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Rating: 
Summary: I usually read the reviews, but...
Review: ... If you enjoy mysteries that have good characters and stories, with some real opinions about the world that they live in, the Travis McGee of John D. MacDonald type books, you will like this book. A strong character can't just avoid thinking.
Rating: 
Summary: Try another of her books
Review: Dana Stabenow writes good mysteries so this book was a surprising disappointment. There is no mystery, barely even an attempt to write one. There is only one suspect, a group of people the author doesn't like, and that's who did it. No red herrings, no other suspects. What kind of a mystery is that? If you do read it, be prepared to be beaten over the head with the author's prejudices on nearly every page. Skip this book and read some of her actual mysteries. I've read four others so far and liked them all.
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Summary: A Fanatical Look at Fanatics
Review: I have enjoyed several of the Kate Shugak mysteries. This isn't one of them. This seemed less of a mystery novel and more of an attempt to promote her ideas on religion in general and strict biblical faiths in particular. It isn't that I don't support Dana Stabenow's opinions on fanatical religions. However, her views are as distorted as are those of whom she describes. As a previous reviewer stated, you might consider skipping this particular novel in the series.
Rating:
Summary: Too Much Talk, Not Enough Action
Review: I'm a big fan of the Kate Shugak series and thought Hunter's Moon was one of the best page turners in a long while. It inspired me to go back to some of her earlier novels. The good news is that Stabenow gets better with time. The bad news is that some of the early stuff is pretty weak. The basic problem with this book is that there isn't much mystery. A man goes missing for ten months and no one reports it? When found, his body is naked and he's died from mosquito bites. He's the son of the local fundamentalist minister. 300 pages later we find out who killed him. The basic problem with this book is that for every page that moves the plot forward, Stabenow includes ten essentially irrelevant pages. The ramblings range from entertaining (does musak justify homicide?) to tedious (an encyclopedia excerpt on mushrooms) to touching (Kate's memories of going to college). There's much discussion on religion and education. These are two topics of interest to me so I didn't mind that they were mostly off topic. Other readers may be justifiably less tolerant. Bottom-line: Many musings and not much mystery. Stabenow can do(and has done)better.
Rating: 
Summary: More musings than mystery
Review: I'm a big fan of the Kate Shugak series and thought Hunter's Moon was one of the best page turners in a long while. It inspired me to go back to some of her earlier novels. The good news is that Stabenow gets better with time. The bad news is that some of the early stuff is pretty weak. The basic problem with this book is that there isn't much mystery. A man goes missing for ten months and no one reports it? When found, his body is naked and he's died from mosquito bites. He's the son of the local fundamentalist minister. 300 pages later we find out who killed him. The basic problem with this book is that for every page that moves the plot forward, Stabenow includes ten essentially irrelevant pages. The ramblings range from entertaining (does musak justify homicide?) to tedious (an encyclopedia excerpt on mushrooms) to touching (Kate's memories of going to college). There's much discussion on religion and education. These are two topics of interest to me so I didn't mind that they were mostly off topic. Other readers may be justifiably less tolerant. Bottom-line: Many musings and not much mystery. Stabenow can do(and has done)better.
Rating:
Summary: I usually read the reviews, but...
Review: If you like Stabenow and you like Kate Shugak, don't let the reviews scare you off! Yes -- Stabenow takes on creationism and fanatical christians. Do you really think that an Alaska Native, like Kate, would find such beliefs appealing? The story is interesting and the glimpses into what makes Kate tick will please devoted Stabenow fans.
Rating:
Summary: Too Much Preaching; Too Little Mystery
Review: In this book, Kate Shugak finds a body while picking mushrooms. It turns out to be the body of a person who has been missing for quite awhile, but whose father never reported him missing.
Kate is always arrogant with her beliefs, but this book really goes too far. I fully agree with Dana Stabenow's views on religious fundamental extremists. However, she goes too far when she starts trashing all religion and people who believe in them.
I really liked Kate's remembrances of her first year of college and of the professor who turned her on to literature. But none of this makes up for all her preaching against religion, people from other states, people who listen to different music, etc.
The mystery itself is unsatisfying, too. I agree with the other reviewer who lamented the lack of suspects, red herrings, etc.
Rating:
Summary: More Aleut Lore
Review: The plot in this fifth entry in the wonderful Kate Shugak series is light on mystery, but as with every book so far, provides the most fascinating glimpses into Native Alaskan lore. Kate has forayed into the remains of a massive forest fire to pick mushrooms, which are springing up everywhere in the lush loam left behind by the charred trees and undergrowth. It's back-breaking work, but highly lucrative, and Kate is joined by her paraplegic Vietnam Vet friend Bobby, and his new lover, a bright-eyed young photographer named Dinah, whose enthusiasm wins Kate over. It is while Kate and Dinah are hard at work at picking (Kate) and snapping (Dinah) that Kate makes a nauseating and horrific discovery: Under a particularly lush growth of mushrooms lies a badly decomposing body. Kate's subsequent inquiry into the identity of the victim and the manner of his death leads her into a mosquitos' nest (literally) of dangerously unstable religious fanatics. It's a situation that doesn't sit well with Kate as a professional PI, or with Kate as a native Aleut, with religious views quite different than those espoused by the narrow-minded group who are opposing her investigation. Another fine, fast read in the series; highly recommended, as always.
Rating: 
Summary: One of her best
Review: This is one of the best in Dana Stabenow's Kate Shugak series. The intrepid Aleut detective, while looking for wild mushrooms in a recently burned-out forest, stumbles upon the body of a man who proves to be the son of an ultrafundamentalist preacher whose sect has pretty much taken over an isolated local community. Kate discovers that the dead man, a teacher, had been teaching the schoolchildren about such "evil" subjects as dinosaurs, woolly mammoths and evolution. "Play With Fire" is an engrossing mystery that deals with the perils of fanaticism. It's enlivened by vividly portrayed characters, interesting and thought-provoking dialogue, evocative descriptions of Alaskan landscapes and cultures, and plenty of humor.
Rating:
Summary: Too Much Talk, Not Enough Action
Review: Yes, Kate Shugak is normally a cerebral person. She has to be, as much as she chooses to go it alone. And, usually, that makes the character more interesting. In this book, however, it's just BORING! Reading an actual treatise on picking mushrooms might have been more interesting. The reader is certainly clear as to Kate's (the author's?) views on religion and education. Unfortunately, the mystery doesn't just take a backseat -- it was left by the side of the road somewhere. My advice, FWIW, is to read any other book in this or the Liam Campbell series.
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