Rating: 
Summary: 1 Star because it can't be given 0 stars
Review: I was really looking forward to the latest Kate Shugak mystery. It could not have been more disappointing. Dana Stabenow joins the list of mystery writers who are turning the genre into a soap opera. Very sad.
Rating:
Summary: The Hunter's Moon
Review: I wish I had never read this book with Kate's lover being killed. I liked his story line as much as hers and felt as if she had killed off one of the "stars" of the book. I will never read another book by this author. My only wish is that I had leafed through the book and realized what was going to happen. If you like books that make you cry, and feel pain that the main character is feeling than you will love this book because the story is excellent. I just wished I'd spent my time reading something else.
Rating:
Summary: A Horrible Mistake
Review: I've read all of the Kate Shugat books but may stop with this one. Some mystery writers have feel that to develop their stories, they must use the same character for everything. This has been a problem for Danna Stabenow and Nevada Barr. Both authors developed strong characters in their first few books then have spent several books tearing these characters apart. Stabenow has been destroying Kate's natural setting book by book for awhile now. After killing off her Grandmother, the Native Alaskan element dropped by the wayside. After killing off her lover in this book, while not bothering with plot, characters or believable events, how much less Kate Shugat can we take? A good mystery needs to be believable. Do you really believe that someone could run for miles cross-country after being disemboweled? Danna Stabenow has been a good writer in the past. The question is, can she be one again in the future?
Rating: 
Summary: "Hunter's Moon"
Review: If you don't know the series don't start with this book! If you like the series you'll like this book, if you have any empathy for Kate Shugak it'll break your heart; slow starting with the appearance of a series "filler" book the last half is top notch with a very emotional ending that will give you a changed view of the series heroine.
Rating:
Summary: Plot Twist
Review: Intense,very witty,and extremly sad. I am ready for another one like Break Up.
Rating: 
Summary: why kill off jack?
Review: My wife and I have enjoyed the Kate Shugak series ever since we were introduced a couple of years ago. However, I found that this book left me uneasy and disappointed. Not only was it somewhat stilted and out of character for Stabenow, but I have never understood the need to kill of Jack. Surely there must have been other plot devices that would allow further growth of Kate but this one seemed extreme. Not my favorite.
Rating:
Summary: I knew the ending already..
Review: People on previous reviews let it slip, but that didn't make me not want to read this book. I have enjoyed the series, and I even liked this book, sad though it was. It just shows more growth for the main character. I hope Ms. Stabenow gracefully has Kate recover from this and writes many more enjoyable books. So many other authors have done this and the series never are quite the same.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing, manipulative
Review: Some writers grow over the years and their writing improves (Robert Barnard for instance comes to mind.) However, many don't and instead rely more and more on violence and shocking plot twists instead of good writing. I've noticed female detective stories especially become very formulaic and violent, and less interesting. This is no exception: very violent, gratuitous manipulation of the reader rather than just hard work on the writing, the characters simply following formulas laid out in previous books. I had enjoyed the series up to this book, but am disappointed in it now.
Rating: 
Summary: Absolutely the Best So Far
Review: Thanks to a number of reviewers who took it upon themselves to reveal the last 50 pages of this book in spoiler upon spoiler, I already knew that a great tragedy was to come upon Kate Shugak somewhere along in Hunter's Moon. But even knowing that, I was totally unprepared for the grief that overtook me as a reader; the sobs that tore me apart. For those of us who have followed Kate from the very first book, this story is almost unbearable in its suspense, its heart-pounding intensity, and its gut-wrenching ending. It brings the series to a whole new level, and if I never read another one in the series, I will always remember this book. The story starts out simply enough: Kate and her lover Jack Morgan, along with Kate's trusty half-wolf, half-husky Mutt, join feisty Old Sam and others as hired guides to a party of largely tenderfoot hunters. They've done work like this before, and they know all the pitfalls of such an escorted hunting trip, but this group of paid participants is more obnoxious than the average amateur: The entire group is from a multinational computer software company headquartered in Germany, and each of the teutonic wilderness wannabees is more obnoxious than the next. Before the first shot moose is cold, there has been an accidental shooting of a human being. And that's only the beginning. It becomes clear in very short order that a mass murderer has signed along for the trip, and that nobody is safe. As Kate and Jack rely on their wits and their wildnerness savvy to figure out who is doing the killing, the reader is increasingly afraid for their very existence. This is an amazingly powerful book. I'm glad I read it, but I'm still crying as I write this review. Whew!
Rating:
Summary: Stabenow changes the rules - without warning
Review: The content, as always, is solid - with that mix of cultural perspectives, local info & sympatico characters that makes murder mystery readers feel a bond with their authors & protagonists. 4 Stars for that much. Readers of Stabenow's series have come to expect a certain level of violence & loss, and a slightly elevated number of sociopaths in the demographics. Stabenow's definition of reality has always been fascinatingly raw, enticing all of us, as readers, to venture in from the safe distance of our arm chairs. In Hunter's Moon, Stabenow's little "stunt" at the end of the book reaches out and slaps dedicated fans full in the face. It appears this is a Stabenow device to force us even closer to that gritty "reality" she is so invested in conveying. Problem: the genre is fiction, the end goal for readers is entertainment and for the author - sales. If this were not the case, Stabenow should be writing in a different genre. I'm not interested in having my fiction slap me in the face; I believe most of us get enough of that from our own personal realities. If Ms. Stabenow wishes to play by new rules, she'll play alone - she's off my bookshelf.
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