NOTHING GOLD CAN STAY: A Liam Campbell Mystery [Paperback]

Dana Stabenow (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Unknown (2000)
• ASIN: B0028QAP2C
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)

More About the Author

Dana Stabenow was born in Anchorage and raised on 75-foot fish tender in the Gulf of Alaska.  She knew there was a warmer, drier job out there somewhere and found it in writing. 

Her first science fiction novel, Second Star, sank without a trace (but has since been resurrected as an e-book), her first crime fiction novel, A Cold Day for Murder, won an Edgar award, her first thriller, Blindfold Game, hit the New York Times bestseller list, and her twenty-eighth novel and nineteenth Kate Shugak novel, Restless in the Grave, comes out February 14, 2012.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another Page Turner!, October 3, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Nothing Gold Can Stay: A Liam Campbell Mystery (Liam Campbell Mysteries) (Hardcover)

While delivering the mail to small outposts in Alaska, pilot Wyanet Chouinard discovers the body of a postmistress. Wy's lover, Trooper Liam Campbell, has to investigate the murder and also support Wy through a personal crisis involving Wy's adopted son's birth mother and a court order that the woman has allowing her to see her son. Friends of Wy and Liam take the boy to stay at their remote fish camp along with a young girl who has been the victim of domestic violence. Meanwhile, a gold miner has also been murdered and his wife is missing. Liam searches for the wife in connection with the two murders, but the reader knows that the woman has been abducted by the real killer. Yet another body is found and the potential for violence escalates as a winter storm comes on and the kidnapped woman escapes her captor and heads for help in the same area where the fish camp is located. Wy realizes her son may be in peril because the trail of bodies is leading closer to the fish camp. She and Liam (who hates to fly) take off in the storm. The story reaches a dramatic climax at the cabin at the fish camp as several story lines converge. Stabenow makes the reader care about all the characters and especially the victims of the killer.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another winning mystery by Stabenow, October 6, 2000

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Nothing Gold Can Stay: A Liam Campbell Mystery (Liam Campbell Mysteries) (Hardcover)

At one time, law enforcement official Liam Campbell felt he had it all. He loved and was loved by his wife and son, and enjoyed his work even as he seemed on his way to the top. However, his world collapsed with the deaths of his spouse and child, which led to his failure as a cop. Exiled to remote Newenham, the Alaska State Trooper begins to recover his life, especially with his hot and cold relationship with local Wyanet Chouinard. Everything is quiet on the northern frontier.

However, the calm ends when someone murders the postmistress of a nearby village in an apparent robbery that turned ugly. Other homicides follow along with several disappearances. Liam, ably helped by his assistant Diana Prince, begins to investigate a crime spree that seems linked to events over two decades old.

With the Kate Shugak and Liam Campbell novels, Dana Stabenow owns the Alaskan mystery. The current tale, the third Campbell story (see SO SURE OF DEATH and FIRE AND ICE) is a fabulous regional novel that brings the final American frontier to vivid life. The story line is exciting, has a touch of love in the air, but never loses sight of its prime theme, the police procedural investigation in a remote area. Liam is a tremendous star still struggling but clearly improving to regain his equilibrium. The support cast adds the touch of genuineness and reality to the locale, the lead character, and the mystery.

Harriet Klausner

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Nothing Gold Can Stay: A Liam Campbell Mystery, July 23, 2001

By 

Sourdough (Marietta, Georgia USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Nothing Gold Can Stay: A Liam Campbell Mystery (Liam Campbell Mysteries) (Hardcover)

A disappointment. Having read the previous two Liam Campbell mysteries, I was quite excited when this latest edition arrived. I soon discovered, however, it was not up to the quality of Dana Stabenow's other work. Although the book has its moments when a decent plot surfaces, overall the book is a monotonous collection of trite sub-plots punctuated with silly ramblings and descriptions about the sexual exploits of the books lessor characters. It is unfortunate Ms. Stabenow's writing style has to take these measures to fill the pages of this short book. The plot idea was excellent and could have been developed into a first-rate story. Dana Stabenow has repeatedly proved she can write a great story. This book is not one of them.