? I had no idea that we had them in the US until I read this thrilling novel.As a wildlife researcher for the Land Trust for Wildlife Conservation, Alex is responsible for investigating different species. This time, she is studying whether or not there is a caribou in Washington State; one might have been spotted on a remote camera. We are given a lot of info about caribou and how they differ from similar species like deer and elk.Henderson never lectures, and the lessons, so to speak, are delivered naturally as part of the process of Alex’s work. But we come to care about the animals, and it's extremely frustrating to see the futility of our Federal Endangered Species Act and its decades-long inability to protect species that are endangered but have not been formally listed. The bureaucratic process works so slowly and inefficiently that there is a real possibility that species will go extinct before anything significant is done.Henderson writes, "The Endangered Species Act was a valuable piece of legislation, but Alex had come to believe that its approach might be outdated. It dealt with species as if they were isolated problems to solve. In reality, things needed to be addressed in a more holistic way. What we need is an Endangered Ecosystem Act, she thought. Protection that addressed an entire ecosystem would benefit so many species at once: wolverines, mountain caribou, the American pika, and, of course, even human." This especially resonates with people like me who have been watching the indiscriminate slaughter of wolves in Montana this hunting season.Henderson is passionate about our environment, and she emphasizes the damage that climate change is causing not just in terms of more destructive and uncontainable wildfires, hurricanes and warmer temperatures, but to the wildlife itself. She points out that we are "currently experiencing an insect apocalypse that was going largely unreported. Insects had declined by 75 percent in the last fifty years, due to loss of habitat, pesticide use, and climate change." Then she explains why this devastation is so frightening.The mystery is well done. When Alex arrives at the land that the Trust has purchased, a dead body is found in town. She is asked to keep an eye out for a hiker who went missing the previous year as mysterious lights fly through the forest at night. One local is convinced that aliens are responsible, but knowing that Henderson is a scientist, we don’t think that's where the story is headed. But there are times when we want to scream at Alex for taking unnecessary chances. She knows there is danger in the area yet stays out overnight. She also doesn't tell the local sheriff about the lights at first, and we're not sure why.The writing is engaging as Henderson describes the sights and aromas in the wild: "Here, towering western red cedar and western hemlock trees grew to immense proportions, lichen hanging off their branches. The soil smelled damp and earthy, and she lingered, reveling in being out here in the mountains, the crisp air on her face."Have I enjoyed this series? Absolutely. Do I relish the action and the mystery, and learning about the environment with details I wouldn't otherwise encounter? Indubitably. Do I think that newcomers should read each book chronologically? Yes. That way, they truly will get to know Alex Carter's background and what she does, which will only add to their appreciation of the series.Reviewed by Pamela Kramer

The third installment in the wildlife biologist Alex Carter series has been built on the foundation of its predecessors - A Solitude of Wolverines and A Blizzard of Polar Bears, in which the author has woven a mystery thriller set in the backdrop of near-extinct wildlife in the mountains of US, Canada, and the Arctic regions. The first two books elucidated in depth these almost extinct wildlife species, their habitats, and the effects of climate change and industrialization that affected their existence. I was expecting a similar machination in this book, during her search for Caribou, however, it was slightly disappointing as the plot was more focussed on two warring factions for the preservation of forests and a killer roaming the dense forests.The Land Trust for Wildlife Conservation (LTWC) headed by Ben Hathaway has an assignment for Dr. Alex Carter - To investigate the return of Caribou in the Selkirk mountains of northeastern Washington state. Excited as always, Dr. Alex packs up to leave on her new adventure, but when she reaches her destination, she is aghast at the wilderness in front of her, and finding a caribou there seemed like finding a needle in a haystack. Needless to say, she is energetic, and being a wildlife conversationist, she is thrilled to being her hunt for this rare species of deer. While roaming in the nearby town, she realizes that the people are agitated over loggers who want to clear old forests in preparation for commercial development and a murdered forest ranger whose body was found hanging in the town park.As she commences her routine tracking of the caribou’s through remote cameras wedged at various places in the forests, she crosses paths with a forest conversation activist who has been living on a tree for many days to protest against bringing down the forests. As she continues on her journey into the deep woodlands, she begins to sense uneasiness, as if someone is watching her movements. She finds some images from the remote camera deleted and begins to wonder if her mission is being compromised. However, with luck on her side, she finally spots a caribou, tranquilizes the animal, tags it, and takes body samples for records and predicting its habitat. While returning home, she hears human voices and is sure that someone is following her. Shortly thereafter, she finds a hidden undercover, where the alleged forest ranger seemed to have stayed while on her trail. As she begins to uncover more details about the missing woman, she finds herself being followed and chased by a drone with bright lights, a tranquilizer, and a deafening sound that shakes her to the core. As she begins to delve deep and investigate, if these incidents are linked to her caribou tracking assignment, she begins to unfold a nefarious plot taking place within the deep forest and unbeknownst to the town population. From here on, the plot intensifies as she begins her fight for survival against people whose mission and objectives are not known. Her martial arts and survival skills learned during childhood and previous expeditions come in handy as she slowly begins to unfold the mystery behind the missing woman and finds one still alive. Will Dr. Alex succeed in her primary mission of caribou sightings? To know more about the people behind the gruesome murders, it is strongly recommended to pick up this book. While the crime mystery was intriguing, what disappointed me was the lack of educational information on the caribou habitats, the effect on the ecosystems, and what made them disappear into Canada. The author’s previous books were more detailed on the wildlife while the crime mystery was a secondary theme, however, this book had its roles reversed. Hope future books will have more focus on wildlife education as well and I am certainly betting on the next one in the series.