Midnight Come Again (Kate Shugak Novels)

Aleutian PI Kate Shugak is hiding out in Bering, Alaska. Scarred, scared, and pretending to be someone else, she's trying to find a reason to go on living after the murder of her lover and her own close call with death (Hunter's Moon). Her self-imposed exile is threatened when Chopper Jim Chopin, a state trooper from her home village in the Bush, arrives in Bering with a new identity of his own. Tagging along are a couple of (barely) undercover FBI agents who think that criminals aboard a Russian fishing vessel docked in Bering's harbor are attempting to smuggle stolen plutonium into the United States to sell to terrorists. But Kate suspects that the Russians are involved in a very different game: laundering money through a local bank. To prove it, she enlists the help of an old college friend who happens to be the bank's chief teller. But getting the evidence costs Alice Chevak dearly; once again, Kate fears, she's brought death to someone she loves.

In this ninth outing for her popular series heroine, Dana Stabenow adds depth, texture, and vulnerability to Kate's inner life; reveals new aspects of Jim Chopin's character; and introduces Alice's daughter Stephanie, with whom Kate forges a bond of love and obligation that promises the youngster an ongoing role in future Kate Shugak's adventures. An expertly paced and plotted thriller with moody, moving undertones, Midnight Come Again will please the author's many fans and likely win her new ones too. --Jane Adams