A Fatal Thaw

Rating:
Summary: A Pleasing Continuation to the Series
Review: I found "A Fatal Thaw," the second in the Kate Shugak series set in the Alaskan wilderness, much easier to read and follow than the first, and I zipped through it with great interest.

Stabenow is herself an Alaskan, and she makes you feel the very essence of the place, in all its rough and ready wildness. I felt I was there in the first spring thaw with Kate and her wonderful half-wolf dog (a bona fide character in her own right) as they stretch their winter-weary limbs. Kate has spring fever, and her very female dog, Mutt, is mesmerized by a giant and gorgeous he-wolf who can't seem to keep away from Kate's cabin.

This serenity is shattered very quickly, however, by the doings of a crazy-mad serial killer who, in one short span of a few hours, goes on a murder spree so deadly and so accurate that almost nobody in the tight-knit communty is spared outrage, shock or unbearable grief. After the dust settles, however, the real shocker sets in: One of the dead was not shot with the same gun. Somebody has used a crazy man's murder spree to cover up a real and nasty additional killing--and it's up to Kate to find out who.

I found the mystery less than the story telling, which kept my interest all the way through. This is a good, solid series, one that I am reading from the beginning, and I see no reason at all not to move on quickly and with pleasurable anticipation to the next!

Rating:
Summary: A Pleasing Continuation to the Series
Review: I found "A Fatal Thaw," the second in the Kate Shugak series set in the Alaskan wilderness, much easier to read and follow than the first, and I zipped through it with great interest.

Stabenow is herself an Alaskan, and she makes you feel the very essence of the place, in all its rough and ready wildness. I felt I was there in the first spring thaw with Kate and her wonderful half-wolf dog (a bona fide character in her own right) as they stretch their winter-weary limbs. Kate has spring fever, and her very female dog, Mutt, is mesmerized by a giant and gorgeous he-wolf who can't seem to keep away from Kate's cabin.

This serenity is shattered very quickly, however, by the doings of a crazy-mad serial killer who, in one short span of a few hours, goes on a murder spree so deadly and so accurate that almost nobody in the tight-knit communty is spared outrage, shock or unbearable grief. After the dust settles, however, the real shocker sets in: One of the dead was not shot with the same gun. Somebody has used a crazy man's murder spree to cover up a real and nasty additional killing--and it's up to Kate to find out who.

I found the mystery less than the story telling, which kept my interest all the way through. This is a good, solid series, one that I am reading from the beginning, and I see no reason at all not to move on quickly and with pleasurable anticipation to the next!

Rating:
Summary: An Alaskan Mystery
Review: Mystery and a peek into Alaskan lifestyle combine to make for good reading. A good plot and finely drawn characters are a plus. Made me want more of Ms. Stabenow's stories.

Rating:
Summary: Unbelieveable-Literally
Review: Sorry, I wanted to like this book because I have liked all her others, but this was a challenge to get through for me and I was glad when I finished it. I knew who did it before I had even read a third of the book. I found Kate to be a very mean spirited one-woman superwoman. Kate had to do everything in this book by herself, did not want the help from the capable agencies in place who would normally take care of these matters, and was, indeed, insulting to any one of them who tried to help her. She broke the law by selling murder evidence she found, had no qualms of conscience about doing that, even felt she deserved the money from it. Her treatment of the Korean mountain climbers left me disgusted. What a thoroughly dislikeable character.