Bad Blood

December 24, 2012
An affectionate nod to Romeo and Juliet, Stabenow’s absorbing 20th Kate Shugak novel (after 2012’s Restless in the Grave) focuses on two feuding villages in the 20 million acre Alaskan national park that Kate calls home. Kushtaka, founded by the Athabascan Mack family, is in decline, losing population and clinging to a subsistence lifestyle. Trappers led by the Norwegian Christianson family founded nearby Kuskulana, which has thrived with an airstrip, a growing population, and federal funds. When the body of Kushtakan Tyler Mack surfaces in a river, Sgt. Jim Chopin, a state trooper, thinks it’s likely a homicide; when a second body, of a Kuskulaner, turns up, Chopin is sure more violence will follow. The secretive romance between Kushtakan Jennifer Mack and Kuskulaner Ryan Christianson might turn the feud into a war. Meanwhile, Kate has a plan to save the couple. Edgar-winner Stabenow’s take on Shakespeare’s star-crossed lovers ends in a tragedy likely to shock series fans. Author tour. Agent: Danny Baror, Baror International.

January 15, 2013
A clash of family cultures may be behind a series of murders. The Alaskan villages of Kushtaka and Kuskulana share a salmon-filled river and a deep-rooted mutual hatred. Kushtaka natives, mostly Macks, adhere to the old ways and live in near poverty. Across the river, the Kuskulana residents, mostly Christiansons, reap the benefits of modernity. When state trooper Sgt. Jim Chopin is called in, Roger Christianson takes him to the Mack fish wheel, where the body of Tyler Mack has been found. Although Tyler's family considered him a lazy schemer, they're covering up evidence and plotting revenge. Jim's girlfriend, private eye Kate Shugak, a Native Alaskan with many family connections in the vast area known as the Park, quickly becomes involved. No sooner is Tyler's death ruled a murder then the body of Mitch Halvorsen is found sealed up in the house he's building on the Kuskulana side of the river. Mitch's brother Kenny demands revenge against the Kushtakers. Jim is sure that Mitch and Kenny were smuggling in alcohol and possibly drugs for the nearby mine workers, but his questions produce only silence and lies on both sides of the river. In the meantime, Ryan Christianson and Jennifer Mack, who have fallen in love, are secretly meeting even though their romance is certain to cause more trouble. Kate (Restless in the Grave, 2012, etc.), along with her half-wolf, Mutt, works her own angle and takes steps that may put her in danger in more ways than she can imagine. To her usual atmospheric detection, Stabenow adds more than a hint of Romeo and Juliet, or the Hatfields and the McCoys.

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Starred review from February 1, 2013
In the twentieth novel in the Kate Shugak series, the part-time private investigator teams with her friend and occasional lover, Alaska State Trooper Jim Chopin, to try to solve the murder of a young man. It's a complicated situation. The murdered man lived in the village of Kushtaka, and the prime suspect lives in the neighboring village of Kuskulana. The two villages have been bitter rivals for a long time (Kushtaka is a traditional Alaskan village; Kuskulana is more modern and more prosperous), and the elders of neither village seem interested in helping Jim and Kate get to the bottom of things. Jim, a representative of the state, is counting on Kate's tribal connections to help smooth the investigation, but Kate, a native Aleut, soon discovers her connections don't seem to mean much here. Long-time devotees of this popular series will devour the book in a single sitting, and if there happen to be any fans of Alaska-set mystery fictionbooks by John Straley, for example, or Sue Henrywho have not yet made the acquaintance of Kate Shugak, they should change that sooner rather than later.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)