Dana Stabenow was born on March 27, 1952, in Anchorage, Alaska, and raised on a 75-foot fish boat in the Gulf of Alaska. In 1969, she graduated from Seldovia High School.
She worked as an egg grader, bookkeeper, and expediter in Anchorage to pay her way through college. In 1973, she graduated from the University of Alaska with a B.A. in journalism. Then, she participated in the MFA program, from which she graduated in 1985. Second Star, her first novel, was purchased by Ace Science Fiction in 1990.
Dana Stabenow is the author of two series of novels that showcase bold, independent women. First is a mystery that follows the exploits of Alaskan investigator Kate Shugak. The second is a science fiction novel about space pioneer Star Svensdotter. All series are distinguished by their elaborate use of detail and fast-paced narrative. In 1998 she published another mystery series. It stars an Alaskan state trooper and his romantic companion, bush pilot Wyanet Chouinard.
Dana credits her work ethic and success to her mother. She said, “I grew up believing I could do anything because my mother showed me how.”
Dana still resides in Alaska, despite having searched for warmer climates in the past. Many of her books are set in this place as well.
Dana Stabenow Books in order
Star Svensdotter
Kate Shugak Novels
- A Cold Day For Murder (1992)
- A Fatal Thaw (1992)
- Dead in the Water (1993)
- A Cold-Blooded Business (1994)
- Play with Fire (1995)
- Blood Will Tell (1996)
- Breakup (1997)
- Killing Grounds (1998)
- Hunter’s Moon (1999)
- Midnight Come Again (2000)
- The Singing of the Dead (2001)
- A Fine and Bitter Snow (2002)
- A Grave Denied (2003)
- A Taint in the Blood (2004)
- A Deeper Sleep (2006)
- Whisper to the Blood (2009)
- A Night Too Dark (2010)
- Though Not Dead (2010)
- Restless in the Grave (2012)
- Bad Blood (2013)
- Less than a Treason (2017)
- No Fixed Line (2019)
- Fire And Ice (1998)
Liam Campbell Mysteries
Coast Guard
Silk and Song
Eye of Isis Mysteries
Standalone Novel Non-fiction
Similar authors
- Gabriel F.W. Koch’s Marlowe Black Mystery series follows Marlowe Black. When he finds out his fiance committed suicide under strange circumstances, he swears to uncover the truth.
- Willow Rose’s Eva Rae Thomas Mystery series follows former FBI profiler, Eva Rae Thomas. When crime strikes, she can’t help but investigate.
- Nevada Barr’s Anna Pigeon series follows a park ranger. Every time something bad happens, she is there to solve the mystery. See Anna Pigeon Books in Order.
See also: Paul Doiron Books in Order.
Most recommended books
- A Grave Denied (Kate Shugak, #13) (4.30 Goodreads score)
- Breakup (Kate Shugak, #7) (4.29 Goodreads score)
- Midnight Come Again (Kate Shugak, #10) (4.27 Goodreads score)
- The Kate Shugak Novels, Vol 2) (4.26 Goodreads score)
- A Fine and Bitter Snow (Kate Shugak, #12) (4.26 Goodreads score)
Awards
Her first Kate Shugak mystery, A Cold Day for Murder, won the Edgar Award for Best Paperback Original in 1993. Her 2011 Kate Shugak mystery, Though Not Dead, received the 2012 Nero Award.
Upcoming books
Dana currently has no planned releases. Her most recent novel, Disappearance of a Scribe, was published on January 18th, 2022. It is the second installment in the Eye Of Isis Series.
Book summaries
Second Star (1991)
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.Esther “Star” Svensdotter’s job is overseeing the completion of the American Alliance’s first O’Neill cylinder — a massive space hab capable of supporting thousands of colonists. It’s just weeks away from commissioning, and she’ll be damned if Luddite terrorists, squabbling bureaucrats, military takeovers or rogue AIs will stand in the way. Frontier justice on Ellfive sometimes involves an airlock — you don’t want to be on the wrong side of justice. Or the wrong side of Star Svensdotter
A Handful of Stars (1991)
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. It’s not exactly unexplored territory—a motley assortment of grifters, drifters and fortune-hunters have already made the Belt their home—but Star and her crew soon find that they have a lot to offer the anarchic frontier society, and that there are richer opportunities than merely mining for minerals.
Red Planet Run (1995)
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. With strength and humor, Star addresses her parenting difficulties, battles 21st century piracy, connects with a self-sustaining Martian colony and discovers a mysterious link with the red planet’s—and Earth’s—ancient past.
A Cold Day For Murder (1992)
Somewhere in the hinterlands of Alaska, among the millions of sprawling acres that comprise “The Park,” a young National Park Ranger has gone missing. When the detective sent after him also vanishes, the Anchorage DA’s department must turn to their reluctant former investigator, Kate Shugak. Shugak knows The Park because she’s of The Park, an Aleut who left her home village of Niniltna to pursue education, a career, and justice in an unjust world. Kate’s search for the missing men will take her from self-imposed exile back to a life she’d left behind, and face-to-face with people and problems she’d hoped never to confront again.
A Fatal Thaw (1992)
Spring has arrived in The Park. The snow is melting, the birds are singing, the wolves are frolicking… and somewhere, in a lonely cabin along the road to Niniltna, a man’s sanity is breaking. Soon, nine people will be dead, seemingly the victims of a random act of violence—until a routine ballistics test reveals that one of the murders was anything but random. Once again the Anchorage DA’s department must turn to their former investigator, Kate Shugak, to uncover a calculating killer, hiding in plain sight.
Dead in the Water (1993)
Two crewmen of the crab vessel Avilda are missing—presumed dead—under very suspicious circumstances. The Bering Sea offers ample means and opportunity, but without bodies, a motive, or evidence of foul play, the DA doesn’t have a case. And so, freelancing again for her former employer, Kate Shugak finds herself working undercover in one of Alaska’s most dangerous professions: crab fisherman. It’s an assignment that will take her from the debauchery of Dutch Harbor to the most isolated of the Aleutians, and if the job itself doesn’t kill her, her unsavory crewmates just might.
A Cold-Blooded Business (1994)
Work hard, play hard. That’s the credo on the oilfields of Alaska’s North Slope, where harsh conditions and long, isolated shifts make for some of the best-paid jobs in the state. Management typically turns a blind eye to off-hours drinking and gambling, but a spate of drug-related deaths means it’s time for Royal Petroleum to get its house in order. Working on behalf of the Anchorage DA, Kate Shugak is brought in undercover to identify the dealer and shut down the flow of cocaine. Of course, the dealer might have some very different ideas.
Play with Fire (1995)
A mushroom hunting foray turns gruesome when Kate Shugak stumbles across a burnt, decaying corpse amid a grove of morels. Was the deceased the hapless victim of last year’s forest fire? Why has no one reported him missing? And why wasn’t he wearing any clothes? Absent evidence of foul play, the troopers are inclined to call it death by misadventure; Kate’s instincts suggest otherwise, leading her down a path that requires her to confront issues of community, faith, and free will.
Blood Will Tell (1996)
It’s a crisp, snowless October in The Park. The root cellar is full, the cordwood is stacked, the oil drums are filled and there’s a freshly-butchered moose in her cache, but Kate Shugak must leave her cabin and head into the chaos of Anchorage, where the Alaska Federation of Natives’ annual convention is being held. Why? Because board members of the Niniltna Native Association have been dying… board members who just happened to oppose a lucrative new development project. If it’s just a coincidence, perhaps Kate will find nothing, but this is Alaska—politics and profit are constantly at odds with conservation and traditional practices, and anyone looking too closely is likely to discover something unsavory.
Breakup (1997)
When winter’s done, but spring has not yet fully-sprung, much of Alaska turns to slush. Locally, it’s called “breakup,” and it’s a… messy time of year. It’s certainly messy for Kate Shugak; between doing her taxes, being chased by grizzlies and getting shot-at by feuding families, she has to cope with an NTSB investigation that hits very close to home. Then, of course, there’s the body in the woods. And up at the old mining town. And… being Kate Shugak, somehow she can’t leave well enough alone, and begins to tease-apart a well-planned and surprising crime.
Killing Grounds (1998)
It’s fishing season, and Kate Shugak is working with Old Sam aboard the fish tender Freya when Cal Meany floats up dead. His reputation as a womanizer, strike breaker and abusive father ensures that there are several suspects, multiple motives, and quite possibly more than one murderer. While Kate investigates the killing, her aunties mend nets, operate an illegal fish camp and impart cultural wisdom to Jack and his son Johnny. Ultimately, Kate finds herself in grave danger, as even her aunts join the list of suspects.
Hunter’s Moon (1999)
Guiding becomes a deadly business when Kate Shugak accepts a contract to shepherd a group of German computer executives on an Alaskan hunting retreat. As the fog rolls in and people start dying, Kate and her boyfriend Jack discover how very seriously their charges take the sport. A hunter’s moon signals a season of gathering and plenty, but Kate finds herself out of resources and at her most vulnerable. She must find the strength to not only survive, but repay. This time, the guide becomes the huntress.
Midnight Come Again (2000)
Kate, a former investigator for the Anchorage D.A. and now a P.I. for hire, is missing after a winter spent in mourning. Alaska State Trooper Jim Chopin, Kate’s best friend, needs her to help him work a new case. He discovers her hiding out in Bering, a small fishing village on Alaska’s western coast, living and working under an assumed name– working hard, as eighteen-hour workdays seem to be her only justification for getting up in the morning. But before they can even discuss Kate’s last several months, or what Jim is doing looking for her in Bering, they’re up to their eyes in Jim’s case, which is suddenly more complicated– and more dangerous– than they suspected.
The Singing of the Dead (2001)
In Singing of the Dead, the next installment in Dana Stabenow’s acclaimed crime series, Kate Shugak hires onto the staff of a political campaign to work security for a Native woman running for state senator. The candidate has been receiving anonymous threats, and Kate, who went to college with two of the staffers, is to become her shadow, watching the crowds at rallies and fundraisers. But just as she’s getting started the campaign is rocked by the murder of their staff researcher, who, Kate discovers, was in possession of some damning information about the pasts of both candidates. In order to track the killer, Kate will have to delve into the past, in particular the grisly murder of a “good-time girl” during the Klondike Gold Rush in 1915. Little can she guess the impact a ninety-year-old unsolved case could have on a modern-day psychotic killer.
A Fine and Bitter Snow (2002)
Change never comes easy, but it comes just the same, and it’s on its way to the Park, to Niniltna, in southeast Alaska. This time it concerns the possibility of drilling for oil in a wildlife preserve near there, near Aleutian P.I. Kate Shugak’s home territory. Battle lines are drawn across their community, but at least it gives Kate something to do. Still just months after her lover’s violent death, though she doesn’t know quite how, she is trying to get back into her daily life.First, tensions run high as their resident park ranger, Dan O’Brien, is deemed “too green for them” by management and asked to take early retirement. Kate rallies the troops inside the Park to fight for his job, but before she can really start throwing her weight around, a long-time Park resident is brutally murdered, another stabbed and left for dead as well.Alaska State Trooper Jim Chopin enlists Kate to help investigate, and together they tackle the loose ends: motive, timing, opportunity, means. One thing is for certain-in Dana Stabenow’s masterful crime novels about the beauty and the danger of living and dying in Alaska, nothing is as simple as it seems.
A Grave Denied (2003)
When Len Dreyer’s body is discovered, frozen solid, in an ice cave beneath a remote glacier with a hole from a shotgun blast in his chest, no one had even noticed that he had been missing for months. Alaska State Trooper Jim Chopin asks Kate to help him dig into Dreyer’s background, in the hope of finding some motive for his murder. She takes the case, mindful of the need for gainful employment as she copes with Johnny, the teenage boy in her care and a constant reminder of his father, her dead lover. Little does she imagine that by trying to provide for him she just might be putting him in the path of danger.
A Taint in the Blood (2004)
Thirty-one years ago in Anchorage, Alaska, Victoria Pilz Bannister Muravieff was convicted of murdering her seventeen-year-old son William. The jury returned a quick verdict of guilty, believing the prosecutor’s claims that she had set fire to her own home with both her sons inside; William died and the other, Oliver, narrowly escaped. Victoria was sentenced to life in prison without parole, and though she pled not guilty at the trial, she never again denied her guilt.Now her daughter, Charlotte Muravieff, has hired Kate Shugak to clear her mother’s name. Her daughter has always believed in her innocence, and now that Victoria has been diagnosed with terminal cancer, Charlotte wants her free. Kate is the only p.i. Charlotte can find who’s willing to take such a long-shot case. Kate, on the other hand, is only willing because she’s suddenly a single parent to a teenager, a teenager she hopes will decide to go to college. Besides, it can’t be bad to do a favor for the Bannister family, one of the wealthiest and most prominent families in Alaska’s short history.As Kate begins an investigation, Victoria protests, refusing to cooperate. But soon it seems she isn’t the only one who wants to leave the past in the past. In this spell-binding novel, A Taint in the Blood, Kate’s confrontation with thirty years of secrets and regret-and murder-in one of Alaska’s most powerful families shows award-winning crime writer Dana Stabenow at the top of her game.
A Deeper Sleep (2006)
Kate, a private investigator, has been working on a case for the Anchorage District Attorney involving the murder of a young woman by her husband, a man named Louis Deem. Deem has been the subject of investigations before, and he’s never been convicted of a crime. But Kate and her on-again, off-again lover, state trooper Jim Chopin, who arrested Deem, are convinced that this time it’s different, and he’ll finally be punished for his actions.When the jury returns a verdict of not guilty, Kate and Jim are devastated, and like the rest of the citizens of Niniltna, Alaska, certain that a man has gotten away with murder. They can’t help but think that it’s only a matter of time before he’s in the frame for another killing. Sure enough, a few weeks later a shooting leaves two dead in an apparent robbery. But this time Kate and Jim have a witness, and they’re not going to let Louis Deem get away again. Or will he?
Whisper to the Blood (2009)
Inside Alaska’s biggest national park, around the town of Niniltna, a gold mining company has started buying up land. The residents of the Park are uneasy. “But gold is up to nine hundred dollars an ounce” is the refrain of Talia Macleod, the popular Alaskan skiing champ the company has hired to improve their relations with Alaskans and pave the way for the mine’s expansion. And she promises much-needed jobs to the locals.But before she can make her way to every village in the area to present her case at town meetings and village breakfasts, there are two brutal murders, including that of a long-standing mine opponent. The investigation into those deaths falls to Trooper Jim Chopin and, as usual, he needs Kate to help him get to the heart of the matter.Between those deaths and a series of attacks on snowmobilers up the Kanuyaq River, not to mention the still-open homicide of Park villain Louis Deem last year, part-time P.I. and newly elected chairman of the Niniltna Native Association Kate Shugak has her hands very much full.
A Night Too Dark (2010)
In Alaska, people disappear every day. In Aleut detective Kate Shugak’s Park, they’ve been disappearing a lot lately. Hikers head into the wilderness unprepared and get lost. Miners quit without notice at the busy Suulutaq Mine. Suicides leave farewell notes and vanish.Not only are Park rats disappearing at an alarming rate, but so is life in the Park as Kate knows it. Alaska state trooper Jim Chopin’s workload has increased to where he doesn’t make it home three nights out of four, the controversial mine has seduced Johnny and his classmates with summer jobs and divided the Niniltna Native Association—the aunties are to a woman selling out—and a hostile environmental activist organization has embraced the Suulutaq Mine as their reason for being.It’s almost a relief when Kate finds a body. This she can handle.Until the identity of the body vanishes, too.
Though Not Dead (2010)
The residents of Alaska’s largest national park are stunned by the death of one of their oldest members, eighty-seven-year-old Old Sam Dementieff…Even private investigator Kate Shugak. Sam, a lifelong resident, dubbed the “father” of all of the Park rats—even though he had no children of his own—was especially close to Kate, his niece, but even she is surprised to discover that in his will he’s left her everything, including a letter instructing her simply to, “find my father.”Easier said than done, since Sam’s father is something of a mystery. An outsider, he disappeared shortly after learning about Sam’s existence, taking with him a priceless tribal artifact, a Russian icon. And in the three days after Kate begins her search through Sam’s background, she gets threatened—and worse.The flashbacks from Sam’s fascinating life, including scenes from major events in Alaska’s colorful history, punctuate a gripping story in which Kate does her best to fulfill Sam’s last wish without losing her own life to the people who are following her every move, though what they are searching for Kate doesn’t even know.
Restless in the Grave (2012)
Alaska aviation entrepreneur Finn Grant died in the fiery crash of his Piper Super Cub. Someone sabotaged his engine, and virtually everyone in southwestern Alaska has a motive, including his betrayed wife, his bullied children, and Liam’s wife, bush pilot Wyanet Chouinard. With few places to turn, Liam asks his former mentor Niniltna post commander Sergeant Jim Chopin, for help, and Jim quickly brings Kate onto the case.Working undercover as—of all things—a waitress at Bill’s Bar and Grill, Kate learns over beer and burgers that Grant’s business had expanded meteorically over the last two years. After buying the closed Air Force base south of town from the federal government at a bargain-basement price, he became a fixed-base operator running his fishing, hunting, and flight-seeing business, servicing planes flying through the area, and most interestingly and lucratively, getting into the air freight business. But what kind of freight was he moving, and where?
Bad Blood (2013)
One hundred years of bad blood between the Alaskan villages of Kushtaka and Kuskulana come to a boil when the body of a young Kushtaka ne’er-do-well is found wedged in a fish wheel. Sergeant Jim Chopin’s prime suspect is a Kuskulana man who is already in trouble in both villages for falling in love across the river. But when the suspect disappears, members of both tribes refuse to speak to Jim. When a second murder that looks suspiciously like payback occurs, Jim has no choice but to call in Kate Shugak for help. This time, though, her Park relationships may not be enough to sort out the truth hidden in the tales of tragedy and revenge.
Less than a Treason (2017)
Two thousand people go missing in Alaska every year.They vanish in the middle of mountain footraces, on fishing boats in the Bering Sea, on small planes in the Bush. Now a geologist known for going walkabout with his rock hammer has disappeared from the Suulutaq Mine in the Park. Was it deliberate? An accident? Foul play? Kate Shugak may be the only person who can find out.But for the fact that Kate, too, is among the missing…
No Fixed Line (2019)
It is New Year’s Eve, nearly six weeks into an off-and-on blizzard that has locked Alaska down, effectively cutting it off from the outside world. But now there are reports of a plane down in the Quilak mountains. With the NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board — responsible for investigating aviation incidents) unable to reach the crash site, ex-Trooper Jim Chopin is pulled out of retirement to try to identify the aircraft, collect the corpses, and determine why no flight has been reported missing. But Jim discovers survivors: two children who don’t speak a word of English. Meanwhile, PI Kate Shugak receives an unexpected and unwelcome accusation from beyond the grave, a charge that could change the face of the Park forever.
Fire And Ice (1998)
Alaska State Trooper Liam Campbell, demoted and reassigned to the remote bush town of Newenham, literally steps off the plane into a murder scene. Dealing with death is never simple, but when the woman leaning over the body proves to be Liam’s old flame, it’s evident that his new job is about to become much more complicated. Of course, small town tensions tend to simmer just beneath the surface, and murder, once done, has a tendency to happen again.“What were you intending to do with Mr. Engebretsen, Bill?”They both regarded the bound man for a moment. The bar watched and waited in silence. “Well,” Bill said finally, “I was thinking about supergluing his shooting hand to one cheek of his ass and his other hand around a beer bottle.”Liam stared. She appeared to be absolutely serious. He opened his mouth, and she said, “He drinks too much, does Teddy. I’m not totally unfeeling—the bottle of beer will be a full one, but after it’s gone, that’s it.”“I like it,” the Old Fart said, and grinned evilly when Teddy’s eyes bulged over the edge of the gag.“Or we could just shoot him,” she said, and raised the .30-06 to work the action. She gave a satisfied nod. “Plenty of ammunition. Course at this distance I really only need one.”
So Sure Of Death (1999)
Three relatively-quiet months have passed since Trooper Liam Campbell was assigned to the remote post of Newenham. It all changes when a local fishing boat is discovered scuttled and adrift—its crew of seven dead in circumstances that can’t be accidental—and Wy stumbles into a murder scene at an archaeological dig. Cultures collide as the community must deal with too many outside distractions.Summertime in the Bush smelled like OFF. Well, OFF and salmon. Wy smelled of both, but she smelled most strongly of herself, a scent somewhere between lilac and lemon peel, half sweet, half tart, part seduction, part challenge. Liam strapped himself into the shotgun seat of the Cessna and concentrated on that smell. It was easier than thinking about hanging his ass out over a two-thousand-foot precipice for the next hour.
Nothing Gold Can Stay (2000)
Alaska State Trooper Liam Campbell, newly promoted to corporal, is slowly making a home for himself in the remote town of Newenham. Between DUIs and domestic disputes, life is relatively tranquil, until Campbell’s girlfriend, bush pilot Wyanet Chouinard, delivers a shipment of mail to a remote post office, where she finds the postmistress murdered. The hunt is on for a killer who seems to have vanished into the Bush… Until another victim is found. Chilling connections from the past make the search a matter of life and death.At first they couldn’t tell she was a woman, she was so covered in snow and frost and mud. Leaves and twigs were caught in hair so lank and matted they couldn’t tell what color it was. Her blue jeans were soaked through. She was wearing tennis shoes, one of which was missing, and the white anklet on that foot was torn and the flesh beneath bleeding.They were caught motionless in shock. The woman looked up at them and opened her mouth. Her voice was the merest croak of sound. “Help.”She tried to say more, but couldn’t. “Help,” she said again, and lay her head down on the floor and closed her eyes.
Better To Rest (2002)
A party of hunters stumbles upon a desiccated human hand, a feisty grandmother meets an untimely death in her own kitchen, and the broken remains of a World War II-era transport plane emerge from the face of a calving glacier. It’s all in a day’s work for Sergeant Liam Campbell of the Alaska State Troopers. And 60 years ago is like yesterday.Liam had his hands clenched around the edge of his seat and with every muscle strained upward, keeping that plane in the sky. Oh, God yes, anything but down, please, please. I’ll never get drunk again, I’ll do all of Miranda every single time no matter how the Supreme Court rules, I’ll marry and settle down and live a nice, quiet life, just please don’t let this plane go down with me on board.But when he risked a glance out the window, down seemed to be coming up very fast indeed, and now he cursed the light of the moon that so clearly illuminated the river beneath them.
Spoils of the Dead (2021)
Newenham is an ice-bound bush town with a six-bed jail, a busted ATM and a saloon that does double-duty as a courtroom. It’s a wide-enough patch to warrant a state police presence, though, and Trooper Liam Campbell is it. Campbell has been exiled from Anchorage to Newenham in disgrace, busted down from sergeant to trooper in the aftermath of a mistake that cost a family of five their lives, to spend some time in the wilderness. Campbell didn’t expect the job to be simple and it hasn’t. From the (literally) cutthroat business of commercial fishing, to the paranoid misanthropy of the back-country prospector, to drug dealers, serial killers, and caches of forgotten war gold, he has had his hands full. Now he has a dead archaeologist, murdered at their own dig site, who claimed to be on the verge of a momentous discovery. Fans of the icy frontier, of mystery tinged with a frisson of romance, of laconic lawmen with good intentions, of tai chi and small aircraft piloting take note: Liam Campbell is for you.
Blindfold Game (2005)
In Thailand, two men hire a pair of international pirates to smuggle them, a small team of mercenaries, and some equipment aboard a freighter at a Russian port. It’s frighteningly easy, and the ship sails east, toward the western coast of North America.The crew onboard the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Sojourner Truth, stationed in the Bering Sea along the Maritime Boundary Line, is busier than usual, catching fishing vessels on the wrong side of the line, but it’s not enough to cause undue alarm.In Washington, D.C., a CIA analyst has been hearing rumors about the sale of radioactive material and military equipment on the black market in deep Russia but can’t get it confirmed.The analyst, Hugh Rincon, originally from Alaska and more keenly aware than most in Washington of Alaska’s vulnerability with its air force base and proximity to the Far East, begins to piece it all together. He can’t get anyone to take him seriously, however, least of all the director of the CIA.Then Hugh learns that his estranged wife, Sarah Lange, is second in command on the Sojourner Truth in the Bering Sea at the heart of the potential conflict. And the chase is on.
Prepared For Rage (2008)
A terrorist with a most personal grudge, an FBI analyst challenged to be three steps ahead of the intelligence, a Coast Guard captain assigned to keep watch on that very American of symbols from the water, an astronaut who takes her job very seriously—the paths of all of these characters converge on one clear morning in Florida. NASA is preparing to launch the space shuttle, this time with a high-paying visitor on board as a guest, and the FBI and the Coast Guard are doing everything they can to help the launch go off without a hitch. But one Pakistani man with a bottomless personal grudge and the commitment of many zealous men behind him is determined to strike back at the most visible target he can find.
Everything Under the Heavens (2014)
Raised in a prosperous family of 14th century Chinese merchants, Wu Johanna has grown up on camelback, in bustling city marketplaces, and in the cool, shaded depths of Silk Road caravanserai. Hers is a world of spice merchants and pearl divers, bandits and troubadours, servants and sheikhs. A world in which trust is more valuable than gold, and the right name can unlock a network of contacts from Japan to North Africa. Johanna is, after all, the granddaughter of Marco Polo.In the wake of her father’s death, however, Johanna finds that lineage counts for little amid the disintegrating court of the Khan. Dynastic loyalties are shifting, petty jealousies lead to cold-blooded murders, and the long knives are coming out. If Johanna is to find a future for herself, she’ll have to rely on her wits, the vagaries of fortune, and a close-knit circle of friends and traveling companions. Her destiny—if she has one—lies more than a continent away, at the very edge of the known world.
By the Shores of the Middle Sea (2014)
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.Now, in By the Shores of the Middle Sea, Johanna is a prisoner in the harem at Talikan, with Baron Ogodei’s army pillaging the countryside and preparing to sack the tiny Persian enclave. Hundreds of leagues to the south, in Kabul, Jaufre lies recovering from his near-fatal wound. Their journey has taken them halfway across a continent, yet an equal distance still lies between them and Gaza, where Johanna and Jaufre once meant to take ship for Venice and the sanctuary of Johanna’s grandfather’s family. Gaza and Venice: two cities on opposite shores of the Middle Sea that together open a door to the West. For Johanna and Jaufre, it’s a passage that will shape their destiny, if only they can reach it.
The Land Beyond (2015)
Sixteen-year-old Johanna flees Cambaluc in 1322, following the murder of her father and the murderous intentions of her step-mother, accompanied by her foster sister and wise woman Shasha, and by Jaufre, an orphan of the Road who has been raised to be her companion—and who hopes to become more. Together they take to the Road, that storied collection of routes that link the silks of Cathay, the spices of the Indies and the jewels of the Indus to the markets of the western world. Their destination? Venice, that fabled port of the Middle Sea, and the home of Johanna’s her grandfather, the legendary Marco Polo.But first they must survive treachery, betrayal, a war of conquest waged by an ambitious Mongol general, a long separation, and a Road beset by thieves and robbers emboldened by the steady deterioration of the Mongol Empire. They meet a chugi monk, a goliard, a Knight Templar, and two refugees from the harem of Sheik Mohammed of Talikan, but in spite of these new friends it is still a long and difficult journey, at the end of which they arrive in Venice only to discover Marco Polo on his deathbed.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.
Death of an Eye (2018)
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. Not only that, she must contend with the insatiable appetite of Julius Caesar who needs Egyptian grain and Egyptian gold to further his ambitions. 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. Cleopatra cannot afford for the coins to go unrecovered or the murderers unpunished, so she asks childhood friend, Tetisheri Nebenteru, to retrace the dead Eye’s footsteps.Tetisheri will find herself plunged into the shadowy heart of Alexandria. As she sifts her way through a tangle of lies and deceit, she will discover that nothing can be taken at face value, that she can’t trust anyone – perhaps even the Queen herself.
Disappearance of a Scribe (2022)
Two Alexandrian fishermen come across a horrifying sight – the body of a skeleton floating upright at the bottom of the sea, anchored in place by a cement weight around his feet. In Alexandria’s rough-and-tumble construction trade they call that ‘being fitted with a pair of Rhakotis sandals’ and what’s worse, he’s the second such victim in two years.Queen Cleopatra is busy rebuilding her city after the Alexandrian War and these murders are not to be allowed to interfere with this primary task, so she charges Tetisheri, her new Eye of Isis, with the task of finding out who these men were, when they were murdered, and, above all, why.
Alaska Traveler (2012)
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 over 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. From cruising the Inner Passage to hiking the Chilkoot Trail, bidding on bachelors at Talkeetna’s Winterfest, to a behind-the-scenes look at the Iditarod sled dog race, Alaska Traveler collects over 50 of Stabenow’s columns about life on America’s last frontier. It’s Alaska in all seasons—not just the summer months—and in all its quirky, iconoclastic glory.Travelers planning a trip to Alaska will find much to inspire them, as will those just interested to read more about the state that residents call The Great Land.
On Patrol with the US Coast Guard (2021)
The absolute best part of a writer’s life is the research. I’ve written two thrillers, Blindfold Game and Prepared for Rage. For both novels I went on patrol with the US Coast Guard, first on Alex Haley for 16 days in the Bering Sea in February 2004 and then on Munro for seven weeks off the coasts of Central and South America in March, April and May of 2007.The US Coast Guard invited me to do a ride along on cutter Alex Haley in the Bering Sea in February of 2004. I was invited to write a daily blog from the ship so the shore-bound families of the crew could eyewitness, as much as possible, the lives their loved ones were living at sea. In that capacity, I poked my nose into every nook and cranny and interrogated most of the crew as to the particulars of their jobs. The USCG is the single most hospitable community in the world and nearly every door—in this case, hatch—was flung wide open for me.I grew up in a commercial fishing community in Alaska, which including all the squiggly bits has about 35,000 miles of coastline. Coasties were always around when I was growing up, and I’d always wanted to write them somewhere into my work, The original plan was to create a Coast Guard base in Newenham in the Liam Campbell novels, with recurring characters. Then, alas, Liam lost his publisher, so when my agent and editor ganged up on me to write a thriller I figured, Awwright, Coastie hero!Of course all I really knew about Coasties was what I saw from the beach, so I got online, found the website for the Kodiak CG base, and there found a cutter named Alex Haley. Sorta seemed like it was meant, you know? I contacted the skipper, Captain Craig Barkley Lloyd, and he said “Come on down!” The rest is Stabenow history, two ridealongs, one in the Bering Sea and one in the eastern Pacific Ocean.Coasties are the second most welcoming and hospitable people on earth. (The Irish are first.) On both cutters the crews took some time getting used to me (most writers they host on patrol are journalists looking for a story), but once they figured out I wasn’t writing a scandalous exposé they threw open every hatch on every bulkhead. I was in the circle around the captain as they planned the midnight rescue of an injured fisherman offshore of the Pribilof Islands. They let me put actual hands on things, like very big guns, the cyclic of a helicopter in the air, a garden hose (to wash down the turbines). I got to jump off the side of the ship into the Pacific Ocean where it’s 8,000 meters deep, and I’m a shellback now (although they still haven’t sent me my card).And I got a king’s ransom in the way of original source material. The crew even helped me with plot points. If you’re a beginning author, remember this: Everybody loves to talk about what they do, and if they see that you’re really listening to them they will bend over backwards to help you get the details right.You get the details right, you’ve got yourself a credible and convincing setting, and you’ve got your foot in the door of the reader’s imagination. And then you’re home.
