Though Not Dead

May 30, 2011
Stabenow's latest Kate Shugak novel finds the intrepid Alaskan PI facing a personal tragedy and its unexpected repercussions. Old Sam, Kate's uncle and surrogate father, has died, leaving her heir to and executor of his estate. Kate has no way of knowing that Old Sam's actions will pull her into a life-threatening mystery whose roots hark back to Alaska in the early 20th century and continue to the present day. Marguerite Gavin gives an excellent reading of Stabenow's prose: she keeps the story moving at an energetic clip, which works especially well with the action sequences. With a nice sense of timing, she brings out the laugh-out-loud humor laced through the book, most notably in the scenes between Kate and her "Aunties," and manages to balance the book's extensive cast of characters, shifting points of view, time frames, and passages of Alaskan history with a bright, engaging performance that keeps the listener tuned in from the introduction to the final chapter. A Minotaur hardcover.

November 1, 2010

Alaskan native Kate Shugak (A Night Too Dark, 2010, etc.), former investigator for the Anchorage DA, investigates her own family's past.

When he dies, Kate's uncle and foster father, Old Sam, leaves everything to Kate, along with a letter telling her how to distribute his property. While packing up Sam's extensive book collection, she finds an old diary. But before she's read very much of it, someone bashes her in the head and steals it. The theft is only the first in a series of dangerous encounters. After she's run off the road, attacked and shot at while checking out Sam's property in the remote Canyon Hot Springs area, she realizes that Sam had something someone badly wants, and that Sam's life must hold the clues to what she needs to know. So she travels around Alaska digging up information. A cryptic note saying only "Find my father" leads her to Sam's Army service in the World War II Aleutian campaign, where he met Dashiell Hammett and apparently his real father, a con man and thief who had stolen a precious Russian icon. With her boyfriend, State Trooper Jim Chopin, off in the lower 48 for his father's funeral, Kate has only her half-wolf Mutt and her prodigious skills in surviving Alaska's often brutal conditions to help her find the truth.

Kate's latest presents both a fascinating puzzle and an in-depth look at life in Alaska, past and present.

(COPYRIGHT (2010) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

December 1, 2010

In the 18th book in Stabenow's popular Alaskan series (A Night Too Dark), Kate delves into family history to solve a puzzle bequeathed to her by her late uncle, Old Sam Dementieff. A letter found among his possession reads, "Find my father," and propels Kate and her half-wolf dog, Mutt, to investigate. She is shot at, beaten, and run off the road, but nothing can deter her from fulfilling her uncle's wishes. In a parallel story line, Kate's boyfriend, Jim Chopin, is doing some family research of his own when he inherits his father's writing desk and makes a life-changing discovery. A map in the front of the book orients readers to the locations mentioned in the story. VERDICT Though longer than many of Stabenow's previous books, this one holds readers' interest with fascinating tidbits of Alaskan history from 1918 to 1965 as seen through Old Sam's eyes. Sure to be popular with lovers of the series as well as those who enjoy reading novels set in Alaska. [See "What Else Is Hot?," Prepub online, 10/25/10.]--Jean King, West Hempstead P.L., NY

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from December 1, 2010
In her newest Kate Shugak thriller, Stabenow proves shes as comfortable dealing with Alaskan history as she is portraying Kates insular contemporary world and the harsh, beautiful, changing landscape she and her extended family call home. When her beloved uncle, Old Sam, dies, he bequeaths Kate an odd assortment of belongings, including a remote old cabin and a cryptic message, Find My Father. With her boyfriend in California on his own family-linked quest, the five-foot Aleut powerhouse and her wolf-dog companion have time to indulge their curiosity about Sam, who had plenty to say about others in the Park but spoke very little about himself. As Kate delves into the old mans life, she unearths a morass of confusing and surprising bits of fact, including Sams abiding love for one of the Parks aunties, his connection to a vanished Russian icon, and his association with the famous writer Dashiell Hammett, whom he apparently met in the Aleutians during WWII. The only clear thing in the mix is that someone else is also interested in the artifacts of Sams past, and he seems to have no compunction about putting Kate permanently out of the picture to get what he wants. A standout entry in a consistently good series, though best appreciated by readers who have met Shugak already.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)