Evander “Andy” Mills is fired from the SFO police when he’s caught in a raid on a gay bar. It’s 1952 and he is now de facto a pariah from his previous life and lucky not to be in jail. It looks like there is only one way out until Pearl Lamontaine hires him to…
Warning: Spoilers spoken here.And a contest! With prizes!* Upon returning home from New York City in 1994, clutching A Cold Day for Murder‘s Edgar in a sweaty fist, almost the very first thing to appear in my mailbox was a letter from Tony Hillerman, requesting a short story for the collection he was editing, The…
Warning: Spoilers spoken here. Man, I havered over this one. My pick going in was the secret drawer, or drawers, the one in Auntie Joy’s armoire that contained the manuscript, the one in Jim’s father’s writing desk that held the clue to his true parentage, and of course the one in Old Sam’s compass, which…
Warning: Spoilers spoken here. I’m just gonna cut and paste Megan’s comment in its entirety here. As Penny said, she truly did drop the mike. My heart always breaks a little when I write about Willard. He is the innocent victim of a disease we see all too often here in Alaska. That doesn’t mean…
Warning: Spoilers spoken here. Some of you said Jim, but you weren’t working hard enough. Think Max. “Alaska’s Mounties,” he repeated, “that was us, the territorial police. TPs, they called us. Weren’t that many of us. I remember figuring once that if you divided the square miles of Alaska by the number of state…
Warning: Spoilers spoken here. There were some eloquent pleas for the glacier and the photo album in the comments, but the cabin has it. It was the cabin her father built to prove up on his homestead, it was where Stephan brought Zoya as his wife, it was where Kate was born, it was where…
Warning: Spoilers spoken here. Of course you’re all right. It’s the lock box. Commemorated in this scene, which begins It was entirely involuntary, a knee-jerk reaction. She didn’t stop to think about it, she just picked up the little tin lock box and let fly. It’s arc was swift and her aim was true. …
WARNING: Spoilers spoken here. I liked Ginger’s comment about the Dawson Darling and the other comments about the Good-time Girls, but I’m going with Megan. It’s the transcript. And you’re going to love this: There is a real one, or at least a transcript of the inquest into the death of a real-life good time…
WARNING: Spoilers spoken here. It’s the Herc. Has to be. In service since the 1950s, designed originally for troop transport in war zones, it is also one of the sturdiest and most reliable workhorses for transport of freight and heavy equipment into Bush Alaska, home to more rough gravel airstrips than just about anywhere else.…
WARNING: Spoilers spoken here. I so wanted it to be the halibut heart because of Megan’s wonderful comment, but the fish wheel came on strong in the end and wiped out the competition. I found lots of video showing fish wheels in action on YouTube. Fish wheels are common on Alaskan rivers. The fish caught…
