Kate Shugak is hired by her emaa (Katherine Moon Shugak) to figure out what shenanigans are in play when two of the tribal leaders die before a major vote about logging some preserved land. Kate does some great research, after being dragged to Anchorage, and as usual, Mutt plays a major role. ( )

With a crucial vote coming up on whether to have a tract of land made part of the national park or left open for exploitation by natural resources companies, including oil companies, members of the tribal council are dropping like flies, and emaa asks Kate to investigate.

Lots of Alaskan history in this one. The ending gives off an end-of-an-era vibe, so it feels like a good place to break. I will be coming back to the series though. ( )

"The best book in the series so far"


I have to start a series from book 1, which in this case was " A Cold Day for Murder" a competent whodunnit that introduced the Aleutian Native American who lives, with her half wolf half husky bitch, Mutt, on her homestead in an Alaskan National Park. It was fun but showing it's age a little.(it was published in 1992). Initially I found Marguerite Gavin's reading style a little distracting - great dialog but too sing song on the text.

I've now listened to the first six books in the series and my view on everything has changed. Kate is now a richly written character, set in the context of an Alaskan society and a family and cultural history that each book has done more to explain.

"Blood Will Tell" moves Kate's life forward in emotionally intense ways, draws on characters from previous books to add depth and continuity and still provides a satisfying mystery to be resolved.

I'm now in love with how Marguerite Gavin reads the books. She is the voice of Kate Shugak and I have finally understood that the slightly sing song style is an echo of a Native American story telling tradition.

My favourite passage in "Blood Will Tell" is when Kate, forced with no warning, to make a speech to a Native American conference, falls back on telling a story in the style of her people. The story itself is beautifully written and read, but it also pulls all the threads of the book together into a set of images and ideas that are perfectly expressed. It starts with the same image that opens the book, Kate shooting a moose that has wandered on to her homestead, but this telling is a very different one, a parable, an invocation, a challenge, almost a manifesto.

Dana Stabenow seems to be telling us that stories are always more than they appear: they are how we bring meaning to ourselves and the world we live in, how we share meaning with others.

She is writing a series of detective stories but she is also helping us find meaning in a life and a world different from our own.

I strongly recommend this book to all readers looking for a "detective" that is also a human being they can care about and root for.

By now, Dana Stabenow has published twenty Kate Shugak novels. Books sixteen to twenty are available on audible.com. The earlier books are still being recorded. Brilliance Audio released book six, "Blood Will Tell" in June and Audible picked it up. Book seven "Break Up" is due to be released in September 2013. I'll be ordering it as soon as it's available on Audible.
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This was the second book in the series that I have listened to, the first being #3, [b:Dead In The Water|35597387|Dead In The Water (Kate Shugak, #3)|Dana Stabenow|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1499153838s/35597387.jpg|658646]. This is a better mystery, but I must agree with Kelly that Kate committed illegal and immoral acts against Jack's ex-wife out of spite. What's more, she rationalized them to herself and to Jack. I am used to imperfect heroes and even series about crooks who are anti-heroes, but that is not the kind of person that the author is trying to paint in this series. There is a lot of filler about tribal politics and the tension between Kate and her grandmother, who wants Kate to replace her on the tribal council. I know that many readers love Kate and this is one of the most highly rated in the series, so I guess my opinion is a minority one. I do like the author's blog and her comments about writing and books, and I hope that the two I've listened to are not typical of the series. I'll probably give another highly rated one a try sometime.

I thought that Marguerite Gavin did a better job narrating this one than she did with #3. That helped me finish the book. ( )

Another fantastic book i this series about an Alaskan Native with mad detective skills and her adorable side kick Mutt. The author did a fabulous job with her research blending reality into this story seamlessly. Sadly we lost a favorite character :( ( )