Most crime novels take place in the shadows of skyscrapers where seasoned detectives follow a trail of blood through the dark alleyways of New York City, London or Paris.

Yet, when Whitefish author Christine Carbo set out to write her own book of the same genre, she knew the setting would have to be different — something closer to home.

Carbo has never lived in a large metro area typical of suspense books, but she knows well the rugged terrain of northwest Montana where she has lived since she was 12 years old. It was only natural for the shrouded peaks and raging rivers of Glacier Park to set the stage for her debut book “The Wild Inside.”

“If I set the story in New York City, I don’t know anything about the place,” Carbo explained.

“You can’t write creditably without knowing about it. But I know this place where I live. I know Glacier.”

The fiction book details the story of Ted Systead, who was just a teenager when his father was killed by a bear while they were camping in Glacier Park. Now a special agent for the National Park Service, Systead is assigned to a homicide investigation that sends him back to Glacier, where a man has been tied to a tree and mauled to death by a grizzly bear.

“Sharp, introspective Systead is a strong series lead, and Carbo rolls out solid procedural details, pitting Systead against Department of the Interior bureaucrats,” writes Christine Tran in a book review. “The grittiness of the poverty-wracked area surrounding Glacier plays against the park’s dangerous beauty in this dark foray into the wilderness subgenre.”

Carbo says Glacier takes on a life of its own in the novel, and almost becomes a key character.

“There is a mystic and a mysteriousness about Glacier,” she said. “You feel like the place has a specialness to it and it almost comes across as being alive. I wanted Glacier’s more haunting aspects to come across.”

Local readers will recognize certain places as Carbo stayed true to the geography of the Park while taking some creative liberties in other aspects.

“Readers will get satisfaction from identifying with the place,” she said. “Some of it is made up, but it is fiction.”

The book also ventures out of the Park setting and explores the underbelly of nearby rural communities.

“I deal with the canyon and some of the crime there,” she said. “There are drugs and some bad stuff that goes on in these rural places.”

Knowing little about actual crime scene investigation, she turned to former Kalispell chief of police Frank Garner for guidance.

“Frank really laid the ground work for me,” she said. “He showed me how an investigation works in the real world.”

Whitefish Police Chief Bill Dial, who has a degree in English, also read the book and offered feedback and tips.

Carbo began writing in her 20s when she penned a pair of non-genre novels that were never published.

“I had fun writing those, but then life kind of happened,” she said.

She put creative writing aside for more than a decade as she struggled to balance work with being a single mother. Carbo taught composition and literature at Flathead Valley Community College while also doing technical writing on the side.

“I needed to supplement my income,” she said. “I was so burnt out on the monotony of technical writing that the last thing I wanted to do was sit at the computer and write creatively.”

Ironically, technical writing led her to her current career as a pilates instructor, which eventually allowed her to pursue creative writing again.

“I got this weird thing in my shoulder from all the time at the computer doing technical writing and someone recommended pilates to me,” Carbo said.

She eventually opened her own studio, Bridge Pilates in Whitefish, about 10 years ago.

“Pilates led me back to writing,” she said. “I was able to leave the technical writing behind, and once I did that I had energy to go to the computer again and write creatively.”

She spent about a year writing “The Wild Inside” and another half-year editing.

“I forced myself to write even when I wasn’t inspired,” she said. “I didn’t have a schedule, but I’d fit it in around the edges, on weekends, rainy days, late at night.”

She was lucky enough to have two major New York publishers approach her with deals — she went with Atria Books of Simon and Schuster — and the book has already been selected as a Mystery Guild alternate pick.

“It feels great to get published traditionally,” she said. “It has been a dream of mine.”

She’s nervous about the debut, but having the backing of a big publishing house gives her confidence.

“It’s a vulnerable act to put your writing out there,” she said. “It’s very subjective, and I guess I have to get a thick skin.”

“The Wild Inside” has already snowballed into more creative writing endeavors for Carbo. She’s editing a second book and has started writing a third.

“The process doesn’t end,” she said.

Carbo will host a book launch party on Tuesday, June 16 from 5-7 p.m. at Tupelo Grille in Whitefish. The book is available for sale at Bookworks in Whitefish and Kalispell.