(1992) A park ranger who wants to open up an Alaskan closed park to the public, disappears and the man who was sent to find him also disappears. Kate is brought in by the FBI as a local native to try to find the men. It leads her to the Lost Wife mine that belongs to a native neighbor who was violently opposed to the park plan. Turns out the ranger died accidentally in Abel's home, who then threw the ranger down a shaft of the mine. The man looking for him got too close to the truth, so Abel kills him and also puts him down the shaft. Kate figures all of this out only that it leads to Abel's suicide. Pretty good tale.Publishers WeeklyThis whodunit rides the crest of today's styles: a female detective, a remote locale and the conflict between the traditional way of life (in this case Aleut) and modern America. Detective Kate Shugak became the top investigator for the Anchorage District Attorney's Office. But after getting her throat cut while apprehending a child abuser, she has retired to the Park, 20 million acres of Alaskan wilderness, snow and eccentrics--yet the children's cries keep reverberating in her head. When a park ranger--a congressman's son--disappears, as does the investigator sent after him, the FBI and Shugak's old boss ask for her help. In the process Shugak gets shot at twice and readers get a guided tour of the local landmarks, including Shugak's manipulative grandmother's house in Niniltna (pop. 800) and Bernie's Roadhouse, site of a hilarious showdown between two drunken pipeline workers with a stolen 30-ton excavating machine and a helicopter-flying state trooper. Stabenow's ( Second Star ) tale lacks tension, and Shugak's unfocused anger at the world seems a bit forced, but overall this is an enjoyable and well-written yarn.

3.5 stars

I think that I will like later books in the series more - this first one has a lot of (necessary) background information about the characters and setting that at times was a bit too much. ( )

Surprisingly intense for a book that's so short. I loved the glimpse into a society that's foreign to me--that's one of the strengths of the mystery genre and it worked well here. ( )

Alaskan mystery!

I tell you, I literally breathed the cold of the mountain air, I heard the grand silence, and I felt Aleut woman Kate Shugak’s dismay, her hurt, and importantly her love for Alaska and it’s wilderness.
The National Park she lives in covers twenty million acres. A ranger has been missing for six weeks, and an FBI agent who was strangely investigating the disappearance, for two.
Kate, a former District Attorney Investigator, now doing private consulting, has been called to follow up on these disappearances. She’s from the area, she’s whip smart, and has a way of cutting through to the truth.
Only Kate doesn’t want to do it. She lives out in the wilderness with her wolf dog Mutt, her top of the line Arctic Cat machine, and her injuries from a previous case. We’re not sure what it was but her throat was cut. She has an unsightly scar and a hoarse voice.
What she does know is that the two missing are two men she’d worked with before. Where are they? And are her family involved?
A great start to a new adventure series set in the wilds of Alaska where the only way in is plane or up a disused railway track.
A Park full of interesting characters, from her astute grandmother, various cousins, old time miners, to a couple of drunken dimwits.
I was living the thrill, and the despair of it all!

An Aria & Aries ARC via NetGalley.
Many thanks to the author and publisher. ( )

I liked the Alaskan setting for this mystery, and of course I liked the dog, but I wasn't madly in love with it otherwise.
As the first in a series, it spent a lot of time setting the scene and tone. I suspect there will be more time spent on characterization as the series continues.
The first books in some of my other series didn't wow me either, and I think it would be worth reading another of these to see if I might fall in love with Kate Shugak the way I did with Harry Dresden and Mercy Thompson. ( )