{"id":4940,"date":"2023-04-11T06:05:45","date_gmt":"2023-04-11T13:05:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/?p=4940"},"modified":"2023-04-11T06:05:45","modified_gmt":"2023-04-11T13:05:45","slug":"dana-stabenow-not-the-ones-dead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/dana-stabenow-not-the-ones-dead\/","title":{"rendered":"Dana Stabenow: Not the Ones Dead"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kate Shugak #23<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Kate Shugak has been around for awhile now, and she\u2019s made a space for herself on the planet.\u00a0 She\u2019s a fully realized, fully detailed character.\u00a0 As I was reading this book, number 23 in a beloved series, I couldn\u2019t help but think about the spectacular very first book, A Cold Day for Murder.\u00a0 <\/em>Dana Stabenow has always had a love for the traditional mystery in terms of plotting, and that hasn\u2019t changed, though Kate\u2019s universe has gotten more expansive.<\/p>\n

At the moment, I\u2019m re-reading (as time permits) Margaret Maron\u2019s wonderful Deborah Knott series, and it struck me as I was reading that there were few series that actually resemble each other more.\u00a0 Sure, Maron\u2019s books are set in North Carolina, not Alaska, but the surrounding sense of community and family are very, very similar.\u00a0 At this point I very much enjoy an outing with the \u201cAunties\u201d or a look at the way Kate, Mutt and Trooper Jim spend their evenings.\u00a0 But it\u2019s a different type of read from the first couple of tightly plotted novels. \u00a0It\u2019s more of a meander than a rocket.<\/p>\n

The plotting is still tight and complex, however. The book opens with an unpleasant and obviously racially motivated encounter for one of the series regulars, Bobby, and it\u2019s followed by an unpleasant encounter at the general store between Kate and a new family in town.\u00a0 The new family clearly doesn\u2019t want to speak to Kate because she\u2019s native.<\/p>\n

As the story proceeds, there are some tragedies, including a midair collision resulting in fatalities.\u00a0 The \u201cmidair\u201d really strikes home as so many Alaskans get around on small planes, thanks to the vastness of the landscape, and it\u2019s a horror they are all afraid of.\u00a0 The midair turns out to have some layers.\u00a0 The family of one of the pilots, an 87 year old man (who everyone is blaming for the accident), wants to hire Kate to prove he wasn\u2019t at fault, and Kate agrees.<\/p>\n

The layers spread to include an arson and another, extra, body at the crash site as well as the discovery of the body of a man who everyone thought had retired to \u201coutside\u201d (the Alaskan word for everywhere but Alaska).\u00a0 There\u2019s also a layer of the outside coming in, as the racial incidents are tied to a secretive group who keep to themselves and seem to be acquiring a lot of land.\u00a0 Kate, of course, manages to assemble all the pieces of the puzzle.<\/p>\n

I love that Stabenow is such a beautiful writer of the English language \u2013 for example, she uses the word \u201caffronted\u201d, a word I last remember encountering in a Beatrix Potter book.\u00a0 She\u2019s wonderful with character and plot, and she creates a matrix of setting and community around Kate that enrich the story.\u00a0 There\u2019s also Mutt.\u00a0 I love Mutt, Kate\u2019s half husky, half wolf, but she\u2019s gotta be around 30 years old now.\u00a0 Obviously Stabenow loves her too, and she\u2019s one of the great dog characters.\u00a0 But she should be enjoying a peaceful retirement at this point.<\/p>\n

These books are a delicious experience \u2013 a virtual visit to Alaska, a classic main character, and a wonderful story, plus a thoughtful take on current politics and the state of our national community. I hope there are 23 more.\u00a0 —\u00a0Robin Agnew<\/em><\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kate Shugak #23 Kate Shugak has been around for awhile now, and she\u2019s made a space for herself on the planet.\u00a0 She\u2019s a fully realized, fully detailed character.\u00a0 As I was reading this book, number 23 in a beloved series, I couldn\u2019t help but think about the spectacular very first book, A Cold Day for … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[473,1161,1164,1160,1163,1162,808],"class_list":["post-4940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-alaska","tag-dana-stabenow","tag-head-of-zeus","tag-kate-shugak","tag-mutt","tag-not-the-ones-dead","tag-traditional-detective-series"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4940"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4940\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4945,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4940\/revisions\/4945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}