A Fine and Bitter Snow

By Dana Stabenow

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 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.

A FINE AND BITTER SNOW. Tensions run high when Kate's friend and chief park ranger, Dan O'Brien, is asked to take early retirement. Could it have somthing to do with his opposition to plans to drill for oil? Kate rallies the troops to fight for his job, but before she can really start throwing her weight around, a longtime resident, a friend of Kate's grandmother, is found brutally murdered. Alaska State Trooper Jim Chopin enlists Kate in the investigation, and it isn't long before she discovers that when it comes to the beauty and danger of living and dying in Alaska, nothing is as simple as it seems...

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
• Release date: Oct 10, 2012
• ISBN: 9781781850220

Dana Stabenow

Dana Stabenow was born in Anchorage, Alaska and raised on a 75-foot fishing tender. She knew there was a warmer, drier job out there somewhere and found it in writing. Her first book in the bestselling Kate Shugak series, A Cold Day for Murder, received an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America. Follow Dana at stabenow.com

Reviews for A Fine and Bitter Snow

[theyodamom · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Kate, Mutt, Johny, Jim, Dan, Bernie, Gal.... I love all these characters. They've all been through some seriously hard times in the last two books and are finding some bits of happiness finally. I love the direction Kate is heading, it is a healing path. She has been living a life that has kept her from fully healing her past pains for so long.There is a mystery, a good one. People close to Kate die, it's a tangled web filled with diversions, lies and horrible truths. That's all I'm going to say. For me this series is more about the Park family than the mysteries solved that is just the bonus. I can't wait to start the next book

[seriousgrace · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Kate is back. It's been awhile since we last caught up with the feisty private investigating crime solver. In A Cold-Blooded Business she and single dad, Jack, were hot and heavy. Now several books later Jack is dead and Kate is sort of looking after his son from a previous marriage. As an FYI - Kate's grandmother has also passed. In time, this detail will become important to the plot. For now, Kate needs a distraction from the grief these dual deaths have caused and, oddly enough, it comes in the form of oil drilling in southeast Alaska. Drilling in general has been a sensitive subject to all involved but when longtime friend and park ranger, Dan O'Brien, is deemed too environmentally friendly and is forced into early retirement, it becomes Kate's mission to save his job. It becomes even more personal when a good friend of her grandmother's is found murdered just days after agreeing to help Dan keep his job. Is the drilling in the wildlife preserve connected to this most recent death? State trooper, Jim Chopin, is on the case and he asks Kate to help...in more ways than one.

[buffalogr · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Kate is back in the Park, recovering. When she discovers that the local ranger is about to be cashiered because he opposes administration policy on oil drilling, she springs into action. All the familiar characters are there--Mutt is my favorite. As always, Stabinow illuminates one of the contemporary Alaska issues--oil drilling in the natural environment. Oh, and there is some crime involved and Kate solves it. "Chopper Jim" evolves and becomes a character we can enjoy. Where's book #13?

[cygnet81 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A little predictable but not the "environmental rant" that other reviewers said it was.