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.
From Blood Will Tell, the sixth Kate Shugak novel: It went like that for the next hour, the longest hour of Kate’s life. Alana was pleasant, knowledgeable, and terrifyingly efficient. Kate loathed her. She loathed the first three tops Alana presented for her inspection, too. The first was covered with gold and black sequins. “I…
Read more “Ruffles? Who do I look like, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm?”
From Play With Fire, the fifth Kate Shugak novel: The mammoth’s tusks spiraled up from the display, graceful in spite of their mass, nearly full curls of fossil ivory. “You kind of wonder how they held their heads up under all that weight.” “Make you feel kind of insignificant, don’t they?” Kate said. “That something…
Read more “You kind of wonder how they held their heads up under all that weight.”
From A Cold-blooded Business, the fourth Kate Shugak novel: …”Just so I’ve got the sequence of events straight–those two got higher than kites, got kicked off the rig floor and took off in the Suburban?” “Uh-huh.” “And when they ran it off the road, they came back and took the forklift?” “Yup.” “And when they…
Read more “Just so I’ve got the sequence of events straight…”
From Dead in the Water, the third Kate Shugak novel: She wondered why she had never noticed before how so many ballads were written on horseback. The bat was coming down steadily now, in its own asymmetrical rhythm, batting out a tattoo of endurance, a measure of survival. When she got home, if she got…
An excerpt from A Fatal Thaw, the second Kate Shugak novel: “The mail plane called the tower in Tok, the tower called me, and I got in the air right away. I’ve been hitting every homestead on the way in.” Kate walked around him and got the shotgun down from the rack over the door.…
Read more “Probably the only chance I’ll ever get, how could I resist?”