Play with Fire (Kate Shugak Mystery) (Mass Market Paperback)

by Dana Stabenow (Author) "Kate. Look up..." (more)
Key Phrases: mukluk telegraph, picking mushrooms, petit chien, Daniel Seabolt, Chopper Jim, Pastor Seabolt (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
The crisp crunch of snow gives way to mosquitos and mushrooms as both cold weather-loving Kate Shugak and her latest adventure wilt in the warmth of an Alaskan June. Kate and photojournalist Dinah Cookman are harvesting forest mushrooms when they discover a naked, much-decomposed corpse and call in a trooper, who says that no one within 100 miles has been reported missing in the last year. But then the grandson of the local Bible-thumping preacher asks Kate to find his missing father, Daniel. The corpse is identified as the boy's father's and, while the police suspect no foul play, Kate wonders how the man died. Few share her curiosity: the boy asks her to stop investigating, and other locals answer her questions evasively. Then a gang of thugs wrecks her camp and injures Dinah. Even readers sympathetic to Stabenow's (A Cold-Blooded Business) plot-linked message on religious intolerance will struggle with the crudely inserted mushroom lore and other extraneous material that doesn't even yield a credible red herring. Maybe the likable Kate will perk up again when the temperature plummets. Author tour.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal
While picking morels in an area recently burned by forest fire, series protagonist Kate Shugak (A Cold Day for Murder, Berkeley, 1992) discovers a body covered in ashes and mushrooms. Attempts to identify the man coincide with Shugak's search for a local boy's missing father-a teacher ostracized by his father's Jerry Falwell-type community. As in previous titles, Stabenow utilizes police procedural connections via Alaskan troopers, endows her writing with admirable sensory desciptions of flora and fauna, and provides unusual settings for her deceptively simple plot. A fine selection.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Berkley (May 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0425152545
• ISBN-13: 978-0425152546
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #41,029 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

• This is item 5 in The Kate Shugak Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars More musings than mystery, October 3, 2001

By	Carol Peterson Hennekens (Colorado Springs, CO United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Play With Fire (Audio Cassette)

I'm a big fan of the Kate Shugak series and thought Hunter's Moon was one of the best page turners in a long while. It inspired me to go back to some of her earlier novels. The good news is that Stabenow gets better with time. The bad news is that some of the early stuff is pretty weak. The basic problem with this book is that there isn't much mystery. A man goes missing for ten months and no one reports it? When found, his body is naked and he's died from mosquito bites. He's the son of the local fundamentalist minister. 300 pages later we find out who killed him.

The basic problem with this book is that for every page that moves the plot forward, Stabenow includes ten essentially irrelevant pages. The ramblings range from entertaining (does musak justify homicide?) to tedious (an encyclopedia excerpt on mushrooms) to touching (Kate's memories of going to college). There's much discussion on religion and education. These are two topics of interest to me so I didn't mind that they were mostly off topic. Other readers may be justifiably less tolerant.

Bottom-line: Many musings and not much mystery. Stabenow can do(and has done)better.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Too Much Preaching; Too Little Mystery, September 6, 2001

By	Susan R. Cakars "sanpablos" (San Pablo, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

In this book, Kate Shugak finds a body while picking mushrooms. It turns out to be the body of a person who has been missing for quite awhile, but whose father never reported him missing.
Kate is always arrogant with her beliefs, but this book really goes too far. I fully agree with Dana Stabenow's views on religious fundamental extremists. However, she goes too far when she starts trashing all religion and people who believe in them.
I really liked Kate's remembrances of her first year of college and of the professor who turned her on to literature. But none of this makes up for all her preaching against religion, people from other states, people who listen to different music, etc.
The mystery itself is unsatisfying, too. I agree with the other reviewer who lamented the lack of suspects, red herrings, etc.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars these reviews are too preachy!!!, December 29, 2002

By	"barnard7" (Monticello, Illinois USA) - See all my reviews

If you like Stabenow and you like Kate Shugak, don't let the reviews scare you off! Yes -- Stabenow takes on creationism and fanatical christians. Do you really think that an Alaska Native, like Kate, would find such beliefs appealing?

The story is interesting and the glimpses into what makes Kate tick will please devoted Stabenow fans.