A Grave Denied - [13] A Kate Shugak mystery by Dana Sabenow

Stabenow relaxes and lets us have fun with Kate. At times, the novel's style made me think I was reading a cozy. The author finds humor in Kate's new parenting role, as she learns how to cope with a teenager she has inherited from previous novels. Some of the best scenes involve Kate's relationship with her dog, Mutt, a part-wolf who seems to read Kate's mind. As usual, the cast of characters holds our attention, with tiny subplots: Kate's best friend gets a visit from a (deliberately) long-lost brother and fourteen-year-old Johnny remains determined to stay with Kate, rather than his blood relatives. The endings seem realistic, not at all contrived.

AUDIO NEEDED!!!

The Singing of the Dead - [11] Kate Shugak mystery by Dana Stabenow

The background of a hard-fought political campaign in Alaska (where "in a gathering of four people there are five marriages, six divorces, and seven political parties") and the devastating effect of a century-old scandal on the candidates gives even greater depth than usual to Stabenow's 11th Kate Shugak mystery.

The novel shifts effortlessly between the present and the past, tracing the career of one of the state's most notorious "good time girls" from the gold mining era. The author paints a strong, striking picture of the tough life in Alaska 100 years ago and the narrow choice offered women housekeeper or whore. The character of Angel Beecham, known as the Dawson Darling, is compellingly portrayed as a complex woman whose relationship to the contemporary characters is slyly revealed in the epilogue (but wait until you've finished the book to read it). With well-drawn characters, splendid scenery and an insider's knowledge of Alaskan history and politics, this fine novel ranks as one of Stabenow's best.

AUDIO NEEDED!!!

Killing grounds - [8] Kate Shugak mystery by Dana Stabenow

Like Nevada Barr, Dana Stabenow writes mysteries so firmly rooted in the natural world that their sense of place becomes a vital part of the plot. In this book about Native Alaskan crime solver Kate Shugak, the ocean and the men who fish it for salmon are described in such vivid detail that you'll never look at a salmon steak the same way again. When a particularly nasty fisherman is murdered, there's no end of suspects--including members of Kate's own family. The story also sports a richly ironic undertone of political incorrectness, as Kate muses about the forest rangers, "who wanted to annex every square foot of land they saw and keep it pristine and inviolate, unsullied by human hand. They failed to recall that the indigenous peoples who came across the Bering land bridge during the last Ice Age had their hands all over anything that had the remotest possibility of nutritional value, and were every bit as much of the landscape and the wheel of life as the fish and the birds and the mammals."
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Breakup - [7] Kate Shugak Mystery by Dana Stabenow

"Breakup" is what Alaskans call their brief spring, when the state "melts into a 586,412-square-mile pile of slush." The seasonal change unhinges Alaskans just as Santa Ana winds unhinge Los Angelenos in Raymond Chandler's mysteries. Kate Shugak lives in the bush with Mutt, a wonderful husky-wolf mix, and is facing a terrible breakup. Her taxes are intractable; she has three encounters with grizzlies, two near misses with airplanes, and ends up in a handful of gunfights--and a corpse turns up near her homestead. This sixth entry in Stabenow's lively, entertaining series offers a tough, insightful heroine; a set of intriguing, slightly eccentric supporting characters; and a healthy dose of Alaskan atmosphere. Although the mystery element isn't even introduced until well into the story, Stabenow more than compensates with a detailed look at how Shugak and company deal with the effects of breakup: verve is important, but it helps to have Jimmy Buffet playing in the background.
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Blood will tell - [06] Kate Shugak Mystery by Dana Stabenow

Mystery matters less than people and place in this sixth adventure for Native Alaskan investigator Kate Shugak (after Play with Fire). Relishing the prospect of a solitary winter at her isolated cabin, Shugak is pressured back to Anchorage by her grandmother, a leader of her Native association. A member of the association board dies mysteriously as the group prepares to vote on a controversial development initiative for tribal hunting and fishing lands. Soon after Shugak agrees to help, another board member suffers a fatal "accident." With the help of her lover, Jack Morgan, a local policeman, and the 140-pound Mutt, her half-Husky, half-Arctic gray wolf, Shugak sorts through tribal politics and a long trail of corruption in battles over land and oil. Sensing that lobbyists and developers have penetrated the Native association, Shugak fears that the truth may hit close to home. Even if Stabenow sometimes lapses into lecture tones to solve the puzzle, Alaska's rough and tumble history fascinates, and Shugak is an eloquent voice for Native Alaskan concerns in changing times.
AUDIO NEEDED!!!!