Tag: Alaska

Lost Hours by Paige Shelton (Mystery)

Writing: 3/5 Characters: 4/5 Plot: 4/5

The best part of Shelton’s Alaska mystery series is the set of characters that populate the small town of Benedict. Beth Rivers is the crime novelist who came to Benedict a year ago to hide from her still-on-the-loose kidnapper (he was finally found and incarcerated in the last book); Viola, the tough-as-nails manager of the halfway house; Orin, the peace-sign flashing librarian and computer genius; and Gril, the grizzled police chief relocated from Chicago.

In this, the fifth installment, Beth gets involved with a woman claiming to have escaped her own kidnapper who was killed by a bear. But the woman is not exactly what she seems, and a whole pile of complicated connections must be unearthed before the solution can be found.
A little more filler in this one, but still an entertaining read.

Thank you to Minotaur Books and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on December 5th, 2023

Not the Ones Dead by Dana Stabenow (Alaskan Mystery)

Number 23 (!) in Stabenow’s Kate Shugak series. I must have gotten distracted because I missed the last two — I’ve read all the others, though.

I like this series because Stabenow invests in a deep background on all aspects of Alaska — the scenery to be sure, but also the lifestyle, politics, local industries, and the individuals who call it home — native Americans, born and breds, and recent immigrants. I love the details of a ranger’s life, the local businesses, and the Native Aunties who seem to run the show.

This particular story involved a highly stereotyped group of White Supremacists — which I could have done without — but I enjoyed every minute of the twisting plot, the investigative action, the characters, and getting to live in Shugak’s world for as long as it took me to read.

Thank you to Head of Zeus — an Aries Book and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on April 11th, 2023

Dark Night by Paige Shelton (Mystery)

Writing: 3/5 Plot: 4/5 Characters: 4/5

Number three in the Beth Rivers / Benedict, Alaska series from Paige Shelton. This series is slightly different in that while each book has its own set of dead bodies to explore, there is an overarching, longer term mystery centering on our heroine. Beth Rivers is her birth name, but she is better known as Elizabeth Fairchild — a famous author of thrillers. She is in hiding from a man who kidnapped and tortured her for three long days before she managed to break free — and each book gets us closer to understanding who this man is, where he might be, and how she can stay safely hidden until he is apprehended.

This is a cozy — just enough action to keep my interest and not enough tension to keep me awake at night. I like the quirky characters in this remote Alaskan town. I’m guessing there isn’t really a lot of verisimilitude in the story, but it’s fun to read. In addition to our brave and yet terrified heroine, we have a retired special ops, Willie Nelson lookalike running the library, a tough-as-nails woman running a halfway house for female parolees, a new love interest named Tex, and Beth’s newly appeared mother about whom one could write an entire novel.

Don’t worry if you haven’t read the first two — the author spends a little too much time (IMHO) doing a thorough rehash of previous events.

A great beach / plane read.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Books and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published tomorrow (Dec. 7, 2021).

Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead (Literary Fiction)

Writing: 5/5 Plot: 4/5 Characters: 5/5

The sweeping story of a daring aviatrix (Marian Graves) who is determined to be the first to fly around the globe longitudinally and the self-destructive actress (Hadley Baxter) who will play her in a movie 60 years later. Their somewhat parallel stories (orphaned young, raised by benignly neglectful uncles) and innate curiosity help Hadley delve into the character more than the screen-writer had.

This book was interesting on so many levels. Stunning descriptions of gorgeous locales — Montana, Alaska, and Antarctica between 1920 and 1950 — spread throughout. In-depth discussions of aviation and art, as well as philosophical dives into isolation, the lure of solitude, the impact of war, and the evolution of personal identity are also ubiquitous. Shipstead really gets inside a subject, presenting it not as a separate entity but through the character’s perception of it. We see Antarctica not as a dry description of mountains and snow, but through Marian’s perspective, and it feels as though her soul is exposed through the beautiful language of what she sees and feels. Similarly, while aviation has no appeal for me, Shipstead describes Marian’s intellectual and emotional engagement with it, and I can feel the (unnatural for me) attraction. It’s a rare author who can transmute a dry topic into fascination through the mind of an obsessed character. Even the Hollywood bits feel real through character insight, rather than splashy opulence and name dropping.

Plenty of historical context is introduced via short tidbits from the news (flights from other aviatrices, difficulties for women in trying to achieve in male-dominated worlds, etc.). As always, I like the fact that the author just wrote the story, with realistic reactions and approaches of her characters and didn’t spend time pontificating on the obvious. Yes, life was much harder for women who wanted to pursue the unorthodox, but this story is about what they did anyhow, not what they were prevented from doing. Her writing style is also not overly dramatic — no heart wrenching prose — though the tale abounds with angsty opportunities.

I’d forgotten that I’d read one of Shipstead’s earlier works — Astonish Me —about ballet dancing and defection. She reminds me of Jennifer Egan a bit (I’m a big Egan fan) in the way she can bring clarity to complex topics in a variety of subjects.

A quick warning — I found the first two chapters a little dry — it gets much, much, better. Highly recommended.

Some good quotes:

“…how best to squeeze Marian’s completely unknowable existence into a neat pellet of entertainment…”

“…and out over the loose northern jigsaw of spring ice that the planet wears like a skullcap, …”

“There should be an Antiques Roadshow for memories, and I would sit behind a desk and explain that while your memory might be lovely and have tremendous sentimental value, it was worth nothing to anyone but you.”

“The landscape is secretive and harsh and impossibly immense, and she borrows some of its inscrutability for herself, its disinterest in human goings-on. Unfriendliness is another form of camouflage.”

“Mountain everywhere: monstrous, ice-choked cousins of the forested peaks that had encircled her as she looped and spun over Missoula.”

“Was this what her father had done after he left Missoula? Slung his skills over his shoulder and set out?”

“Does that mean I wish to die? I don’t think I do. But the pure and absolute solitude in which we leave the world exerts a pull.”

“She thinks he means that no matter what earnest promises of peace are made, what fragments are hauled up and glued back together, the dead will not return. A return to the world as it was is impossible; the only choice is to make a new world. But making a new world seems dreary and exhausting.”

Thank you to Knopf and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on May 4th, 2021.

Cold Wind by Paige Shelton (Mystery)

Plot: 4/5 Characters: 3.5/5 Writing: 3/5

I enjoyed this book — the first Paige Shelton book for me (although it looks like she has written a ton of mysteries across multiple series). I’m a sucker for interesting settings, and I love reading stories that take place in the more remote parts of Alaska. The writing was decent, the characters interesting enough for me to care, and I found the plot intricate and not terribly predictable. I was particularly happy that the book didn’t have a lot of filler which is something I find in a lot of genre fiction — especially when the authors are on their umpteenth episode and appear to have run out of fresh ideas. This was fun, I read it quickly, and I was able to read it at night (not an edge-of-your-seat thriller which is absolutely fine with me!)

This was number two in her Alaska series — I haven’t read number one and was able to figure everything out just fine (but may go back and read the first!)

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on December 1st, 2020.