MURDER ON THE IDITAROD TRAIL
by Sue Henry
Who's killing the entrants in the thousand-mile dogsled race from Fairbanks to Nome? Everybody tells investigating officer Alex Jensen that the surviving mushers are too close-knit and, well, nice, to have drugged George Koptak, slice Ginny Kline's gang line, or fed Steve Smith's dogs angel dust; so Jensen's suspicions, focused by his romantic concern for contender Jessie Arnold, gradually narrow down to surly Tim Martinson and sarcastic Bomber Cranshaw. Despite first- novelist Henry's dogged emphasis on whodunit, the mystery and detection are about as skimpy as an Alaska summer, but the racing sequences are wonderfully obsessive; you'll forget all about the temperate zone as Jessie and the other mushers press toward Nome.