From Whisper to the Blood, the sixteenth Kate Shugak novel: “What’s going on?” Jim said. “You’re never in bed during the day.” “None of your business. Leave me alone.” She pulled the cover back over her head. The weight of him on the bed didn’t move. Neither did Mutt’s. “Oh. Has this got something to…
From A Deeper Sleep, the fifteenth Kate Shugak novel: “The perp says he was out of town at the time. Real sincere on the stand, as I recall, young and clean-cut and all his family in the courtroom, including his Miss Alaska fiancé.” “Please tell me you’re kidding.” “I would if I could. She spent…
Read more “She spent the whole trial trying to hold hands with him over the divider.”
From A Taint in the Blood, the fourteenth Kate Shugak novel: Johnny Morgan, elbows on the railing, watched from the deck. It was pitiful, was what it was. Here was this tiny little woman, couldn’t weigh 120 pounds wringing wet, facing down this big, strong, good-looking guy, an Alaska state trooper no less, a man…
From A Grave Denied, the thirteenth Kate Shugak novel: It took Mutt precisely seventeen seconds, trotting back and forth with her nose to the ground, to pick up Johnny’s scent from the T-shirt Kate held out to her to where the boy smell from it led into the bushes. It took them forty-six minutes, Kate…
From A Fine and Bitter Snow, the twelfth Kate Shugak novel: The grin had faded, and Dan looked tired and for the first time since she’d known him every one of his forty-nine years. “When’s the last time you had a vacation?” she said. He rubbed his face again. “I was Outside in October.” He…
From The Singing of the Dead, the eleventh Kate Shugak novel: Dawson City December 24, 1897 She walked out on stage wrapped in fifty yards of sheer white chiffon, a pair of high-heeled shoes with jeweled buckles, and nothing else. There was a second of stunned silence in the packed, smoky saloon, before deafening and…
From Midnight Come Again, the tenth Kate Shugak novel: Jim distinctly remembered “forklift operator” printed in the job title slot of the form he had filled out in Anchorage, and he did operate the battered old propane-powered forklift from time to time. When he could be spared from loading and unloading the Piper Super Cub,…
Excerpt from Hunter’s Moon, the ninth Kate Shugak novel: The nearest neighbor to the gold mine was a man named Crazy Emmett who lived in a cabin on a tiny lake five miles away. Crazy Emmett, an ex-history teacher from West High School in Anchorage, had retired at his earliest possible date of eligibility and…
From Killing Grounds, the eighth Kate Shugak novel: “She was mean to Mom.” “I know, but–“ “It’ll only make her wet the bed, Laverne, don’t be such a baby. You get her hand out from under the covers, I’ll fill the pan with water.” “Lauren! Caitlin! I’ve told you before, do not be drawn to…
Read more “You get her hand out from under the covers, I’ll fill the pan with water.”
From Breakup, the seventh Kate Shugak novel: The Roadhouse door opened abruptly into the conversation, almost catching Mrs. Baker on the nose and smacking into Kate’s reflexively upraised hand. A man somersaulted out of the building to roll down the steps and fetch up flat on his back in a puddle of muddy slush. There…
Read more …a very minor courtier in an exceptionally regal retinue.