Customer Reviews

Whisper to the Blood (Kate Shugak Mysteries)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

First Sentence: "Grin bought out Mac Devlin."

PI Kate Shugak, without her knowledge, as been made chairman of the board of the Niniltna Native Association. Gold, copper and molybdenum have been discovered in Alaska's Iqaluk Wildlife Refuge by Global Harvest Resources Inc., known to the park residents as Grin. The residents are not happy about the prospect of a large mine so the company has hired very attractive Talia Macleod to smooth the way by promoting jobs.

With the brutal murders of two residents, one an opponent to the mine, Kate is asked by Trooper Jim Chopin to help find the killers. There is also the unsolved homicide of park villain Louis Deem and attacks by residents by snowmobilers to be resolved.

It is so good to have Kate Shugak back again. These books include some of my favorite characters, not the least being Mutt, Kate's part-wolf dog. Stabenow brings her characters to life, making them fully dimensional and having them grow and deal with personal issues as the series progresses. There is wonderful interaction between the characters which builds the story.

Stabenow shows us Alaska and its people, good and bad, and now different life there is from the rest of the country. Her observations on Alaskan life, politics and people are fascinating. She is also a wonderfully descriptive writer, from being out on a snowmobile to Kate's cooking, the descriptions of which made me hungry.

Her dialogue is excellent, her use of humor is well placed as is her ability to convey emotion. There were a lot of characters and the history of each. It was important to keep them straight but did make the story seem slow. And there was a fair amount of redundancy.

This is a series I recommend reading in order as I found this book, in particular, called upon events happening in previous books. I felt she explained those events well, but feel someone who had not read the actual books might feel a bit lost.

You can bet I'll be reading the next Shugak book.

There's something especially rewarding about following a regional mystery series - you're not only familiar with the characters but with the terrain. Often you've been introduced to unfamiliar territory, and are eager to learn more during a return visit. Such is the case with Dana Stabenow's sterling Kate Shugak series.

With this, the sixteenth in the series, we're reacquainted with Kate, a heroine with grit to spare, a 16-year-old foster son, and an Alaska state trooper boyfriend, Jim Chopin. We're also treated to one more narration by the splendid voice performer Marguerite Gavin who has recorded over 200 audiobooks including the first Kate Shugak and others in this series.

Check out Dana Stabenow's blog and you'll find that she, too, is thrilled with Gavin's work, saying" Good news for audio book fans......Marguerite Gavin is BACK as narrator!" How true! The voice Gavin has found for Kate captures not only her fierce independence but her strength. The sound is strong, sonorous, yet at times verges on a studied hoarseness that reflects tension or a frightening situation.

With Whisper To The Blood we find a Canadian gold mining company, Global Harvest Resources Inc., that has been buying up land inside Alaska's largest national park, simply known as "the Park." Residents don't care for this at all and remain unconvinced that it will be beneficial to them despite the efforts of a well liked ski champion Global Harvest has hired to bolster its pr. She's out there reminding everyone that gold is now selling for $900 an ounce, and the Company will be providing jobs for many.

However, it doesn't help a pr campaign any when murder is involved - one of the dead had been vocally opposed to the mine. No surprise that Jim Chopin is called on to solve the killings and that Kate will be by his side. Muddying the waters even further are attacks on snowmobilers. As usual Kate and Jim have more on their plates than most find in several lifetimes, and it's spine-tingling pleasure to find out what they can do about it.

Bestselling author and Edgar Award winner Stabenow demonstrates once again that she's tops in her field, springing surprises at every turn along with painterly descriptions of Alaska.

Enjoy!

- Gail Cooke

I love Stabenow's Kate Shugak series. If this is your first introduction to her work, definitely go back and start from the beginning, "A Cold Day for Murder." Stabenow's characters remain distinct and vivid and I love the details about life in Alaska. My only complaint is that this story very much followed the events from her previous book. It had been so long since I had read it that it sometimes took me a few minutes to remember what had happened and how this effected the current book. I guess I wish it had been a little more stand alone. I have to say that Stabenow has maintained a really high standard for this series- after over ten books, this is impressive. Many times I find that favorite authors of a long time series, such as Robert B. Parker's Jesse Stone books, peter out and become formulaic. That's not the case here.

Loved this book and had trouble putting it down. Carried it everywhere and read during any downtime.

Kate's toned down a little. Her new family now includes Chopper Jim, her adopted son Johnny and of course Mutt, her canine sidekick who seems to get feistier with age.

In the early books she was presented as exceptionally tough - a sort of feminine superhero. She's softer now and more human. So I was glad to see her step up and step out when the going got tough. There's one scene where Kate draws on all her Alaskan experience to bring some bad guys to justice.

What I especially liked about this book were:

First, we got to learn more about Johnny, now 18, fully at home as a high school senior living with Kate. I bet he'll end up in law enforcement. Does U of Alaska have a major in criminal justice?

Johnny's a good kid, at times a little mature for his age, at times a typical kid who skips school and enjoys his girlfriend. Doesn't he play basketball or do any group things with guys his own age?

Second, the four "aunties" are a lot of fun.

Third, we have a lot of fun with Kate's attempts to survive her new role as chair of the Native Association. I love the way she finally pulls it off.

Fourth, Stabenow finally gets it right with the romantic scenes. There's just enough chemistry between Kate and Jim.

Fifth, even the villains are a little funny and pathetic.

Sixth, I enjoyed the whimsical touches about Mutt, who gets more anthropomorphic with every volume in the series.

Finally, Stabenow creates the setting so vividly I'd look up from the book and expect to see snow outside my window.

Oh yes...it's a mystery so it's supposed to have a plot. Well, the suspense ran high but frankly I didn't really care whodunit. At the end a number of plot threads skillfully come together. There's just enough surprise to make for a satisfying read.

The continuing saga of Kate Shugak (this is the 16th in the series) continues as Kate reluctantly takes over as chair of the Niniltna Native Association, much against her will. It is the Board's function to look after the interests of the native shareholders, most of them "park rats" living in the 20-million-acre Alaskan park territory, filled with natural resources, salmon, timber and plenty of snow and ice in the winter.

The murder of the contemptible Louis Deem in the previous novel in the series haunts this book, but plays a minor role. The major part of the plot involves the discovery of close to the world's largest gold deposit in the southern portion of the park, threatening the very way of life of the inhabitants. Can progress be forestalled? After all, with gold at around $1,000 an ounce, it isn't likely. The company starts a public relations effort to woo the people, with a popular biathlon woman acting as spokesman. When she is found murdered, questions arise as to motive. Another murder, that of a man at the proposed mine site, leads Kate and her lover, trooper Jim Chopin, to believe both are related to the proposed gold operation.

The reader gets the full flavor of the Alaskan tundra in every Shugak novel, with the plot moving forward and slowly building in tension like the snow drifts covering the ground. The writing is as smooth as the ice in the streams and rivers. And Kate continues to grow as a character and as a person.

Recommended.

It's a great relief to find that despite her itch to get into fiction outside Alaska (which she scratched with a decent effort at Navy intelligence stuff), she shows no sign of weakening her achievement level back at the reservation. This continues the development of all the familiar characters involved, including Mutt the husky, with an exciting and interesting story. Terrific work--keep it up!

If you're not new to this series, read or re-read A Deeper Sleep right before reading Whisper to the Blood - this is like a continuation of A Deeper Sleep but it seems like Whisper has more humor thrown in. It's a great wrap-up to the ending of A Deeper Sleep, and I'm only sorry I finished it so quickly, can't wait for the next one!

If you like mysteries with strong, female protagonists and are wondering if the Kate Shugak series is for you, it is but START WITH THE FIRST BOOK OF THE SERIES - A Cold Day for Murder - and read them all in order. This book will be all the better for it. Stabenow's books aren't formulaic and the tone from book to book can be quite different, so stick with 'em.

Enjoy!

I love this series, but thought this book was weak. The plot seemed so slow to start, and there were just too darn many characters to keep track of, even for someone like me who has read all of the previous books in order. You definitely need to read this one in order, but it just fell flat. I found myself reading to finish it out of duty to the series, not because I was so eager to find out what happened next.

Of all the Shugak books, this one lacks a center. Each piece of the story is necessary to move the characters along and set up the next story arc, but the story itself didn't grab me like some of the earlier ones. Each separate thread is well thought out and important "messages" are woven in. Read this one to keep up with the series, but don't start here. Don't end here either. As many other authors have shown, this type of book is necessary sometimes during a long series. I fully expect that the next one will return to the normal high standard. Oh look - it's out in hardcover...

A number of years back, there was a television commercial that said, "If you want to get someone's attention, whisper." Well, Dana Stabenow's "Whisper" grabbed my attention and didn't let go for quite a while.

This is the sixteenth book in her Kate Shugak mystery series set in Alaska. Though the storyline is strong enough to stand on its own, the read would be much more enjoyable if familiar with the background and the back story.

I've read all of this series to date and am impressed at how fresh the story remains. The writing is excellent and the pace is steady. The story is built to a large extent on what has come before, so continuity plays a big part, and there's a chronology and flow to the events which lends realism--it's not often that mysteries are neatly wrapped up at the end of the day, or of the book. The characters remain compelling and have grown and changed throughout the series. Kate carries the load and remains a strong independent woman, Park rat, and investigator. She's changed from the beginning of the series, not in the sense that she's become soft or predictable, but rather she's weathered storms and taken on new challenges, and she's been sculpted into a different but still very recognizable Kate Shugak--one who may bend at times, but doesn't break.

All in all, this is a great read that I thoroughly enjoyed. I'm not surprised at all that it made the NY Times bestseller list. I had a tough time putting it down--loved being in Alaska with all of the characters again zipping around on those snow machines, had to know if Kate and Jim would stay together, couldn't wait to see just how Kate was going to deal with the Aunties and their expectations and machinations, and of course I had to find out whodunit. Oh, and I shouldn't leave out Mutt! Mutt was a joy to read about, too. Can't wait for book 17!