A COLD-BLOODED BUSINESS

Aleut investigator Kate Shugak—in her first hardcover—goes undercover as a roustabout on Alaska's North Slope to find out who's been running drugs into Royal Petroleum Company (RPetCo)'s base camp, leading to at least one death—of a production operator who got so high he drowned in the camp swimming pool. Swimming pool? Yes, indeed; as Kate finds to her guilty delight, she's lucked into an Arctic Circle Club Med: there's a sauna, too, and endless great food, and big bucks for the work, though somebody (Barbie-doll tour-guide Toni Hartzler? peerless chef Gideon Trocchiano? Kate's old paramedic buddy Jerry McIsaac?) is trying to stretch the profits even further. More than one somebody, in fact, since Kate soon turns up evidence of a thriving grave-robbing trade as well. Pungent detail on heartless RPetCo, its lamebrain visitors, and post-Valdez Alaska. But appealing Kate, who says after the dust has cleared, ``All I had to do was sit back and let things happen,'' doesn't exactly cover herself with sleuthing honors. Next time, maybe.