Killing Grounds (Kate Shugak Mysteries (Paperback))

Rating:
Summary: Stabenow's Alaska is the real thing.
Review: Having lived in Alaska for over thirty years now, I usually find books set in Alaska a disappointment. Stabenow's Alaska is the real thing, in all it's complex and contradictory detail. Her characters are people I know, and her settings are right-on. This book is no exception to her tradition of excellence. The plot is intriguing and keeps the reader guessing, and Stabenow's humor will make you laugh out loud.

Rating:
Summary: Stabenow Can't Write 'Em Fast Enough For Me
Review: I just can't get enough of Dana Stabenow's humorous and clever style of writing. I loved Break Up and this one is even better. It's the kind of story you want to read out loud to someone else so they can laugh too.

Rating:
Summary: Stabenow Can't Write 'Em Fast Enough For Me
Review: I just can't get enough of Dana Stabenow's humorous and clever style of writing. I loved Break Up and this one is even better. It's the kind of story you want to read out loud to someone else so they can laugh too.

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Summary: Spawning Murder
Review: In the eighth in the Alaskan Kate Shugak series, author Dana Stabenow lets us enjoy the Alaskan fishing scene during the wild and woooly salmon spawning season. And here I thought I knew all about it--salmon swim upstream, right?

Yes, but in the hundreds and thousands, and Kate is serving on an ancient fishing boat right in the thick of things. As we find out from this fascinating look at the salmon season, the work is backbreaking, intense, smelly and unending--and that's just the fights among the fishermen jockeying for a place to put their nets.

In the middle of this frantic fishing, which is governed by environmental and other laws, comes a nasty rogue aptly named Calvin Meany. He disregards the unwritten law of the waters, impinging on others' nets, catching their salmon, resorting to thuggery when he has to (and even when he doesn't), and beating on his crew--his own teenaged son.

Kate hates him on sight, as does everybody else, so when Meany turns up brutally murdered, it's hard to feel sorry. Still, Kate has to do her job. And her investigation into the nasty circumstances of the murder place her own life in jeopardy.

Another fast-paced, fascinating read from Stabenow!

Rating:
Summary: Refrigerated molasses
Review: Reading this novel was like trying to wade waist deep through refrigerated molasses--not that I've ever tried that. I thought I was never going to get to the other side or this morass, and when I did, the killer confessed in detail when he could have escaped without a scratch. And then he died. Poof. No trial, no cross examination. All he had to do was say, "I didn't do it," and no one would have been the wiser. There was no evidence against him.

The drama feels contrived from start to finish. It never approaches reality. Every time the plot drags (which is often), the author drops the heroine, Kate, into the cold Alaska waters. Or bops her on the head. It got just a wee bit wearying after the third or fourth time.

The characters are many and confusing. Many have nothing at all to do with what plot there is. Others just walk around. The atmosphere of Alaska merits this one extra star, but I'd rather get a travel book on the state than to put up with the cold molasses. Sorry. This just isn't for me.