Gray After Dark

Gray After Dark ~ Noelle West Ihli

Miley is an Olympic biathlete whose aspirations were crushed by a horrible accident. She dreams of getting back to her sport, and is planning to spend the summer working at a remote mountain resort lodge, where she will use her spare time to recover and train both physically and mentally. Her coworker, Wes, warns her about going off on her own, and encourages her to carry bear spray. A few years prior, another worker went missing, and all that was recovered were her bloody clothes. Miley isn’t worried, she knows that most of the bears in the area are black bears, so though she does carry the bear spray with her, she sticks with her training plan, and goes running into the wilderness alone.

When she doesn’t come back from her run, the resort director calls her emergency contact, Brent, who was also on the Olympic biathlete team, is her best friend, and who is in love with her. Brent rushes to the lodge, where he joins the local authorities in their search. When they find Miley’s bloody clothes near a lake, the search is called off and she is presumed dead. Brent and Wes refuse to accept that she has been killed by a bear, and go searching for her.

Gray After Dark is told mostly from Miley’s point of view, but there are chapters from Brent’s side as well. This was a gripping thriller, I was engrossed and it went pretty quickly. Definitely recommended if you like the thriller genre.

The story is inspired by the story of Olympic biathlete Kari Swenson.