Young Sam Lujan was living a life of quiet desperation being a valet parking attendant when he is swept up into the world of the underground mobster life. Sleeping with the mob boss’s daughter and then testifying against the boss he is placed in witness protection and sent to live in Alaska. His whereabouts are supposed to be secret. Secret until he tells his mother where he is living and makes arrangements to have her sit him. The late mob boss has been replaced by his daughter and she is hell bent on tracking Sam down and killing him slowly.
The mob sends a squad of deranged killers into the wilds of Alaska to hunt down Sam while Arliss and Lola are dispatched to find out where their witness wandered off to.
Before you know it all of the parties are out in the minus 50 degree weather and the intentions are all bad. Things are deadly cold and deadly hot at the same time for Arliss, Lola, and young Sam Lujan.

This book definitely makes me appreciate those that live in Alaska and glad I don't. Great action book! Arliss and Lola are tracking down a former cop from St Louis that had his wife killed. Every person they connect with they learn more of the story and the fact that everyone is terrified of someone else but no one will say who. In the mean time there is a parallel story of a guy in witness protection and his Mom and the bad guys that want to find him. In the meantime Mim is holding down the fort with a surprise visit from Arliss Mom whose visit is complicated because everything with her is. Love hanging out with Arliss and Lola for a bit. This book is part of a series but can stand for the most part on it's own.

This 7th novel in the Arliss Cutter series is great. Story begins with two young boys being raised by a grandfather in the Florida swamps. Their mother had abandoned them but grandpas Grumpy had provided a strong male role model.

They had an overall good childhood but the boys when grown went in different directions. One became a petroleum engineer, got married and had three kids. He was later murdered. The younger brother joined the Army, became a Ranger and served in several war zones. He mustered out and eventually became a US Marshal.

Fast forward a few years and Arliss is assigned to Alaska where his brother and sister-in-law live. After his older brother is murdered he becomes a surrogate father to his niece and nephews and rekindles a puppy love with his sister-in-law.

This adventure focuses on a witness protection client being pursued by some extremely vicious people. Murder for hire goes after the WitSec person. It is up to Arliss and his partner Lola to prevent a murder. There is a lot of killing due to some pretty vicious Polish mobsters. And the hired killers.

Alaska is also featured in the story and has a big role to play. This includes windchill chases of -139° F.

Definitely recommend a read of this novel. I’ve found myself looking for other books focusing on Arliss Cutter.

Book #7 in one of my favorite series. Each book will provide readers an awesome thriller as a stand alone, but the series as a whole stands along the Joe Pickett or Longmire series. If you've ever wondered what real life in Alaska is like, Marc Cameron's descriptions are as true as it gets. Every day life is 100% different once the temperatures hit -40.
US Deputy Marshal Arliss Cutter is a dangerous man. He will protect his family, friends, and coworkers with his life. He can be counted on to do his duty to the best of his abilities, and his abilities are unlimited. His sworn duty is to track and return criminals to justice. Arliss is the supervisory marshal for the Alaska district, where his team faces the worst man and nature can throw at them. DEAD LINE finds them chasing several warrants while the temperatures move lower with brutal winds and darkness, adding extreme risks to their already deadly assignments. Several story lines weave through this book, all coming to a head when the weather is at its worst. When Cameron describes conditions at -70 degrees, it's tough to paint an accurate picture, but his is as close as I've seen to the real thing. I've been in -70 and it's something to be avoided at all costs.
Several new characters have been added to the last few books, which I see as storylines for the next book. 5 easy stars and a recommendation to read all 7 books.

This book had me holding my breath and rooting for the good guys. The crew in Alaska keeps me on my toes and shocked at times. This book was just as good as I expected.

I received this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Intense action and extreme weather fill the pages of Dead Line, a thriller you feel as much as you read. Marc Cameron has crafted a high-stakes novel that’s chilling in more ways than one.

Deputy US Marshals Arliss Cutter and Lola Teariki are pursuing a dangerous fugitive and his associates across Alaska, with the goal of arresting him and sending him back to Missouri to stand trial for the capital murder of his pregnant wife. Simultaneously, a vicious mob boss hellbent on revenge has sent a team of killers into the frigid Alaskan wilderness to track down and kill the witness – and her former lover – who put her father in prison. Cutter and Teariki are tasked with checking in on the witness, who hasn’t reported in as scheduled. Which they quickly discover is not a breach in protocol, but a deadly serious situation with the man in witness protection at risk of being found and killed. Leading to a race against the clock through ungodly freezing temperatures to stop the hit squad, resulting in an explosion of lethal violence. And if the bullets don’t kill you, exposure to the elements surely will.

Cutter’s manhunting and tactical brilliance are again on display as he thrusts himself and his law enforcement partners into the middle of treacherous operations with the single objective of bringing criminals to justice. But his emotional side is explored more in Dead Line than perhaps any other book in the series due to his emerging romantic relationship with his brother’s widow Mim, as well as having to reconcile his feelings about his long-lost mother who finally returns to his life. It’s this exploration of his emotions and psyche that takes this superhuman hero and gives him a soft, relatable side that connects with the reader.

But make no mistake, the star of this show is the Alaskan weather. Tracking down killers in the middle of the wilderness during winter is hard enough. Try doing it when it’s possibly too cold for an airplane to transport you without the fuel freezing solid midair. Or while riding a snowmobile when the temperature is -72 degrees Fahrenheit. And that’s before the wind chill puts the real feel closer to -130 degrees. Yes, the Alaskan landscape and unimaginably flesh-freezing elements take center stage and impact every action taken by every character.

It's another exciting and bone-chilling adventure in the great Arliss Cutter Series. But maybe read it on a warm, sunny day to take the edge off. Because you will definitely feel the cold in your bones as you immerse yourself in this frosty story.

I was biting my nails when I got close to the end of Dead Line, the latest chilling adventure with Arliss Cutter from master storyteller Marc Cameron. So many things going on at once that my mind had to really work, but told in a way that it was really hard to put down. I stayed up way past my bedtime to finish it. Cameron told stuff about cold that I haven't come across before and that's saying alot since I have read many books set both in Canada and Alaska. I would say that the author has made it hard for himself when it comes to writing the next adventure, this book will be hard to beat. I will send a big thanks to Netgalley and Kensington Books for letting me read this advance copy.

Book #7 in the series can easily be read as a standalone, but why miss out on all the other great adventures. Hero U.S. Marshal Arliss Cutter stays busy chasing bad guys, protecting witnesses, and supporting his mom and his girlfriend/sister-in-law. In unbelievably cold, dark, winter Alaska, Cutter and his team chase some some really bad guys.

“Alaska is … well, it’s just magical, ya know.”

If you haven’t heard of Marc Cameron or his series featuring Deputy U.S. Marshals Arliss Cutter and you love well-written Alaskan-set mysteries, you’ll want to do some investigating!

I love Cameron's work because he’s actually lived elements of his stories. He’s an Alaskan writing about a setting he knows well; he’s lived and worked there as a U.S. Marshal for most of his career.

Cameron is a master at showing, not telling. For those of us who cringe at over-explained scenarios and dislike being spoon-fed facts, Cameron offers us something exciting. For example, rather than telling us that Cutter’s partner tossed and turned at night, he writes “Lola Teariki must have slept like a crocodile doing death rolls.” I love the invitation to create Cameron’s narrative in my mind!

Cameron is a master at subtle humor. In this case, the names he gives his characters and inanimate objects made me smile. I smirked at a pot-bellied woodstove being named Nebuchadnezzar and about a bad guy on the run being named Pewee Halverson (sounds like Herman, right?).

Cameron is a master at recurring themes. Dead Line spotlights motherhood and how different woman approach their role. Mim, Ursula and Josie are so different in their outlook and in the value they place in caring for the young. Despite not liking the choices Ursula made, She was my favourite female character in this book and I was glad Cameron gave us more insight into her family.

Cameron is a master at making criminal justice and the extreme weather the focus of his narrative. Cameron knows how weather drives action because he lives it each day in Alaska. He knows about scheduling flights, checking out wind chill calculators, and why he would need to take the batteries from his electronic devices and place them next to his skin. He’ll tell you about how the freezing weather affects aviation, skiing, clothing choices/layering (and what FSO means), vehicle rubber tires, and our skin. He continually reminds readers that they are in ‘the Bush’ in Alaska. Setting is important to his stories and he makes sure you remember that fact.

Cameron always leaves readers with sound advice. This time it isn’t from Gumpy, but it’s worthy of copying into my journal.

“When we take a test and fail, the thing we think is the test isn’t the real test. The actual test is the way we handle the failure.”

I ALWAYS eagerly anticipate a Marc Cameron book. I hope you get to experience the same feeling one day soon.

I was gifted this copy by Kensington Publishing and NetGalley and was under no obligation to provide a review.