The Singing of the Dead: A Kate Shugak Novel

The ongoing saga of Kate Shugak and her difficult, complicated and humoreous life - Oh, and the mystery she solves - is always intriguing. It held my interest, and I like following both her personal and professional life.

Stabenow gives a good read for those of us making do at times with outdoor mystery novels instead of getting into the wild as much as we'd like. She also has a sage eye for the political complexities of Alaskan environmental and native issues. This politico loved the campaign trail storyline and the double plot, and got a kick out of Chopper Jim's true colors. As with all her books, I walked away feeling proud to be an armchair Alaskan.

The Singing Of The Dead: A Kate Shugak Novel by Dana Stabenow is a chilling political murder mystery. The strong-willed and firm-minded heroine Kate Shugak decides to work security for a Native American woman running for state senator. But the bizarre of the campaign's staff researcher pulls Kate Shugak into a murderous web stretching back ninety years, and pits her against a modern-day killer with a cold and cruel irreverence for human life. Suspenseful and occasionally down-right mesmerizing listening, this complete and unabridged audiobook edition of The Singing Of The Dead is very ably narrated by Marguerite Gavin and strongly recommended for community library audiobook collections.

Stabenow manages to entertain the reader with two very good stories in this book. Kate Shugak is employed as security to a woman who is campaigning for a Park Senate seat. About 100 years ago, a "working girl" falls in love and marries the man who was the highest bidder when she auctioned herself to the men of Dawson. Stabenow takes us back and forth between these two stories and it becomes clear that a connection will be made. The pace never falters and the characters, as always, are complete in every detail. In one part of the book, DS writes about Kate's love of books. Reading for fun. Preferring a book to television. The inability to pass a bookstore without going in. This really struck a chord with me. I'm just guessing here, but I think Stabenow has endowed Kate with her own love of books. Maybe that is why she is able to tell such good tales. She understands readers because she is one herself. I truely appreciate her efforts, as one reader to another. Oh, and what about the glove? Where have I heard about a glove found at the scene of a crime before? Hummmmm.

Jack died over a year ago but Kate remains in shock as she still feels the pain of his death as if it happened yesterday. A former police officer and sometimes private detective Kate Shugak, a full-blooded Inuit, harbors her dead lover's teenage white son Johnny. The fourteen-year old young adult refuses to live in the lower forty-eight states or reside with his mother who hates Kate.With another mouth to feed and potential future legal fees, Kate leaves Johnny on the homestead and accepts work as a bodyguard to Anne Gordaoff, a senatorial candidate. Anne has been receiving escalating threats that require her to hire Kate. While Kate protects her client, someone murders The candidate's son-in-law and a staffer leaving it up to Kate to unravel the truth before someone else is hurt.The latest Shugak novel gives readers an early twentieth century Alaskan history lesson and how past events three generations ago relate to the present murders. The mystery is cleverly developed and the sexual tension between Kate and Trooper Jim is so thick the murder weapon cannot slice through it. That "non-relationship" bears future watching as Dana Stabenow continues to provide her audience with tales they enjoy reading.Harriet Klausner