A Night Too Dark (Kate Shugak)

I am a great fan of the Kate Shugak Novels, and the writer, Dana Stabenow creates fantastic characters! If you haven't read the sagas of Kate, you are missing great reading. The writer's descriptions of the Alaskan landscapes, and the people who live and survive in the park will captivate your imagination.

This spectacular mystery is the 17th book in the "Kate Shugak" Alaska mystery series and Dana Stabenow never disappoints. It's like visiting old friends and no time has passed.

The Park in Alaska is a place of beauty to private detective Native American Kate Shugak, but the pristine landscape she loves will change when the Suulutaq Mine opens operations. Global Harvest Resources, the parent company learned the mine contains gold and after months of careful sampling and they know they have found quite a strike. Already the firm is making changes that the inhabitants of the Park have to adapt to as people working the mine come to the town of Ninikltna. One of the newcomers leaves a note in his car stating he committed suicide. When the body of Dewayne Gammons is found, there is not enough left of him to make an identification. Kate has a hunch after two people from the mine disappeared at the sane time that the deceased is not Dewayne, but she has no idea who the victim is. As she seeks clues, a third person is killed, which makes Kate even more determined to find out what is going on at the mine. Even before the homicides, Kate feels sad because the mining operation will change the Park though she is resigned that it will happen as people she respects sold out to the mining interests, which was not easy for them to do but they felt they had to tale advantage of people with money to spend. Still her melancholy over the mine does not prevent her from investigating as only she can. Her latest Alaskan Shootout is an entertaining whodunit that also showcases a difficult complex issue of needed economic development vs. maintaining the beauty of nature. Harriet Klausner

Dana Stabenow takes her fans into the depths of Kate Shugak feelings as Suulutag Gold Mine's money changes the park. Kate knows the mine will bring much needed jobs to the park rats and the native shareholders, but at what costs? The changes are brought home to her when Auntie Vi sells her bed and breakfast, when people start disappearing, when Trooper Jim's work load increases until he doesn't make it home for several nights in a row, Bobby Clark begins to fly the mail route, and Johnny is growing up enough to take a summer job at the mine. Kate doesn't want the change, but as head of the Native Association she knows it is inevitable. It's almost a relief when she and Ole Sam discover a half-eaten body that leaves a question was this a suicide or was it murder? Violent death is easier for Kate to get a handle on. This is not Stabenow's best in this series, but transition novels in a powerful series are difficult for both the writer and the reader. Change doesn't come any easier for a fan as it does for Kate, but a fantastic conclusion will keeps us begging for the next addition. Nash Black, author of Indie finalist WRITING AS A SMALL BUSINESS and HAINTS.

I've always enjoyed the Kate Shugak novels and their view into the Park life in the wilds of Alaska. This one deals with the opening of a gold mine and the pros and cons of supporting it. The mine creates needed jobs but brings trouble with more people brought in for employment who have too much money and too little to spend it on. Everyone looks to Kate for answers on whether to support the proposed mine especially now that she's chair of the Niniltna Native Association. The problem with this book is that the author is too in love with her character. Kate seems to run everything including releasing people from jail, getting them jobs and deciding every bit of business the Assocation handles. Her laugh attracts every man. Even at 5 feet tall, everyone is intimidated by her. On a search party, she is the one who kills the bear. She is Superwoman and it, frankly, has gotten on my nerves. Make her human again. Let her make mistakes. Let her not intimidate everyone. Let her meet a man who doesn't fall for her. Let the other characters do something besides orbiting around her sun.