July 19ththe Park “You know where she is,” Jim said. It wasn’t a question. “You don’t?” Bobby said. It wasn’t an answer. They glared at each other, both big men, one black, one blond, one in a wheelchair, one in the blue and gold of the Alaska state trooper, both of them mightily pissed off.…
Tuesday, July 10th Kushtaka Tyler Mack was an eighteen-year old stick of post-adolescent dynamite just waiting for the right match. He was smart in all the wrong ways, using his intelligence chiefly to conspire with Boris Balluta, his best friend and coconspirator since childhood, on ways and means to avoid manual labor. Of medium height,…
Warning: Spoilers spoken here. And a contest! With prizes!* So I put it to the Danamaniacs–what should be the object from the twenty-first Kate Shugak novel? Imma just cut-and-paste the winning entry here: Thank you, Dagna! Because what could be more apropos than a compass of any kind as a symbol for Less Than…
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. And a contest! With prizes! Scroll down for details.* It’s the Super Cub. It’s basic transportation in Bush Alaska and in Kate19 it is also the murder weapon. (And even if you took all that away, there is that fabulous Head of Zeus cover above. Although if you’re taking off from…
On the other side of the door, the two men in the almost identical uniforms exchanged a long, expressionless stare. Finally Jim said in a voice entirely without inflection, “Liam,” and nodded at a chair. “Have a seat.” “Thanks, Jim.” Campbell unzipped the heavy blue jacket and sat down. There was silence. “How long you…
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. The Suulutag mine, of course, and more specifically, gold, and most specifically of all, Alaska’s mineral resources. I’m just going to cut and past Megan’s comment here because really, what else is there to say? The Park’s Suulutaq mine is of course based on the Pebble Mine, the most controversial issue…
Warning: Spoilers spoken here. This was a hard one, specifically because of dueling recommendations for the copy of Robert’s Rules of Order Jim gave Kate for Christmas and the fishing line used to commit the murder. Megan said [Jim] knew, in this instance how completely out of her element she was, and found a way…
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…
