Amber's Thoughts

Each book in this series is complete in and of itself but taken together they become one long story, crafted so well that even though I’m going through the series backward, I’m neither confused about backstory nor being drowned in it. Stabenow delivers the right amount.

The land, the climate and the culture are essential to the plot. It couldn’t take place anywhere else but in this park in Alaska, with its mix of Native people, homesteaders, and outsiders. The crimes’ impact is broad and painful, affecting a community. The characters are real, whole, complex and original and their relationships make me care what happens and balance the starkness of the crimes with humor and warmth. The mystery is more than a puzzle to be solved.

Stabenow’s use of an omniscient point of view rather than exclusively close third person reminds me of James D. Doss, though there is little resemblance between his work and Stabenow’s aside from this, and the fact that the protagonist is Native American. Omniscience is difficult technique to handle well, but Stabenow succeeds.

A good book to read in the middle of summer. Escape to the far north and winter.