A Taint in the Blood

A Taint in the Blood (2004) Dana Stabenow

I’m always on the lookout for new mysteries–especially ones I think my grandmother will enjoy. I’ve read two supernatural mystery series edited by Dana Stabenow, so I decided to pick up one of her books.

As you have probably noticed, I prefer to start at the beginning of a series, so I have no idea what I was thinking when I picked up A Taint in the Blood, which is–I think–thirteen books into the series. Despite feeling like I was missing something when I started reading (I quickly realized that this was not, in fact, the first book in the series), I quickly picked up on Kate’s character and personality, and was just about as quickly sucked into the book.

Kate Shugak is a private investigator in Alaska. She has living space in Anchorage, but prefers to live in the Park in Niniltna, where her family and neighbors have built her a new home after her cabin burned to the ground during her last case. A woman shows up on her doorstep (no mean feat in rural Alaska) asking Kate to reopen a cold case and prove that her mother did not–in fact–kill her brother thirty years before. A very cold case, and one that someone is not eager for Kate to reopen.

Once I realized that I was starting an already established series, I relatively quickly got my bearings. There were plenty of things I wondered about, having not read the previous books in the series, but it just made more interested in reading more of the series. Of course, knowing that some of those events are tragic, I’m thinking that I might just more forward in the series instead of returning to the beginning of the series.

But we’ll have to see.

I’m not sure how my grandmother will feel about this book. There was a fair amount of boinking, and although there wasn’t detail, she doesn’t always enjoy books with boinking, so we’ll have to see what she thinks if she picks it up to start reading.

I’m eager to read the next book in the series.
Rating: 7/10

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