Restless in the Grave

December 12, 2011
Finn Grant’s death in the crash of his small plane in an apparent act of sabotage raises the question: who would want the self-made billionaire dead? About half the population of southwest Alaska, as Kate Shugak discovers when she goes undercover as a barmaid in bestseller Stabenow’s entertaining 19th novel featuring the brash, fearless PI (after 2011’s Though Not Dead). Kate’s shrewd and ceaseless prying reveals that the unsavory Grant was involved in blackmail, mail fraud, and embezzlement, all connected to Alaska’s many small airlines. Kate has a casual approach to evidence gathering, and her skill at breaking and entering finds her eventually thrown into a chest freezer, tossed into a Dumpster, and locked inside a freight container while her stalwart and highly intelligent companion, Mutt, who’s half-wolf, half-husky, provides assistance. Readers new to the series may be mystified by the many references to past episodes. Yet the book sparkles with energy and wit, and packs an unexpected punch. 100,000 first printing; author tour. Agent: Danny Baror.

February 1, 2012
Alaskan p.i. Kate Shugak goes undercover as a favor to her boyfriend, State Trooper Jim Chopin, and finds herself yet again in deep trouble. Jim's friend, State Trooper Liam Campbell, is investigating a plane crash that he suspects is no accident. Although Finn Grant had almost as many enemies as the population of Newenham, the chief suspect is Liam's wife Wy. Grant, who'd married into a famous Alaskan family, had recently been buying up every air-taxi service, lodge and plane he could get his hands on to build up his fixed base operation (FBO), located on a former air force base. When Kate and her half-wolf Mutt arrive in Newenham, she's lucky to get both a job as waitress in the town's most popular bar and an apartment over the garage of Tina Grant, Finn's widow. Soon Kate and Mutt are attacked and thrown into a freezer in her apartment, presumably by someone looking for something. Trying a little breaking and entering herself, she searches the office in the main house and sneaks out to the airport office, where she hits the jackpot: a thumb drive containing information on Finn's blackmail schemes. But she still has to figure out where he got the millions to invest, why his wife refuses to spend a penny of his money and what he was planning for the big cargo planes that were next on his buy list. Her hunt for answers puts her in danger, but she's never one to give up. Stabenow offers Kate (Though Not Dead, 2011, etc.) and Liam (Better to Rest, 2002, etc.) a combination of fast and furious adventure and the beauty and complexity of Alaska.

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February 1, 2012

A suspicious small plane crash turns out to be tied into big crimes with a long history in Alaska. Series favorite Aleut Kate Shugak (Though Not Dead) goes undercover to find the crooks, with cop Liam Campbell involved as well. [See Prepub Alert, 11/11/11.]

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