ISBN: 0-312-30681-4 Order from: Amazon.com Barnes & Noble.com
A mystery that shines for its colorful and appealing characters, the vivid Alaskan background, and has a solid but unexceptional plot.
Reviewed by David on October 30, 2004
Genre: Mystery (Police Procedural, Alaska)
Synopsis: Kate Shugak, a former investigator for the DA's office, has always been at home in the Niniltna Park in Alaska. With its widely scatterred residents, the sole investigator—Alaska State Trooper Jim Chopin hires Kate to assist in the investigation of a murder. Kate's investigation puts her life in danger. But her life is complicated by the tensions of her best friend, Kate's own tumulteous relationship with Jim Chopin, and most of all by her new hostage to fortune—the son of her dead lover.
Luckily, along with difficulties come the warm support of friendship, affection and love that support Kate, despite her traditional lone nature.
Full Review: Kate is in good form in this next installment. After a painful mourning for Jack Morgan, Kate is enjoying life again enough to try to change her relationship with Jim Chopin—not an easy thing for either of them. Her sort-of-parental relationship with Johnny Morgan is deeply satisfying in this book, with challenges and rewards. And her struggles and joys in the human relationships in the park enliven the book.
Kate's love of books, and resulting references to Science Fiction favorites are also appealing to this SF fan.
The investigation itself is competent and satisfying, but it's the character interaction and the well-described rural Alaskan life that take center stage in this satisfying book.
Overall: 6; Plot: 6; Characters: 6; Style: 6; World-building: 6.5; Originality: 5.5;
Copyright date 2003, St. Martin's Press (St. Martin's Minotaur), September 2003, Cloth, 321 pages
ISBN: 0-312-30681-4 Order from: Amazon.com Barnes & Noble.com