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Summary
Summary
Outstanding. . . Rich in details of Alaskan life, history, and archaeology, this fast-paced mystery builds to a satisfying conclusion. Fans will hope they won't have to wait another eight years for Liam's next outing' Publishers Weekly , Starred Review
IT'S A NEW START FOR ALASKA STATE TROOPER LIAM CAMPBELL - BUT THE SAME OLD PROBLEMS.
It's Labor Day in Blewestown, Alaska, and it seems most of the town's thirty-five hundred residents have turned out to celebrate. Not Liam Campbell, though.
He's been in town for about a week when an archaeologist invites Liam out to his dig site. He's on the verge of a momentous discovery, one he says will be well worth the State Trooper's time.
Two days later, the archaeologist is dead, and Liam Campbell is about to learn that he's traded one troubled bush town for another.
Praise for Dana Stabenow:
'Cleverly conceived and crisply written thrillers that provide a provocative glimpse of life as it is lived, and justice as it is served, on America's last frontier' San Diego Union-Tribune
'No one writes more vividly about the hardships and rewards of living in the unforgiving Alaskan wilderness and the hardy but frequently flawed characters who choose to call it home' Publishers Weekly
'If you have in mind a long trip anywhere, including Alaska, this is the book to put in your backpack' Washington Times
Author Notes
Dana Stabenow was born in Anchorage, Alaska and raised on a 75-foot fishing tender. She knew there was a warmer, drier job out there somewhere and found it in writing. Her first book in the bestselling Kate Shugak series, A Cold Day for Murder , received an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America.
Follow Dana at stabenow.com
Reviews (2)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Edgar winner Stabenow's outstanding sixth Liam Campbell novel (after 2012's Restless in the Grave, also featuring another series lead, Kate Shugak) finds the Alaska state trooper posted to the Kenai Peninsula with his bush pilot wife as he slowly revives his career after a botched operation years before, which left a family near Denali dead and led to his demotion. Violence immediately interrupts the couple's integration into the community when an archaeologist, whose findings may jeopardize a major oil drilling expansion in the area, is killed near a cave where a terrible crime occurred decades earlier. As Liam investigates, he encounters a slew of richly developed secondary characters, including a movie star who loves luxury rural life and a former bombshell nightclub singer teetering precariously on the edge of dementia. Rich in details of Alaskan life, history, and archaeology, this fast-paced mystery builds to a satisfying conclusion. Fans will hope they won't have to wait another eight years for Liam's next outing. (Feb.)
Booklist Review
After a long hiatus, Alaska state trooper Liam Campbell is back (not counting his joint appearance with Kate Shugak, Stabenow's other series protagonist, in 2012's Restless in the Grave) for this fifth entry in his series. The sergeant is newly reassigned, from small-town Newenham to bigger Blewestown, when he has two murders on his hands, one 20 years old and the other new. Campbell finds the body of archaeologist Erik Berglund, one of the first people he has met in town, a man who has pissed off virtually everyone in town over the perennial conflict between digging for oil and preserving historical sites. Campbell's wife, bush pilot Wyanet Chouinard, provides invaluable assistance, with both the investigation and transportation (which exposes Campbell's fear of flying). Stabenow's vivid portraits of the Alaskan landscape, along with the Campbell-Chouinard relationship (these are two people besotted with each other), lighten the tone in this smooth, character-driven mystery featuring Alaskan history and culture and the welcome return of Sergeant Campbell.
Excerpts
Excerpts
Thirty years ago, July "Come on, Erik!" Josh's sneakers disappeared over a mussel-encrusted rock ridge left exposed by the low tide. His voice echoed behind him. "We have to get there and back again before the tide turns!" Like Erik didn't know that. He pulled himself up the ridge, puffing, and saw Josh's tracks in the dark sand, the strides long, the toes dug in. He was running. Bastard. Erik savored the forbidden word in his mind and even thought about saying it out loud. No one was around to hear, or wash out his mouth with soap, or spank him, or send him to bed without his supper. Which his mother lost no opportunity to do because she thought he was too fat. Instead, with a heavy sigh, he hoisted himself up over the ridge of rocks covered in barnacles, mussels, and kelp, and slid down the other side to land in the damp black sand on his backside. The edge of a mussel shell had caught his finger. The wound was bleeding sluggishly, dripping down from his hand. He knew better than to say anything, but he heard Josh laughing, and looked up to see the other boy vanish around the next ridge of rock, his excited voice lingering after him. "Wait till you see, Erik! It is the coolest thing ever!" It was low tide on an already broad, gently sloping beach that was half sand and half mud, with a narrow section of tumbled gravel between sand and goose grass. The beach stretched down to a glassy calm of sun-washed blue. This side of the bay was backed by two bluffs, one at water's edge and another miles inland. Both were made of glacial silt that had spent epochs washing down Cook Inlet to pack down and pile up, interrupted by seams of black coal. On the other side of the Bay the bright teeth of the mountains gnawed at the lighter blue of the sky. Behind them the summer sun was setting somewhere behind Redoubt, turning the sky toward the pale twilight that passed for night during summer in Alaska. The tide was about to turn and the mud bloomed with a thousand spurts of water, the razor clams digging in beneath the incoming edge of the water. The salt air stung his nostrils and Erik drank it in with every labored breath, watching the shadows lengthen and the light fade. Even at the age of ten he understood that he lived in a beautiful place, and was grateful for it. "Erik!" Josh's scream jerked him around in a circle and yanked him into motion up the beach without volition or thought. "Erik! Help!" Erik had never heard Josh's voice sound like that, a high, thin edge of fear that knifed right through him. "No, don't--Erik, help, Erik, no don't please don't Erik help!" There was the sound of a thunk, exactly like a cleaver coming down on a roast when they butchered out their yearly moose, and Josh was cut off in mid scream. "I'm coming, Josh! I'm coming!" He tried to run faster but the sand gave way beneath his feet and it was like postholing through deep snow. He rounded the outcropping of black rock, gasping, his chest heaving, his heart pounding so loudly in his ears he couldn't hear anything else but it. "Josh! Josh! Josh--" There was movement to his left from behind the outcropping and as he started to turn his head to see what it was there was another thud and a kind of explosion of white light followed by a feeling of falling down a deep, dark hole, down, down, down... And then nothing. Excerpted from Spoils of the Dead by Dana Stabenow All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
