• A Cold Day for Murder

  • Kate Shugak, Book 1
  • By: Dana Stabenow
  • Narrated by: Marguerite Gavin
  • Length: 5 hrs and 27 mins
  • 3.8 out of 5 stars (3,217 ratings)

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A Cold Day for Murder  By  cover art

A Cold Day for Murder

By: Dana Stabenow
Narrated by: Marguerite Gavin
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Publisher's summary

Eighteen months ago, Aleut Kate Shugak quit her job investigating sex crimes for the Anchorage DA’s office and retreated to her father’s homestead in a national park in the interior of Alaska. But the world has a way of beating a path to her door, however remote. In the middle of one of the bitterest Decembers in recent memory ex-boss — and ex-lover — Jack Morgan shows up with an FBI agent in tow. A Park ranger with powerful relatives is missing, and now the investigator Jack sent in to look for him is missing, too.

Reluctantly, Kate, along with Mutt, her half-wolf, half-husky sidekick, leaves her wilderness refuge to follow a frozen trail through the Park, twenty thousand square miles of mountain and tundra sparsely populated with hunters, fishermen, trappers, mushers, pilots and homesteaders. Her formidable grandmother and Native chief, Ekaterina Shugak, is — for reasons of her own — against Kate’s investigation; her cousin, Martin, may be Kate’s prime suspect; and the local trooper, Jim Chopin, is more interested in Kate than in her investigation. In the end, the sanctuary she sought after five and a half years in the urban jungles may prove more lethal than anything she left behind in the city streets of Anchorage.

State of suspense: listen to more Alaskan mysteries in the Kate Shugak series.
©2011 Dana Stabenow (P)2011 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

What listeners say about A Cold Day for Murder

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Kate & Mutt Kick Ass

When I recently listened to A Cold day for Murder for about the 10th time, I realized that Dana Stabenow is simply a genius. The character of Kate is strong, engaging, self-sufficient, funny and relentless. She may be burnt out from 5 years of protecting Alaskan children from physical & sexual abuse, but she isn't whining or looking for a man to rescue her.

Kate (about 30) was a breath of fresh air; a truly mature adult female in contrast to the wimpy young bimbos so popular in current fiction. I had a good laugh imaging some alpha jerk attempting to dominate her body & mind; Kate would have kicked his ass and left his bloody corpse for the bears.

The plot introduced all the park residents, an interesting mix characters and Kate's former boss and lover Jack plus her half wolf, half Husky. The murder mystery was engrossing with lots of surprises and twists. I am looking forward to listening to the entire series again.

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42 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Gritty Realistic

After living in Alaska for nearly 40 years and being away for 15, I enjoyed a visit back home through this book. That being said, the realism of the Alaskan Native struggle saddened me again as the author unfolded the story very well,I think, from the perspective of Kate Shugack,a well educated,strong Alaskan Native woman.
I found the story gripping, exciting, and true to the Alaskan life style of the "bush" areas. I loved the characters who were so well developed that I thought I may have known some of them. The author is very well acquainted with what it means to be Alaskan, Native or white.
If you are interested in a good mystery, in an exotic setting, this book is for you. Get your parka on, curl up to a warm fire, and enjoy a great, gritty, fast paced Alaskan adventure!


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38 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

You never go wrong with a Stabenow novel

I have been waiting until all Stabenow's books are in audible format, so I have "read" some of the latter books before this one. This book was not as complex, but it is great to get to know the characters from the beginning. Gavin's performance is, as usual, top notch.

One inconsistency, though, is the variation in the story of the how Kate received her throat scar. In "Though Not Dead", the 4 year old was a random victim, whereas in this (first) of the series, the victim was the child of the perpetrator. This does not diminish from the impact of the book, however -- it must be difficult to keep facts consistent over the course of more than a dozen novels.

The best character in the story is Alaska itself. Stabenow takes you there and it is a fun trip. Also love the partnership between Kate and her dog, Mutt.

Please make ALL of Stabenow's books available!

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37 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Mystery in the Beautiful Alaskan Wilderness

STORY (mystery) - A Cold Day for Murder introduces Kate Shugak, a native Alaskan and previous investigator for the Anchorage DA's Office who has retired to a quiet and peaceful life deep in the Alaskan wilderness. She is asked by Jack, her ex lover/boss, to conduct an investigation into the disappearance of two men who were last seen in her area. What follows is the typical murder investigation you've heard many times, but this one is set in Aleut territory with descriptive imagery of crisp winter mornings, snowmobile rides and encounters with wildlife. The investigation is interesting and the conclusion is somewhat unexpected. I enjoyed the author's treatment of the "past" between Jack and Kate.

PERFORMANCE - I have commented about this narrator before. She has a lovely voice, but she seems to lose her place while reading and then tack on the rest of a sentence as an afterthought. It doesn't happen enough to detract from the experience, but you will notice it when it happens.

OVERALL - This is the first book in the series, but it can stand alone. It is short (5 1/2 hours) and enjoyable, but there's nothing special about it except the Alaskan scenery. There is cursing and some violence, but not a lot. I don't plan to continue the series, except maybe an occasional book that may come on sale.

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33 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great Alaskan Character-Driven Mystery

When I noticed A Cold Day For Murder was only $1.99 at Audible, I went back to look at my review here on my site. . . and realized, there isn’t a review here. Hum… Being a HUGE lover of Dana Stabenow, I am somewhat flummoxed that I only have a review for Fire and Ice, which is from her Liam Campbell series, reviewed on site. Well, fiddle. There are nearly 950 reviews on Amazon, so my review won’t make that much difference I suppose – and seeing as how I have over 500 reviews on Amazon (yea!) I am not going to go through pages and pages to see if I wrote reviews before I started SIRTBT. So, here is a short review (Me? A Short Review?! Will wonders never cease?)

Kate Shugak is one of my favorite female characters of all time. Tough and determined, she is also damaged and flawed – in other words, a very real, very human character. Kate is Aleut, raised by her grandmother Ekaterina, a former Tribal Council member and still chief. She grew up in The Park, “twenty million acres, almost four times the size of Denali National Park but with less than one percent of the tourists.” Occupied by Native Aleut and a collection of oddballs and “stay away from them or you will get your ass shot – and you might be dinner as well” types, The Park is a wonderland – and a cold, heartless land where the slightest misstep could mean a brutal death.

The story itself has been well described by others, and you get the gist from the summary. What I want to tell you about is the world of Kate and her tribe. The Aleut have suffered for centuries, first at the hands of the Russians, then the Americans, and Stabenow weaves that story in to her narrative – giving you a good idea of just why the tribal members could really care less that a rich little white boy has gone missing – good riddance to the Outsider with the rich and powerful daddy.

What is truly breathtaking about Stabenow’s writing is her descriptive narrative – her true love for her native land shines out through her writing. And being a huge Marguerite Gavin fan, I am always pulled into all of the Kate stories.

Book Two, A Fatal Thaw, is now on Audible, and I can finally add it to my collection! There are 20 books in the series now (Book 11, The Singing of the Dead, is still not available on 271297Audible, but hopefully whatever is keeping it unavailable will be corrected soon.)

I will warn you – if you like the first book, they are like potato chips – you can’t listen to just one!

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31 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Good characters. Story showing its age

I'm one of those folks who has to go back to the begining of a series. In this case the downside of that was that this story starts to feel a little slow and a little old fashioned, although I'm sure it was leading edge when it was published.

The book has a strong sense of place and some deeply (although not subtly) carved characters who make you care what happens to them,

The plot is complicated enough to be interesting with being annoyingly clever.

Perhaps I'm just not used to the accent but I was distracted by the fact that the reader placed stresses in unexpected places. She did dialogue well but the descriptive pieces lacked focus. It seemed her voice needed a little more range.

I will continue with this series on audible.

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19 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Hooked by the Alaska connection

A fan of mystery/detective stories all my life, I've been looking for a new (to me) author/series to listen to. The Alaska setting drew me to Dana Stabenow and Kate Shugak. While a little short of compelling, I found the story interesting and the characters well-defined. I found myself drawn into their lives and caring about what happens to them. I'm going to try another in the series.

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Just Okay

I've been intrigued by some of the other books in the series. It was highly recommended to me that I read the first few books to learn the background of Kate Shugak. I didn't find the story to be all that suspensful.

I think I would have enjoyed this book more if I had read it instead of listened to it. I thought the narrator's voice didn't suit what I thought the protagonist should sound like. Kate seemed to be a no-nonsense country gal with an injury to her throat. Her voice should have been husky at the very least. I was distracted by Marguerite Gavin's interpretation, so much so that I didn't focus on the story the way I should have.

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12 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Long time fan

I find the earlier books faster paced and of course quicker reads. There's something about Marguerite Gavins' voice that lends this a higher dimension of satisfaction vs other narrators. Dana Stabenow does an excellent job fitting the immensity of Alaska into book form. Which is tricky to do. The true Alaskan idiosyncrasies of her people.. and critters...

This series is worth it.

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11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

A Cold Day for Murder

Marguerite Gavin does a great job bring Kate Shugak to like. Kate is a realistic and sympathetic character that I enjoyed reading about. The plot was strong and well developed as was the other characters. There was enough twist and turns to keep you guessing through out the book. I ususally read light and cozy mysteries and this was a bit darker. I spent an entire day listening to it. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys mysteries.

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8 people found this helpful