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lightreadsBooks five through eight in the delightful Kate Shugak Alaskan mystery series. Play With Fire takes Kate mushroom picking and lands her in the path of a suspicious death and religious fundamentalists. Blood Will Tell takes on native politics again at the Alaskan Federation convention. Breakup is an utterly indescribable romp which starts with a jet engine falling from the sky and carries on for at least three grizzly bears and a half dozen gun fights. Killing Grounds is set around the salmon fishing fleet and the death of one of the most hated fishermen.
I wrote about the first four books in this series here, and all I’m really having the urge to say now is that the flaws noted then have corrected themselves, and the virtues continue to charm. Breakup, in particular, is a perfect capsule example of Stabenow’s ability to mix wry but sparkling humor with the most serious subjects, and do it successfully. I giggled my way through the third and fourth shoot-outs, as I was supposed to, and then nodded soberly along not five pages later as the book turns around and undercuts the previous tone with a vicious and accurate assessment of the crippling substance abuse problems in the native community that caused the violence in the first place. Nicely handled, all around.
These are small, charming, rugged books, vividly and gracefully written. They do occasionally suffer from a tiny bit of top-heavy philosophy (Play With Fire and its religious debates) and sometimes a few too many of the characters are just a bit too easy with extensive knowledge of law or literature. But these are also thoughtful books, and I embrace the content while occasionally wincing a bit at its presentation.
Still unique, still very good, still well worth it.
I wrote about the first four books in this series here, and all I’m really having the urge to say now is that the flaws noted then have corrected themselves, and the virtues continue to charm. Breakup, in particular, is a perfect capsule example of Stabenow’s ability to mix wry but sparkling humor with the most serious subjects, and do it successfully. I giggled my way through the third and fourth shoot-outs, as I was supposed to, and then nodded soberly along not five pages later as the book turns around and undercuts the previous tone with a vicious and accurate assessment of the crippling substance abuse problems in the native community that caused the violence in the first place. Nicely handled, all around.
These are small, charming, rugged books, vividly and gracefully written. They do occasionally suffer from a tiny bit of top-heavy philosophy (Play With Fire and its religious debates) and sometimes a few too many of the characters are just a bit too easy with extensive knowledge of law or literature. But these are also thoughtful books, and I embrace the content while occasionally wincing a bit at its presentation.
Still unique, still very good, still well worth it.