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Kate Shugak stars in her very own series of mystery novels that is written by award winning author Dana Stabenow. Except for the break in between the fourteenth and fifteenth books in the series (that saw no books come out in either the year 2005 or the year 2006), a novel has been released once a year.
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Order of Kate Shugak Series
| # | Read | Title | Published | Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A Cold Day For Murder | 1992 | Description / Buy | |
| 2 | A Fatal Thaw | 1992 | Description / Buy | |
| 3 | Dead in the Water | 1993 | Description / Buy | |
| 4 | A Cold-Blooded Business | 1994 | Description / Buy | |
| 5 | Play with Fire | 1995 | Description / Buy | |
| 6 | Blood Will Tell | 1996 | Description / Buy | |
| 7 | Breakup | 1997 | Description / Buy | |
| 8 | Killing Grounds | 1998 | Description / Buy | |
| 9 | Hunter's Moon | 1999 | Description / Buy | |
| 10 | Midnight Come Again | 2000 | Description / Buy | |
| 11 | The Singing of the Dead | 2001 | Description / Buy | |
| 12 | Under the Influence (Short Story) | 2001 | Description / Buy | |
| 13 | A Fine and Bitter Snow | 2002 | Description / Buy | |
| 14 | A Grave Denied | 2003 | Description / Buy | |
| 15 | A Taint in the Blood | 2004 | Description / Buy | |
| 16 | Wreck Rights (Short Story) | 2004 | Description / Buy | |
| 17 | Any Taint of Vice (Short Story) | 2004 | Description / Buy | |
| 18 | A Deeper Sleep | 2006 | Description / Buy | |
| 19 | Conspiracy (Short Story) | 2008 | Description / Buy | |
| 20 | Whisper to the Blood | 2009 | Description / Buy | |
| 21 | A Night Too Dark | 2010 | Description / Buy | |
| 22 | Though Not Dead | 2010 | Description / Buy | |
| 23 | Cherchez la Femme (Short Story) | 2011 | Description / Buy | |
| 24 | Nooses Give (Short Story) | 2011 | Description / Buy | |
| 25 | Restless in the Grave | 2012 | Description / Buy | |
| 26 | Bad Blood | 2013 | Description / Buy | |
| 27 | Less than a Treason | 2017 | Description / Buy | |
| 28 | No Fixed Line | 2019 | Description / Buy | |
| 29 | Not the Ones Dead | 2023 | Description / Buy |
The series began in the year 1992 when “A Cold Day for Murder” came out. Stabenow set the series in her native state of Alaska. Kate mainly interacts with an indigenous group of people near where she lives called Aleuts (of which she is one), and the Eskimos that are in Alaska. She lives on a national park (which is on 160 acre homestead) with her wolf dog (a half husky and half wolf mix) that she has named Mutt. Kate is an ex- investigator for the District Attorney in Anchorage, and was quite a big deal at her job.
KATE SHUGAK AWARDS
The first novel in the series, “A Cold Day for Murder” won an Edgar Award in the Best Paperback Original category in the year 1993. In the year 2012, “Though Not Dead” (which is the eighteenth novel in the series) won a Nero Award.
BEST KATE SHUGAK BOOKS
For those readers looking to get into the “Kate Shugak” series by Dana Stabenow, this section will help with that. It will go over the novels “A Cold Day for Murder”, “A Fatal Thaw”, and “Dead in the Water”.
A Cold Day for Murder: This is the first novel in the “Kate Shugak” series and was released in the year 1992. A National Park Ranger has gone missing, in the many acres that make up “The Park” (which is found in the hinterlands of Alaska). The detective that is supposed to find the young man also goes missing. Anchorage District Attorney’s department has nowhere left to turn but to their ex-investigator. None other than Kate Shugak. She is of the Park and knows it like the back of her hand. The search pushes her back into a world that she had left behind. Not to mention people and other problems that she never wanted to look at again.
A Fatal Thaw: This is the second novel in the “Kate Shugak” series and was released in the year 1992. Kate Shugak is doing her spring cleaning, not knowing that just a few miles away a man is losing his sanity. When the gunfire dies out, nine of his neighbors are dead in the snow. Is he responsible for killing eight of the victims or all nine? Victim number nine was killed with a different weapon than the other victims. Mutt and Kate have to figure things out. Especially about the life of the deceased blonde woman with the troubled past to find her killer. It is not going to be an easy thing t do, as every other Park rat had a motive for killing her. It could have been a wife wanting revenge or an ex-lover, wanting the same thing. Did a deal she was working on with some ivory smuggler go wrong? Jim Chopin (the state trooper that lives in the park) even had a past with the victim.
Dead in the Water: This is the third novel in the “Kate Shugak” series and was released in the year 1993. A crab vessel, called the Avilda, just had two crew members go missing; and under circumstances that fills a lot of people with suspicion. There is plenty of means and opportunity in the Bering Sea, but there are no bodies, evidence of foul play, or motive. So there is no case for the DA’s office. Kate Shugak is freelancing for her old employers. This time, she works undercover as a crab fisherman. One of the most dangerous professions you get can into in Alaska. Either the crew mates will kill her or the job will. She will go from Dutch Harbor to very isolated Aleutians.
OTHER BOOK SERIES YOU MAY LIKE
“Alaska Mystery” series by Sue Henry. Also called “Alex Jensen and Jessie Arnold” series, it is a series that has won Henry some awards. She is able to make you feel as though you are in Alaska while these characters are fighting for their lives.
“Sharon McCone Mystery” series by Marcia Muller. Sharon McCone is a private eye in the city of San Francisco. Books in the series started coming out in the late seventies and now has over thirty novels to the series.
What Is The Next Book in The Kate Shugak Series?
There doesn't seem to be an upcoming book in The Kate Shugak Series. The newest book is Not the Ones Dead and was released on April, 11th 2023.