Killing Grounds - A Kate Shugak Mystery (Hardcover)

Summer in Alaska is synonymous with salmon, and the latest Kate Shugak mystery finds our heroine up to her ears in chinooks and chicanery.

"Every time I think Ms. Stabenow has gotten as good as she can get, she comes up with something better. Wrap your ribs for safety, find a place where you will not be disturbed for a couple of hours, and indulge yourself", The Washington Times advised its readers in its review of Breakup. In Killing Grounds, Kate finds that commercial fishing can be a deadly business.

Deckhanding for Old Sam Dementieff on board the fishing tender Freya, Kate helps haul in salmon, halibut, and the body of a widely disliked fisherman, whose apparent murder is greeted with such boisterous rejoicing that she's unsure whether to arrest the killer or give him a medal.

Drafted by State Trooper Jim Chopin to assist in the investigation, Kate draws up a list of suspects that includes the dead man's troubled teenaged son and daughter, his not-so-grief-stricken widow, and half the skippers of the fishing fleet. At the same time, Kate's Aleut aunties, attending a fish camp on Amartuq Creek, are mixed up in some fishy dealings of their own, which Kate must prove do not include murder. A coterie of colorful supporting characters, including a Native American-wannabe, an idealistic fish hawk, and a Presbyterian minister, alternately hinder and help Kate's investigation.

With the attention to the details and difficulties of Alaskan life and another of the brilliantly crafted plots that have made her one of the Pacific Northwest's finest writers, Dana Stabenow has created in Killing Grounds a picture postcard from the Last Frontier: where the call of the wild should never beunderestimated in politics, in commercial fishing, or in murder.