ALASKA DEADLY

by J.L. Askew ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 9, 2023

A Tennessee private eye encounters mysticism and murder as he searches in Alaska for a client’s ex-husband.

In Askew’s debut novel, Memphis detective Race Warren heads by way of Anchorage to Ataqsut, Alaska, to find Ron Billings, an outdoorsman who has vanished. Billings’ estranged wife has hired Warren to locate her ex, omitting that he went to the Western state to find their college-age daughter, who it seems is held in a brothel run by an Alaska-based Russian syndicate involved in human trafficking. In Anchorage, Warren meets oil worker Medford Larsen, who tells him about a girl recently killed in Ataqsut. Her body had “claw marks like from an animal.” The next day, Larsen is found dead “from an animal attack, likely a wolf.” Reports of deaths involving animal attacks pique the interest of Dr. Mark Dunbar, a Minnesota biology professor, who as a child was dragged from a campsite by a wolf. Dunbar travels to Alaska to study wolves’ activities and the myth of canine shape-shifting, a dark ritual that “allows a human to be turned into an animal.” The professor meets Warren in an Alaska airport as they prepare to fly to Ataqsut, the detective to track a man, and Dunbar to chase a myth. Dunbar’s werewolf theory gains traction when he reviews autopsy reports of mauled Alaskans and after Warren fights off “a vague human form, but like an animal, covered in hair, standing erect.” In this enjoyable story, the author excels in creating a spooky mood and in capturing Alaska’s beauty, particularly the Chugach Mountains. Descriptions of piloted flight are also top-notch. But there is an overabundance of characters, and in terms of plot, less also would have been more—the wolf mystery/myth could stand on its own without the Russian angle. Backstories can be superfluous, such as information about Warren’s former girlfriend (it would have been more helpful to explain why Billings’ wife didn’t mention her daughter was missing, too). But while some sections are melodramatic, other portions serve as a smart procedural.

A howling delight for fans of tales that pair the supernatural with Russian mobsters.

Pub Date: March 9, 2023

ISBN: 9781685268855

Page Count: 380

Publisher: Covenant Books

Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2022

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

MYSTERY & DETECTIVE | THRILLER | PARANORMAL FICTION | DETECTIVES & PRIVATE INVESTIGATORS | SUPERNATURAL THRILLER | GENERAL MYSTERY & DETECTIVE