Untamed Coast

• Author: Kevin C. Morris
• Genre: Mystery
• Publication Date: September 1, 2026
• Publisher: Ballantine Books

Thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for providing me with an ARC of this ebook in exchange for an honest review.

A late-night mayday call drives a grieving man to embark on an unexpected journey along the wild Alaskan coast, unraveling a decades-old mystery of stolen gold, missing women, and murder in this atmospheric and propulsive debut novel.

After the loss of his wife, Marconi Franco is content drifting alone on his boat through the isolated waters of Southeast Alaska with no real destination in mind. But when a mysterious distress signal cuts through the static on his radio one sleepless night, Marco feels an overwhelming pull to help the woman whose plea he heard—a pull he can’t explain or ignore.

His search for the missing woman draws him to Radioville, an abandoned 1930s communication outpost now decaying on an uninhabited island off the coast of Alaska. There, Marco begins uncovering fragments of a story long a Depression-era theft, a shattered marriage, and a disturbing pattern of disappearances. As he sifts through the past, his own grief starts to mirror the tragedies that echo across decades, and his search draws the attention of someone determined to keep the truth buried.

Told across three evocative timelines—a radio operator in 1938 collecting more than just telegrams, a young woman in the 1980s fighting to survive her abusive husband, and Marco in the present day searching for a voice in the static—Untamed Coast is a story of fierce determination, missed signals, loneliness and connection, and the unseen ripples that reverberate across generations, standing the test of time and the tides.

I’m new to Morris’s writing but I am fascinated by books set in rugged landscapes, so this mystery was calling my name. I like a good mystery, especially when it is combined with a historical aspect like in this book. All that matters now is how did the read go?

First of all, the setting is depicted so clearly that it felt like I was sailing through those dangerous waters and seeing the majestic sights right alongside the characters. After reading about some of them, I couldn’t resist looking up a few of these locations, and WHOA! I’ve never been to Alaska, but Morris did an outstanding job of describing the setting. The photos that Google showed me are simply breathtaking—I had no idea that a glacier could be so beautiful. Atmospheric writing seems to be second nature for Morris, and I can only guess that he is thoroughly familiar with Southeastern Alaska. 

This book incorporates three different timelines with one POV for each of the main characters (Joe, Anya, and Marco), but as the story goes on, there are some additional POV chapters that clarify a lot of the situation. Typically when I read a multi-POV and timeline book, I tend to become more engrossed in one of the timelines and characters, but in this one, I found all three timelines and main characters to be equally intriguing. Each of the main characters operates on a continuum of moral grayness, as do the majority of the side characters, but I liked the main character in each timeline even as I despised some of the side characters.

In 1938, the timeline focuses on Joe Baxter, a man who lives in Radioville, a desolate island near a gold mine, and he handles all the telegrams from the miners to their families back home. However, he isn’t exactly squeaky clean—he’s a very heavy drinker who is separated from his pregnant wife and trying to earn enough money to get her back. This leads him down a path that is potentially dangerous on top of the regular dangers of living in this part of Alaska—killer whales, bears, rocks, and being in an isolated and rugged landscape are daily threats for Joe and the other characters.

In 1983, the timeline is set around Anya, a woman who drives (not sure if that is the correct term) a fishing boat while her husband hauls in fish. Her husband seemed like he swooped in and wooed Anya before she realized that he has a drinking problem and he becomes physically abusive to Anya. She is smart and tough, but struggles to see a way out of a situation that she knows is dangerous. Watching her come into her own and begin to rebuild her shattered self-esteem was one of my favorite parts of this timeline.

Finally, we meet Marco in 2017—his dream with his wife was to get a boat and to sail around Alaska during their retirement, but he’s grieving the loss of his wife to cancer shortly after their retirement. Marco’s grief is a tangible thing that almost feels like another character in the story as he boats around Southeastern Alaska. He operates a ham radio and hears a distress call from a woman in the area, so he tries to locate her on his own and discovers something completely unexpected. 

Overall, this is a fantastic and highly atmospheric novel that will make you feel as though you are right alongside them facing the dangers of the rugged Alaskan landscape and seas. Initially, the three timelines seemed unrelated other than their location, making the jumps from character to character feel a little jarring, but this passed relatively quickly. The pace was steady and all three timelines did eventually converge in a surprising way. I found myself equally invested in all three characters, which rarely happens for me. Some of the plot points were a little predictable, but there were even more plot twists that blindsided me and had me reading late into the night to find out what would happen next. After I got accustomed to the cast of characters, I couldn’t wait to read each of their chapters, and I really enjoyed the story. While the end was a little rushed and wrapped things up a little too neatly, I still liked how it ended. 

Bottom line: A really intriguing read set in atmospheric and rugged Alaska, where the seas almost felt like another character, and the three different timelines were so unique and fascinating that it isn’t hard to get fully invested in all three timelines.

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links, and I may earn a small commission at no cost to you if you purchase through my links.