For the armchair adventurers and detectives among us, Kate Dyer-Seeley’s Scene of the Climb should head the must-read list. First in a promising new series, Scene of the Climb introduces aspiring Portland journalist Meg Reed. As the daughter of late legendary local journalist Charlie Reed, Meg’s career path should have been easy, and indeed she had secured a post-graduation position with the Portland paper, but when the economy tanked, so did the possibility of gainful employment. Sleeping on the couch in her best friend’s apartment, Meg becomes increasingly desperate for income, until good fortune strikes—or so it seems. One typically rainy day, Meg visits her favorite coffee house and meets Greg Dixon, publisher of Northwest Extreme, a magazine devoted to on-the-spot coverage of extreme sports. When Greg discovers that Meg is a journalist, he invites her to submit her clips and offers her a much-needed job. Never mind that Meg is something of an imposter: a true journalist but no participant in extreme sports. This is easy enough to mask in the office setting, but when a veteran reporter is sidelined by injuries, Meg receives the plum assignment to cover the final stage of extreme sports event Race the States. The assignment requires that Meg accompany the remaining three contestants on a climb of Oregon’s peaks. She finds herself in the precarious position of faking expertise and confronting the daunting challenge of following the three contestants on a grueling hike. When, finally, Meg cannot go another step, she fakes a fall, which almost becomes deadly when she slides precariously close to the edge of the mountain. While Meg escapes serious injury, she witnesses the suspicious fall of one of the contestants, as he plunges to his death. Thus begins the real challenge for Meg, how to convince Greg and the police that someone pushed the victim over the edge. Author Dyer-Seeley weaves an intriguing plot featuring the rugged Oregon landscape and persistent protagonist Meg.