Rating: 
Summary: A Good Start-over in the Land of the Midnight Sun
Review: "If it looks like a motive, if it acts like means, if it quacks like opportunity..." That ducky paraphrase is one of the good things about this mystery, Dana Stabenow's first in the "Liam Campbell" series. This time, it's as if Alice's Queen of Hearts ("Off with their heads!") is loosed upon an airport in Southwest Alaska. Beware the prop blades!The Stabenow oeuvre (Campbell and Kate Shugak, who will subsequently team up in "Midnight Come Again" ) offers moving verbal snapshots of Alaska along with ice-cracklin' good "Whodunnits." At times, this one tilted too much toward Harlequin bodice-buster for my tastes. And "Doing the box thing" (Campbell's diagramming of people and interrelationships involved in a case) would be much more effective if, like Ed McBain's 87th Precinct books, the author and publisher actually visually (not just a verbal description) SHOW the reader the document to which they refer. I have not read all the series, nor read them in order, but I'm going to give it a go. The inhabitants are an interesting, entertaining, quirky bunch with whom I look forward to getting better acquainted.
Rating: 
Summary: Wow, Dana! Way to go.
Review: I have loved the Kate Shugak mysteries, but this new series is spectacular. Liam Campbell is a character you want to know ALL about; and Wy is todays woman. I eagerly look forward to their unfolding adventures. Just don't forget about Kate. Your following for her is well esablished. -A faithful reader in Warrensburgh, NY.
Rating: 
Summary: A wonderful new series from Alaska.
Review: I hesitated to read "Fire and Ice," because I am such a fan of Kate Shugak's that I knew it would have to be a disappointment. Boy, was I mistaken! Kate's rough edge has been replaced by humorous eccentricity from the people Liam meets, but the same fast-paced plot and love of Alaska make this book a wonderful read in its own right. I laughed out loud in spots, and I hated to finish it--it was that good. There's no need to debate "better then" or "less than" Stanbanow's other series. This is a very good read, and I can hardly wait for the next one in this new series.
Rating:
Summary: Very good
Review: I liked this book a lot. The mystery was good, the descriptions of Alaska evocative, and the characters lively. I prefer Liam to Kate Shugak, who I've always found to be a bit uptight.
Rating:
Summary: Very good
Review: I liked this book a lot. The mystery was good, the descriptions of Alaska evocative, and the characters lively. I prefer Liam to Kate Shugak, who I've always found to be a bit uptight.
Rating:
Summary: Kate Shugak is more interesting.
Review: I was disappointed in "Fire and Ice." I expected a Kate Shugak story and got a soap opera. The only thing interesting was the town and its people, particularly the Raven.
Rating:
Summary: The start of a great new series by one of the genre's best
Review: Liam Cooper had it all. He loved his job as a sergeant with the Alaska State Troopers, was happily married and had a child, who he adored. However, his personal collapsed when a DUI killed his wife and son, and his career fell apart not long after that. He becomes an alcoholic in a failed attempt to stop the pain. However, Liam gets an opportunity to start anew when he is assigned to serve as the state trooper at the fishing city of Newenham. When his plane lands, Liam is greeted with his first case: the beheaded corpse of Bob DeCreft lying on the tarmac as a nearby propeller whirls. With Bob's years of experience and his impeccable safety record, Liam wonders if foul play has occurred. Making matters more difficult for Liam is seeing for the first time in years the first woman he ever loved (and lost), Wy Chouinard, a pilot and peer of the deceased. FIRE AND ICE is a remarkable regional police procedural that makes the reader believe that they are traveling over the rural areas of Alaska. The story line is crisp and action-packed as Liam literally take his first step from the plane into a murder mystery that impacts the woman he still deeply loves. The characters are well drawn and likable, but fans of the Kate Shugak series already expect that from talented Dana Stabenow. Readers will want more works starring Trooper Campbell and his superb support cast in their remote, often time feral locale. END
Rating:
Summary: Murder entree with a romance side and herring dessert
Review: Like many other reviewers and fans of Kate Shugak, I was a bit reluctant to read the Liam Campbell series. It couldn't be as good. Well, I was wrong. It may even be better. I suspect that Stabenow was simply getting bored with Kate and wanted to write something a little different. Well, in Liam she's created a great format to tell us about that unusual species, the Alaskan Male. (Hey, they even have - or had - magazine about the phenomenon.) A healthy chunk of this book is about the war between the sexes, Alaskan style. Sure, the mystery takes a back seat but the humorous observations more than made up for it. As for the mystery, Liam is literally landing at the airport when the first suspicious death occurs. By the time the mystery is resolved, the reader has met a cast of eccentric characters that somehow ring entirely true, learned A LOT about herring roe fishing, and gotten under the skin of a macho man dealing with his world seemingly falling apart. There's plenty of crime in Newenham, much of it falling into the boozed up small town variety (shooting the jukebox and the post office) but something deeper and uglier is going on. There's an amazing amount of money at stake in the herring season. Could that be the cause? Or is it just small town romance gone wrong? Bottom-line: A genuinely enjoyable read even if Stabenow digresses from the mystery plot at times. Liam Campbell is a nice mix of too good to be true and 1990's angst inside. I'll be reading the next book in the series soon.
Rating:
Summary: Murder entree with a romance side and herring dessert
Review: Like many other reviewers and fans of Kate Shugak, I was a bit reluctant to read the Liam Campbell series. It couldn't be as good. Well, I was wrong. It may even be better. I suspect that Stabenow was simply getting bored with Kate and wanted to write something a little different. Well, in Liam she's created a great format to tell us about that unusual species, the Alaskan Male. (Hey, they even have - or had - magazine about the phenomenon.) A healthy chunk of this book is about the war between the sexes, Alaskan style. Sure, the mystery takes a back seat but the humorous observations more than made up for it. As for the mystery, Liam is literally landing at the airport when the first suspicious death occurs. By the time the mystery is resolved, the reader has met a cast of eccentric characters that somehow ring entirely true, learned A LOT about herring roe fishing, and gotten under the skin of a macho man dealing with his world seemingly falling apart. There's plenty of crime in Newenham, much of it falling into the boozed up small town variety (shooting the jukebox and the post office) but something deeper and uglier is going on. There's an amazing amount of money at stake in the herring season. Could that be the cause? Or is it just small town romance gone wrong? Bottom-line: A genuinely enjoyable read even if Stabenow digresses from the mystery plot at times. Liam Campbell is a nice mix of too good to be true and 1990's angst inside. I'll be reading the next book in the series soon.
Rating:
Summary: Has Kate Shugak read this book?
Review: Shugak's first impression of Liam was why he started his first assignment as a class "A" klutz. Then She would wonder why Liam was more passionately involved his investigation then Shugak had been in each of hers. Finally, she would appreciate how Liam finally gets all the other characters like Moses and Bill the Magistrate et al to cooperate much like Kate does with her gang. Although Liam has a greater collection of characters. And then there is Why. Will Kate and Liam join forces in the future Llike Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn.You have to read Fire and Ice to see what is coming next. Why? You'll see.
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