A Night Too Dark by Dana Stabenow

Things in the Park are changing, and not always necessarily for the better.  Gold in huge quantities has been found as we know from the book,”Whisper to the Blood”    I just don’t think anyone knew or ever will know exactly how huge a discovery this is. However, for now it’s enough.

Now people are missing, disappearing but that’s not to say that people don’t go missing from Alaska every day.  We know from our reading that this happens more than some Alaskans would like to admit, it’s just that this time it is a little different.

One day Mr. Smith is walking back to his homestead,…he finds a truck with a note taped to the steering wheel.  Someone is going to walk into the woods and let Alaska take them ‘home’.  The only thing wrong with this is that once Kate gets there she finds a little more than she bargained for.  Old

Sam is using human remains (what there is left of them) to bait a bear and to make a long story short we need to find out if these remains are of the person we think they belong to.  On the other hand, is something else going on?

Knowing how Ms Stabenow writes I shouldn’t have been so surprised as to how convoluted this particular mystery worked out to be.  While I could figure out somewhat of who killed whom for one of the murders, I would never have in a million year have guessed as to who from the NNA was supplying info to the ‘enemy’.

We do, unfortunately lose a beloved character at the end of this novel, but it was a good passing one that didn’t leave me weepy like Jack’s death did.

Kate and crew are at their best in this novel and I was floored that this is the first book I can remember that Kate didn’t end up getting knocked out.  I for one am glad since she was almost becoming a caricature/joke instead of a strong kick-butt heroine. Kate sure does manage to kick-butt during on of NNA meetings—watch for it, it’s a great scene. I was a little disappointed at seeing the Aunties act the way they did considering just how important tribe and custom is to them.

All in all this was a good read, but a huge divergence from what we are accustomed to in Kate’s life.