Dana Stabenow

The Singing of the Dead

Private Investigator: Kate Shugak
Time                        Current
Setting:                    Alaska

Yet another of the Kate Shugak novels. Eleventh in the series. Shugak is hired as a security guard for an candidate in the Alaskan House of Representatives following the receipt of threatening letters to the candidate. The story is paralled by one set in the late 1890's to 1915 during the Gold Rush era concerning the career and ultimately murder of a prostitute who tries to better herself.  

In the Shugak series Stabenow mostly concerns herself with the plight of native Alaskans (Shugak is an Aleut). In this novel between the sub and main plots Stebenow explores the origins of the sate's Anglo population making the point that most of the state's "aristocracy" can be traced back to prostitutes who married well. 

It is whether of not there are skeleton's in the family cupboard of both Shugak's employer and her opponent that drives much of the plot especially after a researcher who has been asked to check into backgrounds is murdered.

In terms of the backplot ARC, Shugak is still coming to terms with the murder of her partner and reconciling herself to the responsibility of looking after his 14 year old sn.

Rating A

Dana Stabenow's web site

Previously read
A Cold Day for Murder
A Fatal Flaw
Dead in the Water
A Cold Blooded Business 
Whisper to the Blood
A Night too Dark
Though Not Dead
Restless in the Grave

Dana Stabenow

A Cold Blooded Business

Detective/Investigator: Kate Shugak
Location:                     Alaska
Time:                          Recent (mid 1990s)
Genre:

Kate Shugak is a former District Attorney's investigator, inveigled into specific jobs. She is a native Aleut living on a 160 acre holding in Alaska. In this novel she is asked to work undercover to discover who is responsible for drugs trafficing into a large closed industrial zone run by a major oil company. In this novel, the 4th in the series, she stumbles perhaps too fortuitously on the actual villains. Not quite as tight a plot as some of the previous Shugak novels I've read

An underlying concern in the Shugak novels is the status of Aleut and Inuit natives of Alaska, the frequent prejudice against them and their difficulty in coping with the rapid impact of the commercial development of Alaska, particularly the degrading influence of alcohol. The concern for the native Alaskans' disappearing culture lleads to a sub plot about the illegal export of historic ivory artefacts.

Rating B

Dana Stabenow web link

Previously read 
A Cold Day for Murder
A Fatal Thaw
Dead in the Water