Rating: 
Summary: Terrific Writer
Review: I think that Dana Stabenow's Kate Shugak novels are some of the best reading I have ever seen. I am a prolific reader, with fiction being one of my main hobbies. Her novels, while giving a wonderful tour of Alaska, are easy to read, easy to follow, and always interesting. I first discovered her while recovering from a serious operation and I was bedridden looking for something to take my mind off my discomfort. Someone brought me a Kate Shugak novel and I hadn't read three chapters when I went to the front of the book to see if there were more out there. I immediately ordered the entire collection and paid extra for rapid shipping. I have never regreted that, I only wish she would write more often.
Rating: 
Summary: A Good Old-Fashioned Murder Mystery Worth Spending Time In
Review: In the cold and dangerous Alaskan landscape, a group of teenagers finds a corpse frozen at the edge of a glacier. After Johnny Morgan and his schoolmates make the gruesome discovery, the body is identified as local handyman Len Dreyer. State trooper Jim Chopin quickly calls in consulting investigator Kate Shugak to help him solve the case. Right away it is obvious from the huge bullet wound in Dreyer's chest that they are dealing with a murder. But why would anyone kill the man they all relied on for important work, big jobs and small? As Shugak works to answer this question, she soon realizes that while everyone in and around the Park is familiar with Dreyer, no one really knows him at all. And even a timeframe for the crime is difficult to construct as no one in the Park or in the nearby village of Niniltna even realized Dreyer was missing.The Park is the national park where Shugak and others homestead. Shugak herself has a 160-acre homestead where she lives with her canine companion Mutt and now with Johnny Morgan, the fourteen-year-old son of her deceased lover. Smart and fiercely independent, Shugak takes on this case knowing that she is now responsible for housing and feeding Johnny in addition to herself. But in taking the case she exposes them both to extreme danger because somebody, perhaps Dreyer's killer, now wants her dead as well. Maybe Shugak is getting too close to the truth about this mysterious man. Further complicating Shugak's work is her tense relationship with Chopin, a wannabe detective named Dandy Mike, the isolated lifestyles of the area residents, and her concern for Johnny and his well-being. The truth about Dreyer's murder is as unexpected as it is shocking; the killer is as unlikely as it gets. A GRAVE DENIED is well-crafted with a straightforward and interesting plot and a number of great characters, most notably Shugak. In many ways, the story is also about the setting --- the glorious Alaskan wilderness and the fascinating people who live there. Dana Stabenow's sense of place and respect for Alaska and its citizens is obvious. Basically this a good old-fashioned murder mystery, with a carefully rendered atmosphere, several suspects, a corpse no one knows much about and an awesome protagonist, who is trying to live her life the best she can while exploring a horrible death. This is crime fiction with requisite twists and turns but it is far from ordinary. A GRAVE DENIED is a mystery worth spending time in. --- Reviewed by Sarah Rachel Egelman
Rating:
Summary: Kate and Alaska Rock
Review: Kate is an unusual female character who shows both her humanity and strength. The setting of each story in Alaska is like a travelogue inside of the very well written and plotted story. These books are winners. They give a lot back to the reader.
Rating:
Summary: Kate and Alaska Rock
Review: Kate is an unusual female character who shows both her humanity and strength. The setting of each story in Alaska is like a travelogue inside of the very well written and plotted story. These books are winners. They give a lot back to the reader.
Rating:
Summary: Atmospheric and suspenseful
Review: The Alaskan wilderness and the character of the people who live there form the heart of this latest Kate Shugak novel. It's spring in the Park, a breathtaking time of wildflowers and calving icebergs. Kate is feeling her way through parenting her dead lover's teenage son, Johnny Morgan, and possibly embarking on a romance with State Trooper Jim Chopin. Then a body is found beneath a melting glacier. Everybody knew the dead man, Len Dreyer. As a talented handyman, his skills were in high demand. But, as Kate helps Jim investigate, she finds that while everyone praises his work, no one really knew him at all. This community of self-sufficient loners may be close, but it's not necessarily intimate. This theme recurs again and again - during the investigation, but also in the human drama of Kate's prickly relationships with lovers, friends, her dead Aleut grandmother and her new son. Her independence is a property that requires a lot of room and good fences - with creaky gates. The plot moves right along and danger threatens as Kate probes too deep. Though there's a little too much affectionate banter, there's also plenty of suspense and a disturbing, unexpected ending, but the power behind this one is magnificent Alaska - a place that sets its inhabitants apart.
Rating:
Summary: Another enjoyable read
Review: This author continues to provide great reading for her followers. Some parts are edge of the seat hold your breath and others deal with the family issues we all face. The main character has been a favorite of mine from the start and hope to see more of her in the future. Thanks Dana!
Rating:
Summary: Another enjoyable read
Review: This author continues to provide great reading for her followers. Some parts are edge of the seat hold your breath and others deal with the family issues we all face. The main character has been a favorite of mine from the start and hope to see more of her in the future. Thanks Dana!
Rating:
Summary: Another Winner for Stabenow!
Review: This entry is number 13 in the Kate Shugak series. If you've enjoyed the previous 12 Kate Shugaks, then you'll love this entry. Kate is still trying to deal with having young Johnny Morgan living with her in her one-room cabin. She knows that a confrontation with his mother will come sooner than either she or Johnny wants. Johnny and some of his classmates find a dead body in a glacier. Trooper Jim Chopin has his plate full and asks Kate to investigate why the Park's handyman was killed. When she starts asking questions, she finds out more than she wants to know about her fellow Park rats. In the meantime, Jim Chopin turns up the heat on their non-existent, but definitely "something's going on" relationship. Kate thinks she's sure what she thinks about that - well, maybe. Stabenow is adept in this outing in keeping the identity of the killer under wraps until the end - and the reason for the killing will stun you. Stabenow has written another excellent mystery. Her writing is so good you can almost smell the spring in Alaska and find yourself being glad the winter is over.
Rating: 
Summary: Sorry, folks. This one is disappointing.
Review: The 13th book in Dana Stabenow's Kate Shugak Series is a murder mystery involving the death of Len Dreyer, an expert handyman whose frozen body, mutilated by a shotgun blast to the chest, is found inside an ice cave of the receding Grant Glacier. The novel is set in and around Niniltna, near Ahtna and Cordova, south of Anchorage. Shugak and Alaska State Trooper Jim Chopin, accompanied by Kate's "adopted" son, Johnny Morgan, and Kate's faithful canine companion Mutt, investigate this baffling murder of a man whom everyone knew, and yet no one really knew. A murderer is loose in "The Land of the Midnight Sun." So is an arsonist, a sexual predator and child molester, and a law enforcement wannabe who fatally miscalculates the lurking danger. Regrettably, A Grave Denied is a disappointing read. Although featuring interesting characters, the novel has its problems. The on-again, off-again mating dance between Shugak and Chopin, described in overheated and exaggerated terms, strikes this reviewer as the unintentional hilarious parody of a B-grade "romance potboiler." Throughout the novel, the language of the characters varies from raw and rude to sleazy and crude. For example, at one point Kate says, "Not to be crude, but . . ." and then proceeds with a crude remark. Such continual verbal abuse seems gratuitous. Also, this novel from Stabenow, an Anchorage native and resident, is unnecessarily repetitious. The long-suffering reader must endure a rehash of the same clues, which, in the end, are quite unrelated to unraveling the identity of the killer. The most serious flaw, though, is the deus ex machina that, suddenly and unexpectedly, provides a contrived solution to the apparently insoluble murder mystery. A big letdown, this lazy "solution" leaves one feeling cheated. A Grave Denied should be titled A Plot Denied.
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