Mountain Ambush

by Clair M. Poulson

Alex Grady anticipated a peaceful camping trip when she hiked into the mountains with a group of friends, but what she finds instead is a nightmare. After witnessing a conversation she was never meant to hear, gunshots shatter the silence of her campground and Alex's life is thrown into chaos. As a nurse, her quick thinking saves her wounded friends—but not everyone makes it off the mountain alive.

With the names of the killers echoing in her mind, Alex sets off in relentless pursuit of justice alongside her surviving friends. But as the chilling motive of the would-be assassins becomes clear, she realizes that she’s uncovered a deadly plot that runs deeper than she ever imagined. Alex’s meddling does not go unnoticed, and she finds herself squarely in the sights of merciless men who will stop at nothing until she’s silenced.

240 pages, Paperback

Published September 17, 2025

About the author

Clair M. Poulson was born and raised in Duchesne, Utah. His father was a rancher and farmer, his mother a librarian. Clair has always been an avid reader, having found his love for books as a very young boy.

He has served for forty years in the criminal justice system. Twenty years were spent in law enforcement, ending his police career with eight years as the Duchesne County Sheriff. For the past twenty years Clair has worked as a justice court judge for Duchesne County. Clair is also a veteran of the US Army where he was a military policeman. He has served on various boards and councils during his professional career, including the Justice Court Board of Judges, Utah Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice, Utah Judicial Council, Utah Peace Officer Standards and Training Council, an FBI advisory board and others.

In addition to his criminal justice work, Clair has farmed and ranched all of his life. He has raised many kinds of animals, but his greatest interest is horses.

Clair has served in many capacities in the LDS church, including fulltime missionary (California Mission) bishop, counselor to bishop, young men president, high councilor, stake mission president, scoutmaster, High Priest group leader, etc. He currently serves as a Sunday School teacher.

Clair is married to Ruth, and together, they have five children, all of whom are married: Alan (Vicena) Poulson, Kelly Ann (Wade) Hatch, Amanda (Ben) Semadeni, Wade (Brooke) Poulson, and Mary (Tyler) Hicken. Between them they have twenty-three children. Clair and Ruth met while both were students at Snow College and were married in the Manti temple.

Clair has always loved telling his children, and later his grandchildren, make-up stories. His vast experience in life and his love of literature has always contributed to both his telling stories to children and his writing of adventure and suspense novels.

Reviews

[Marsha · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars may be a little generous on this one. The underlying suspense part of the story was okay but the criminals were beyond stupid and the cops kept leaving the places they should have been watching just in time for the criminals to come back and do their dastardly deeds. I have said it before and I will say it again, this author should NEVER try to write romance in any of his books. The comments that were meant to be romantic were down right goofy. The romance part of the story was not needed and would have been better if it was just left out. As for the main character, Alex, she was okay at the start but her temper was out of control and at the end she was almost psycho in her ranting. I did get sucked in so that I wanted to see how it all ended but this could have been a much better book with just a few changes. If you skip this book you are not missing anything.

[Becky Lee · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not sure why I finished this book. It started off interesting and then quickly became kind of hokey. The criminal was beyond stupid. The conversations the characters had were very cliche. The random romantic relationship thrown in felt contrived, annoying, and like it didn't belong in the book. The main female character who was supposedly the "hero" kept having issues with her temper and by the end of the book I didn't like her at all - she was incredibly rude in the final confrontation with the criminal. It left me with the feeling that she needed anger management classes - not a way I want to feel about the lead character in a book. And the narrator chosen for the audiobook was awful. I think that might be part of what led me to not like the book. I usually love audiobooks and the narrators are amazing - it was surprise to have one that was terrible.

[Jan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Senseless killing a bit to much.

[Tonya Bryner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating of 3 was generous. I've liked his books in the past, in spite of them being a little cheesy, but this was extra cheesy. The romance was ridiculous, without us even knowing any of their history besides they are in a buddy group.

I know it's a Covenant publication, but no murderer anywhere is going is going you call someone a redheaded "witch." I understand the desire to not swear, but a murderer would for sure use the B word--and a whole lot of others--not the PG version.

The author would often project things into the characters' unspoken dialog, if that makes sense. Like the murderer is thinking he's going to get the girl because he always *thought* he was smarter than everyone else. Wait, if it's him thinking, he'd be saying that he WAS smarter than everyone else, since that's his perspective.

There are more things that bugged me that I can't articulate, but suffice it to say that I had to force myself to finish the book, but I didn't find the ending to be any more satisfying than the rest.

[Kassandra Robertson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clair Poulsons new book starts with what should’ve been a peaceful camping trip for Alex Grady and her friends, but things spiral fast when she overhears a deadly conversation and their campsite turns into chaos! As a nurse, Alex’s instincts kick in to save lives, but not everyone makes it off the mountain…. and from there, the story turns into a tense chase for justice as Alex pieces together a much bigger, darker plot than she ever imagined!
The book has a solid mix of suspense, danger, and moral strength. Some of the dialogue and scenes felt a little ridiculous and predictable, but the action and determination of Alex made it still an intriguing read... Overall this book is a clean, fast paced thriller with a strong heroine and plenty of mountain edge tension!

[Brent Maynard · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoy this author's work, he makes fun stories with psychotic villains, brave detectives, and strong leading ladies. That said this book is not his finest work. There are times when the antagonists sound like Saturday morning cartoon characters and there are several moments where the police were utter incompetent to the point where it creates some serious plot holes.

[Melissa · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was wild. I know it’s a suspense novel but it was so depressing, violent and graphic- especially for a Covenant book. Some of the dialogue was so cringy too. In the end what Alex truly needed was a therapist not an engagement.

[Gkeller123 · Rating 2 out of 5]

Poulson's worst book so far. At least it was clean!