A Grave Denied
A Kate Shugak Mystery
Dana Stabenow
Review: The exceptional A Grave Denied is the 13th mystery in Dana Stabenow's Kate Shugak mystery series set in Alaska.
Kate's life has become more complicated with the arrival of Johnny, son of her dead lover, estranged from his mother, and determined to live in the Park where he feels he belongs. Kate needs to balance her professional duties as unofficial investigator for the Park with her quickly developing parenting skills for Johnny, both of which are tested when the dead body of a local handyman, known to all for his work, but virtually unknown as a person, is discovered in a glacier.
Stabenow creates an environment that envelopes and draws the reader into the Park with Kate. It is with great satisfaction that the reader and Kate both jump to the same conclusion at the same time, realize the clues that were there all along but inadvertantly overlooked, and then suddenly discover that all may not be as it appears.
Johnny's journal entries add a touch of personal realism to the story and are important elements to the solution of the mystery.
A Grave Denied is one of the best mysteries of the year and is highly recommended.
Review Copyright © 2003 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved
Location(s) referenced in A Grave Denied: Alaska
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A Grave Denied by Dana Stabenow
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Format: Hardcover
ISBN-10: 0-312-30681-4
ISBN-13: 978-0-312-30681-6
Publication Date: August 2003
List Price: $24.95
Synopsis (from the publisher): Everyone knew Len Dreyer, a handyman for hire in the Park near Niniltna, Alaska, but no one knew anything else about him. Even Kate Shugak, who was planning to ask him to help build a small second cabin on her property, knew him. But she, the Park's unofficial P.I., seems to have known less about him than anyone.
When Len Dreyer's body is discovered, frozen solid, in the path of a receding glacier with a hole from a shotgun blast in his chest, no one even noticed that he was 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 her responsibility for 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 put him right in the path of danger.
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