The Singing of the Dead (Kate Shugak Novels)

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Politics has a way of bringing out the worst in people. Anne Gordaoff is running for Alaska state senator, glad-handing everyone she sees (and who doesn't see her first); her campaign manager will stop at nothing to get her candidate elected; her randy husband is exploring alternative methods of interacting with the constituency; her campaign researcher is digging up dirt on Anne as well as on her opponent; and said opponent has planted a mole in her campaign. All in all, it's the sort of situation PI Kate Shugak would do anything to avoid. Kate is still recovering from a job gone horridly awry--"World War III, Denali-style"--that killed her lover, Jack Morgan, and left her with a brutal scar on her throat and a glacier-sized lump of bitter grief within it. Machiavellian maneuvering is not her style. But when Anne, a Native American, starts receiving anonymous threats, Kate allows herself to be talked into a temporary stint as Anne's bodyguard.

The first body to turn up, however, isn't Anne's but that of her fundraiser and future son-in-law. The police are tempted to chalk up the murder to an adulterous liaison interrupted by a jealous husband, but Kate's not convinced. And when the campaign is rocked again by the murder of Anne's campaign researcher Paula Pawlowski, Kate must dig through closets filled with skeletons and dirty laundry: Paula had been combining standard politicking with research into her burgeoning historical novel. Old sins have long shadows, but could Anne's campaign really be connected to the 85-year-old murder of a Klondike prostitute?

Kate may make you think of Kinsey Millhone, Sue Grafton's California PI. Neither woman suffers fools gladly, both are fiercely independent, and both are as adept as porcupines when it comes to keeping people (and their unwanted attention or embarrassing sympathy) at arm's length. Dana Stabenow, in turn, shares Grafton's gift for capturing a character or a scene with a few words and a touch of humor. Here's her take on the rigors of the campaign trail--"Kate slept in a lot of different beds, and some were comfortable and some were not. She ate a lot of her meals standing up or out of a bag. She became sick of the sight of the back of Anne Gordaoff's head."--and on Mutt, Kate's 140-pound, half-wolf companion--"Like Kate, Mutt didn't care for a lot of noise about her person."

If The Singing of the Dead, the 11th novel in the Kate Shugak series, is your first introduction to Kate and the vast, unforgiving corner of Alaska she calls home, it will most likely send you scrambling for installments one through 10. If you're already a confirmed Shugak fan, it will have you waiting impatiently for number 12. --Kelly Flynn

Book Description

Kate 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 fund-raisers. But just as she's getting started, the campaign is rocked by the murder of their staff researcher. In order to track the killer, Kate will have to retrace the researcher's steps and delve into the past, in particular the grisly murder of a "good-time girl" during the Klondike Gold Rush of 1915. Little can she guess the impact a ninety-year-old unsolved case could have on a modern-day psychotic killer....AUTHORBIO: DANA STABENOW is the author of ten previous Kate Shugak mysteries as well as three featuring Alaska State Trooper Liam Campbell, in addition to three science fiction novels. A graduate of the University of Alaska with a BA in journalism and an MFA, she won the Edgar Award for her first novel, A Cold Day for Murder, and currently writes a monthly column for Alaska Magazine. Stabenow was born and lives in Anchorage, Alaska.

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With Midnight Come Again, Dana Stabenow took a giant step forward, delivering her most ambitious book to date in her series of novels about life and death in Alaska. Now, with Aleutian p.i. Kate Shugak on her way toward recovering from devastating recent events, Stabenow ups the ante once again with a daring novel parallelling the lives of her series characters with their ancestors, the settlers of the wilderness of America's fiftieth state. In The Singing of the Dead, Kate 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 killer. Seamlessly blending past and present, Stabenow's richly detailed plot and stunningly rendered characters and Alaskan setting ensure that this newest entry in the Kate Shugak series will not disappoint.

Customer Reviews:

A Winner!.......2007-01-05

Top-notch author and another winning story. Alaska is featured and described with accuracy and affection. Just one of the many stories in this land of mystery and challenges.

Singing of the Dead.......2006-07-24

In keeping with her other Shugak novels, Dana has done it again. A great read with lots of "who dunnits".

Alaska and Australia have a lot in common geneaology-wise!.......2006-03-26

I like Stabenow's writing. She writes well; concise, not-too-flowery but able to give insights into the Alaska that she so obviously lovers. To us, those who live below the Canadian-line, who have been given various names by those who dare to live in Alaska, it seems almost a mystical place. We are intrigued by those who choose to live in such a harsh environment, and wonder how they handle such hardships as when you don't see much of the sun for nearly six months or more. Stabenow gives a good amount of history in this book into the people who populated Alaska originally during the gold rushes at the turn of the 19th century.

I was not surprised at the women who chose to go to that harsh environment. Like I said, from reading histories of Australia, it seems the two areas have a lot in common with the only difference is that for the most part the women who went to Alaska went there by choice. In the beginning, England shipped its annoying criminal class (read that as poor) of women to the harsh colony of Australia. So a good many people in that country today who are Natives are people who married (or not) from between real criminals and women who were forced to do the only thing they could to survive and that meant selling their bodies.

Freedom of choice was the big difference here, yet it seems ironic that most AUssies I know are proud of their backgrounds. I guess if you are running for politics you would be a little hesitant to advertise the fact that one of your grandmothers were free with her favors...but when most of your constituency can same thing I would think it would be unwise to be ashamed of your background. Anyone who does geneaology can tell you that everyone has a questionable person somewhere in their families...mine has a pirate, Captain Kidd, who was probably not a pirate...but that's another story.

Kate Shugak has undergone a loss since I last read about her, so now I need to catch up on what happened to her 'soul mate', Jack. She's trying to recover from a deep loss and make a living at the same time. I enjoy reading about her. This is the type of woman I would like to have been; a little more brave and I would have enjoyed the type of work she does. But in the real world, such people are few.

Shugak is working for a politician and the research is turning up more than anybody was really rooting for. This leads to murder, and of course, murder leads to Shugak. Enough said...

Karen SAdler

A great read.......2005-08-23

The ongoing saga of Kate Shugak and her difficult, complicated and humoreous life - Oh, and the mystery she solves - is always intriguing. It held my interest, and I like following both her personal and professional life.

Not As Sharp As Usual.......2004-09-05

There is nothing wrong with this book except that it seemed a tad tired, even though I never met a Kate Shugak book I didn't like.

In this outing, Kate is hired (very reluctantly on her part) to act as security guard for a political candidate, Anne Gordaoff. Like all politicians, Anne is quick with the glib tongue and the familiar handshake, and Kate finds it hard to like her, even though on the surface, her platform seems sound. What's worse for Kate is the folderol that goes with any campaign, and stalwart native Kate is truly a fish out of water--until the murders start.

Somebody is dogging the candidate's heels, and victims are having a nasty way of turning up when least expected. Kate tries to solve the mystery, joined by her would-be lover Jim Chopin (Chopper Jim) and other regulars--including, of course, half-wolf, half wonderdog Mutt.

What saves the plot from being entirely tired is the parallel story that takes place early in the century--that of a dancehall hostess/prostitute in the wild and woolly Alaskan gold rush. Many authors before Stabenow have used this double plot trick to very good effect, and it works for her too, except that the tie-in between the prostitute Angel and the candidate Anne is very weak and very confusing.

So be it...worth reading for diehard Shugak fans. On to the next!

Singing the Dead: A Model for Epic Evolution

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Singing the Dead: A Model for Epic Evolution
Reyes Bertolin Cebrian
Manufacturer: Peter Lang Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Epic | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Criticism | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Greek | Classics | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
ASIN: 0820481653

Book Description

This book outlines the evolution of Greek heroic epic from funeral laments and creates a model for epic evolution using Greek, other Indo-European, and non-Indo-European materials. Singing the Dead conceives the epic as a post-Mycenean phenomenon associated with the first migrations away from the ancestors' tombs to the Ionian coast. Physical separation from the tombs impelled the development of narration concerning the ancestors and the rite at the tomb was substituted by stories that eventually became epic.

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Dana Stabenow's The Singing of the Dead
Dana Stabenow
Manufacturer: St Martin's Minotaur
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B000LT97KY

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Dead Birds Singing
Talbert
Manufacturer: Little Brown & Co (Juv)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OUD58U

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Dead Birds Singing-Beautifully Now
help for the wounded soul

Dead Birds Singing
Marc Talbert
Manufacturer: Laurel Leaf
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

General | Literature | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0440200369
Release Date: 1987-12-01

Book Description

One minute Matt is relishing the sweet memory of victory, the king most young people daydream about; the next he is waking up in the hospital dealing with the trauma of a horrible car accident. His nightmare a reality, Matt realizes his life is changed forever.

No matter how hard people try to make him feel at home, he cannot shake the over whelming feelings of anger, sadness, and aching loneliness inside him.

This is a penetrating, often agonizing novel about one boy’s encounter with personal tragedy and how, ultimately, he learns to forgive.

Customer Reviews:

Dead Birds Singing-Beautifully Now.......2000-02-19

I just read this book for a book report on Teen Realilistic fiction. I'm only in 6th grade and you may think I'm too young to know a good book, but It's all about a boy who has to cope with living with his friend when his mother and sister is hurt in a car crash. It will never leave my mind.

help for the wounded soul.......1999-06-09

I read this book in middle school and it has never left my memory. This book looks at a young boy as he tries to cope with the death of his mother and sister who were killed in a car crash on their way home from his swimming meet.

This book looks at grief in pratical terms, a lense in which we unconciously fail to see grif and suffering through.

Book Description

It is 1992, and the Burmese government's current war on its indigenous people runs into its fourth year. In neighboring Thailand, a small band of Buddhist monks harbors refugees from Burma inside their modest temple in the slums of Bangkok. The monks and refugees are all natives of the Burmese Mon State. All have the same residential status in Thailand: illegal. Under surveillance, and overwhelmed by the needs of their charges, the monks reach out to international aid agencies in Bangkok for help in ministering to the tortured, the wounded, the diseased, and the orphaned.

Singing to the Dead recalls a Catholic lay missioner's work alongside the Mon Buddhist monks of Bangkok. For more than two years, Victoria Armour-Hileman was a go-between for the monks, interceding with the world outside their temple walls for everything from a cornea transplant for a land mine victim to money to buy shoes for barefoot orphans. At the same time, Singing to the Dead details an aid worker's ongoing education: how to weave through an embassy bureaucracy, how to stave off burnout, how to pull money out of thin air at the eleventh hour, when to trust and when to be cautious, when to kowtow, when to pray.

As the centuries-old conflict between Burma and its Mon people worsens, police raids on the temple in Bangkok increase. Refugees have never been safe, but now even the monks' unofficial immunity seems tenuous. When one of the monks is threatened with repatriation to Burma and possible imprisonment and torture, Armour-Hileman begins the desperate race to secure a new home country for him. She knows that these final efforts are as selfish as they are humanitarian, for what kind of God, and what kind of universe, will she believe in if she fails?

Customer Reviews:

Deserves More Readers.......2005-07-29

Vicki Armour-Hileman's auto-biographical tale, Singing to the Dead, would be an astonishing success as a novel. Here the human heart is opened for us to see in a most illuminating manner, using the novelist's tricks of suspense and phraseology to keep us turning the pages. And we do!

I fear the title might be off-putting. Not that it is inappropriate, but when one reads on the jacket that the book is about oppression in Burma and Thailand of the unheard of Mon people, and written by a Catholic Missioner, and with such a title, the temptation is to give it a pass as probably rather dreary. Wrong impression. The author interposes herself and her humor between us and the suffering, and we come away enriched by sharing in this, her distillation of an extraordinary experience.

An Unforgettable Story of Courage Under Fire.......2004-11-16

The author is comical, insightful, and witty. She minces no words in telling a delightful, though often tragic tale of her mission in Burma. The characters in this book are so inspiring and left me wondering what I could do to help people like them who suffer so much at the hands of ruthless governments. This book should be better publicized than it is. I had never heard of it, I just happened to see it at a local book place. I'm so glad I found this treasure of a book, it is absolutely beautiful.

Warm and gripping story of love.......2003-02-05

Having spent a lot of time visiting friends in Burma over a ten year span of time, and having been priviledged to travel more than the ordinary tourist, what Armour-Hileman writes about the Mon refugees escaping into Thailand, the torture and privations and suffering a so very real. She doesn't make light of these sufferings and is very accurate in presenting them to us.
having visited the magnificent Kingdom of Siam (Thailand) often as a "rest stop" on the way out of Burma, the author showed me an entirely new facet -- the underbelly -- of this lovely country and its proud People.
I found it difficult to put the book down and it will live for a long time in my mind and heart.

It was even more "sharp" after having read Paschal Khoo Thwe's book "from the land of green ghosts" which was marvelous and a must read for anyone interested in recent and present Burma!

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Singing a Mass for the Dead
Darc Cummings , and Carol Hamilton
Manufacturer: Broncho Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0936908076

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The Singing of the Dead
Stabenow Dana
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Minotaur
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OTT3EG

Book Description

Life at an all-girls school is not quite what its cracked up to be. This volume brings even more tension between the" insiders" and "outsiders." It ain't all "sugar and spice and everything nice" at Yamasaki High!

Tokyo Boys & Girls, Volume 2 (Tokyo Boys&Girls)

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THREE SIMPLE WISHES
Miki Aihara's cute 5- volume show from 95.
Revenge...a dish best served cold...
Like Hot Gimmick? Give it a try!
Tokyo Shounen Shoujo

Tokyo Boys & Girls, Volume 2 (Tokyo Boys&Girls)

Manufacturer: VIZ Media LLC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Graphic Novels | Comics & Graphic Novels | Subjects | Books

General | Manga | Comics & Graphic Novels | Subjects | Books

Shojo (Girls) | Manga | Comics & Graphic Novels | Subjects | Books

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

All 4-for-3 Deals | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
ASIN: 1421500213

Book Description

Mimori Kosaka's dream comes true when she's accepted to the Meidai Attached High School and gets to wear their super-fashionable uniform! She's excited about having a fun and fulfilling freshman year of high school, but things don't turn out as effortlessly as she had hoped. The school year starts off well when Mimori befriends the beautiful Nana, but things quickly turn sour for her when she is chosen to be the class representative. Through a series of unfortunate events, she finds herself the focus of attention by three boys and her teachers for all the wrong reasons! Mimori is reunited with Atsushi, a boy she knew in elementary school. Their reunion is far from sweet since he despises her for allegedly bullying him in their elementary school days. In fact he plans to exact a little revenge!

Customer Reviews:

THREE SIMPLE WISHES.......2006-07-27

Mimori Kosaka has a few simple requests of God. She wants to get accepted into Medai Attached High School. She wants to wear the uniform and be cute. Lastly, she wants to spend her high school years with a handsome boyfriend. Two of these wishes come true. She gets accepted into Medai, one of the best schools in the city, and of course, she gets to wear the uniform, but the third one is running into a bit of difficulty. It's kinda hard to meet the guys because the school is split into two halves, male and female. The boys and girls can still SEE each other through the windows across from each other so it's not very hard to scope each other out from a distance. Mimori makes a new friend quickly in Nana Takaichi, who is as beautiful as she is naive. Mimori is a bit tougher and more of a tomboy. Mimori's personality also lands her the job of being class representative. On the boyfriend front, things are looking pretty ugly. Atsushi Haruta holds a grudge against Mimori for something Mimori did to him back in elementary school and swears revenge against her. Mimori doesn't even remember him! Ran is another guy that dislikes Mimori, but at least she knows the reason. She ruined a computer game he was developing for a contest. And then there's Kuniyasu, the resident stud, who goes along with the other two guys because he's a jerk, or maybe he's just bored.

I liked Tokyo Boys & Girls because I know how awkward going to a new school can be and also because we've all had days when everything went completely wrong. Or you unintentionally upset people and made them dislike you. These are all just human things that happen to all of us. So in this respect, Mimori is a sympathetic character. Watching her interact with the guys is pretty funny at times. One problem I had with this book was in the sometimes cliched storytelling. The biggest example of this is the conflict between Mimori and Haruta. Everytime he's on the verge of telling her what she did to him, another character shows up to interrupt the story, and so the author pulls the carrot back and hits us with the stick. This happens again and again, and it gets annoying. I'm sure the secret, once revealed, will not warrant all this bait and switching. The art at least never fell into bad shojo shortcuts and retained normal looking designs instead of rail-thin bishonen Clamp ostriches. Volume 1 was interesting enough to make me read Volume 2, where I HOPE Haruta will reveal his grudge so we can move on with the story.

Miki Aihara's cute 5- volume show from 95........2006-03-16

This is a really good series, who just keeps getting better and better, for each volume. In the first volume I had some trouble distinguishing between the characters.. as there were three people with almost the same hairstyle and face.. But once you get down that Haruta has dark roots (which means he's the only one with bleached hair.. the others are just drawn that way) then you're good.

It's sweet, exciting, and fun.. a but angsty at times- as it should be ;) There is character development.. and they just get more and more loveable (or in the one case- annoying) for every page. It's from the mid- nineties. I mention this because the clothes are not as up to date as in many other mangas.. but it's loveley, and sometimes it's nice to read series who are only five volumes.. cuz who really have the patience to wait 3-4 years for that 27-volume series to come to an end?

Do yourself a favor and buy it today ;)
I also recommend Korean Manhwa "Goong", Miki Aiharas "Hot Gimmick", immensly cute and beautifully drawn "Merupuri", and for those with connections= anything by Korean manga artist Hwang Mi Ri, especcially "Hot blooded woman" about tough female gang leader Ha Ji,(Jijang of her highschool) is great.

Revenge...a dish best served cold..........2005-11-11

"Tokyo Boys and Girls", the newest effort by Manga artist Miki Aihara that is currently being released by Shojo beat, starts off with a basic premise. Mimori Kosaka is a new student at Meidai Attached High School. On the first day she befriends the beautiful Nana Taikaichi after managing to secure herself a window seat. Why is the placement so important? Well, in an all girls section of the high school with only a courtyard separating the girls from the boy's side of the school it becomes a strategic location to meet and be scoped out by all of the available young men... And Mimori has every hope of acquiring a handsome boyfriend this year. Her hopes are soon dashed when she is elected by her peers to become the class rep, which basically means she'll spend the better part of her time running errands for the teachers, but what she fails to realize is that many of the errands involve delivering things to the boy's side of the school... which naturally puts her in a good position to be in with the guys.

On her first trip she encounters a young man with bleach blonde hair whom Nana informs her is a member of the West Tokyo Biker gang. The young man stays in her mind even when she chooses Nana to be her assistant rep and they make more trips over to the boy`s side. Eventually she reveals who she is, and to the young man's surprise she turns out to be a woman whom he's declared revenge upon. Apparently his name is Atsushi Haruta, and he and she were classmates in grade school, but the funny thing is that Mimori has no idea who he is. Things become even more complicated when an accident caused by Mimori erases a computer disc of a few classmates of Atsushi's. One of the classmates is a young man named Kazukita Kuniyasu, a young man whom Nana met in cram school and has developed quite a crush on. The other boy, Ran Shingyoji, is the one who is really distraught over the loss of the disc, as it was his and Kuniyasu's entry to a yearly video game contest. Suddenly everyone wants revenge against Mimori, and the three men band together to achieve this end.

While this concept is not as attention getting as Aihara's "Hot Gimmick", it is definitely a worthwhile read. Because there is not the same amount of shock value we get to know the characters of a more natural momentum. Also, there is the fact that several of the people want to be in relationships with one another... Ran likes Nana, who likes Kuniyasu... who likes to remain unattached but for some reason is drawn to Mimori... and then there's Mimori who can't help but think about Haruta, even though he has sworn revenge on her... Who exactly was he from her past?

The art from the manga is very well done, and the characters are wonderfully flawed and engaging. Overall, a wonderful read, something I intend on keeping up with in the future.

Like Hot Gimmick? Give it a try!.......2005-08-09

This story is very similar to Hot Gimmick (by the same author): young girl, cute, sweet and nice-looking, becomes the target of several guys and one just happens to be a childhood friend she has totally forgotten about. Only one thing can come from that...

It's a good volume, not much story, but you're introduced to all the characters and prepared for the rest of the story. The old early 90's manga art may be shocking to see especially since the style on the cover is simlar to the author's newer work but once you get past it, you have a fun cute story!

Tokyo Shounen Shoujo.......2005-07-10

"Tokyo Boys and Girls" is the newest manga from Miki Aihara, author of "Hot Gimmick".

The story is about Mimori Kosaka, a girl who isn't afraid to speak her mind. On the first day of school, she befriends the beautiful but ditzy Nana, and is chosen to be the class representative(even though she doesn't want to do it.) Then she meets Atsushi, a boy who claims to have known her during elementary school. He claims that she betrayed him in the past and is out to get revenge, but Mimori can't remember what happened. To complicate matters, Mimori and Nana accidentally break a home made video-game belonging to to other boys, Ran and Kuniyasu. Ran likes Nana, so he comes up with a plan to get close her. Also included in this volume is a short story about Nagase, an average girl, and her problems in dating a popular guy, Reiichi.

The characters are believable. Mimori is not annoying or perfect, and the other characters all get their chance to shine.

THe art is pretty, but it's not as good as in "Hot Gimmick". The character designs fit their personalities well. The backgrounds are good, and so is the overall layout.

Still, so far, this isn't as good as "Hot Gimmick". I know it's only the first volume, but that's all it took to hook me with the latter. If you want to read some of Aihara's work, I'd suggest you try "Hot Gimmick" first. Even so, this is a cute manga for anyone who's enjoyed her work. And if you're in the younger set, go with "Tokyo Boys and Girls" as it has almost no language or sexual stuff. This is a very good manga, and you should pick it up.

TRAPPED - Detective Story - Volume 2, number 3 - October Oct 1957: Poison with the Dolls; Jail Bait Girl; Are You Chicken; Fifty Thousand and the Girl; Stupid Fool; The Third Day; The Big Thrill; Angel of Death; High School Racket Gang

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TRAPPED - Detective Story - Volume 2, number 3 - October Oct 1957: Poison with the Dolls; Jail Bait Girl; Are You Chicken; Fifty Thousand and the Girl; Stupid Fool; The Third Day; The Big Thrill; Angel of Death; High School Racket Gang
W. E. (editor) (Mark Mallory; Stanley Mullen; James Bohan; Richard Hardwick; Norman Struber; Robert Ackworth; Talmadge Powell; Rick Sargent; Jay Fox) Scott
Manufacturer: Headline Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000LTFRSU

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