Stabenow

Dana Stabenow
Kate Shugak series
A Cold Day for Murder
A Fatal Thaw
Dead in the Water
A Cold Blooded Business
Play with Fire
Blood Will Tell
Breakup
Killing Grounds
Hunter's Moon
Midnight Come Again
The Singing of the Dead
A Fine and Bitter Snow
A Grave Denied
A Taint in the Blood
A Deeper Slope
Whisper to the Blood
A Night Too Dark
Though Not Dead
Restless in the Grave
Bad Blood

Given my comments about this series in my first blog posting here, I decided to revisit the last five books in this series, to see if my opinion holds true. That's what I've been reading since my last post. Stabenow, Alaska-born, started this series in 1991, and the overarching stories of Kate Shugak span all of that time. The most recent in the series, Bad Blood, was published in 2013, and according to the internet (yes, yes, I know) Stabenow is working on "Kate21" now. Her pop culture references are time-true, so it is easy to date the stories from the internal evidence, but they aren't intrusive. It's a pretty good series, I am happy to report. There's lots of local colour, and if Stabenow doesn't give us quite as much information about the Inuit lifestyle as McGrath, she more than makes up for it with her knowledge of greater Alaska. The plots are twisty, the baddies horrible, the fights Kate gets into satisfying, and the characters of Kate's community are delightful. The Aunties, in particular, are fabulous.

Just as the characters evolve, Stabenow's writing becomes stronger and more confident as the series progresses. However, if you are going to take up with Kate, do start with the first one in the series. I think you'll want to spend as much time as possible in the Park.