Showing results by author "Dana Stabenow" in All Categories

Once, Kate Shugak was the star investigator of the Anchorage D.A.'s office. Now she's gone back to her Aleut roots in the far Alaska north - where her talent for detection makes her the toughest crime-tracker in that stark and mysterious land.

Dana Stabenow was born in Alaska before statehood, grew up on and around fishing boats, worked for an air taxi service, a cannery, and later, on the oilfields of the North Slope. Today, she's an Edgar Award-winning mystery writer with more than 25 Alaska-based novels to her credit. Stabenow knows Alaska. Writing for Alaska magazine, she revisits old haunts and explores new ones to capture the vital pioneering spirit of her home state.

Kate Shugak is a native Aleut working as a private investigator in Alaska. She's 5 foot 1 inch tall, carries a scar that runs from ear to ear across her throat and owns a half-wolf, half-husky dog named Mutt. Resourceful, strong-willed, defiant, Kate is tougher than your average heroine - and she needs to be to survive the worst the Alaskan wilds can throw at her. One hundred years of bad blood between two Alaskan villages comes to a boil when the body of a young Kushtaka man is found wedged in a fish wheel.

Alexandria, 47 BC. For three centuries, the House of Ptolemy has governed the Kingdom of Egypt. Cleopatra – seventh of her name – rules from Alexandria, that beacon of commerce and learning that stands between the burning sands of the desert and the dark waters of the Middle Sea. But her realm is beset by ethnic rivalries, aristocratic feuds and courtly intrigues. The world is watching the young Queen, waiting for a misstep. And now her most trusted servant – her Eye – has been murdered and a vast shipment of newly minted coin stolen.

From the palaces of Alexandria reigns Cleopatra – seventh of her name, avatar of the goddess Isis, ruler of the Kingdom of Egypt – surrounded by riches untold. Through the streets of her great city bustle scholars and sailors, politicians and priests. For those with the means, it is a comfortable life. But not all are invited to share in the wealth of Egypt's first city. When Herminia, one of Alexandria's most beloved actresses, disappears on the eve of a great performance, Cleopatra sets Tetisheri, her Eye, to investigate.

Alexandria, 47BC. Cleopatra – seventh of her name, avatar of the goddess Isis, ruler of the Kingdom of Egypt – watches over her city. The war is over, but Alexandria has suffered in its wake. Caesar has returned to Rome, and the queen must restore her city and her kingdom to their former greatness. But now a body has been found floating upright at the bottom of the sea, anchored by a weight around its feet. It's the second corpse to be found this way, and with a city to rebuild and a kingdom to keep in line, Cleopatra cannot allow any more murders to interfere.

Twelve years have passed since the events of A Handful of Stars. Star continues to silently mourn Caleb’s death, World Builders, Inc. is completing its first asteroid-based Bernal sphere, and the Svensdotter twins are of a restless age. When the opportunity to undertake a survey mission of Mars’ Cydonia region presents itself, Star leaps at the chance. Drifting above Mars' surface, the family rediscovers the wonder of pure exploration.

A renegade terrorist with a bottomless personal grudge against all things American targets the most visible symbol of American prestige and power one clear morning in Florida as NASA prepares to launch the Space Shuttle. This time the shuttle carries a high-profile payload and a high-paying visitor on board as a guest, and astronaut Kenai Munro, the FBI special agent Patrick Chisolm and U.S. Coast Guard Captain Cal Schyler are doing everything they can to help the launch go off without a hitch.

The Land Beyond, the third and final book in the Silk and Song trilogy, opens in Venice in 1324, where Johanna and company must find a new patron, a new way to earn their living, and above all a new home - all of which is complicated by a cunning kidnapping, a daring rescue, a tragic death, and a brush with royalty that puts Johanna and Jaufre and all their friends in the most danger they've seen yet.

In Everything Under the Heavens, 16-year-old Johanna fled Cambaluc - and her murderous stepmother - joining her uncle's westbound caravan on the Silk Road. With her foster brother Jaufre and a few faithful companions, they made it to the rooftop of the world - Terak Pass - separating Mongol China from the scattered sheikdoms of the Persian Empire. Then, disaster struck. In a climactic skirmish, Johanna and her stallion, North Wind, were abducted and Jaufre left for dead.

Ellfive colony won its independence in the One-Day Revolution, but while much may be forgiven, its debts haven’t been. The orbital nation needs a serious supply of minerals and ore to realize its manufacturing potentials, and in this solar system, the cost of lifting rocks to orbit is prohibitive; the only viable option is to mine them yourself. And so, Star Svensdotter leads a prospecting expedition to the Belt, almost two AUs out, on the very edges of Earth’s colonization of space.

"When the Betelgeuse message was detected, it changed a lot of things on Earth. We began to look seriously outward, not with the heady optimism of the early days, but with deliberate calculation. We knew that Someone was out there, and that eventually, they’d be coming. If Earth didn’t occupy the High Frontier, it could be ours to lose."

Dana has written two thrillers, Blindfold Game and Prepared for Rage, and when researching both novels she went on patrol with the US Coast Guard, first on the Alex Haley for 16 days in the Bering Sea, and then on Munro for seven weeks off the coasts of Central and South America. Dana was invited to write a daily blog from the ship so the shore-bound families of the crew could witness, as much as possible, the lives their loved ones were living at sea.