Thursday 31 October 2013

2 BY STAN JONES

One of my online friends read and reviewed Stan Jones and one or other of his books earlier this year. I was interested at the time and kind of hummed and hawed over whether to take the plunge. Was it ever in doubt?

Great covers and some promising mysteries set in an area of the world that I have never visited before in my reading. To date there have been four Nathan Active series books published, and yes I did buy the other two also. That probably sums up my reading/library/TBR issues. How can you commit to buying four books from an author that you haven’t read one thing by? What if I don’t particularly enjoy the first? No way is Stan Jones an isolated instance either, for him you could probably substitute fifty other names. I’m like a greedy child let loose in a sweet shop...what was the child’s name in Willy Wonka?

Anyway hopefully the first in the series rocks and even if it doesn't, I ought to read the following ones as penance for my own rashness.    

This will cover my Alaska state entry when I start my USA state reading challenge next year.

Thanks to Keishon at Yet Another Crime Fiction Blog. Her reviews are here:

White Sky, Black Ice
Yet Another Crime Fiction Blog
An Alaskan State trooper must satisfy both Eskimo and "white man's" justice.

Trooper Nathan Active, child of a fifteen-year-old unmarried Inupiat Eskimo girl, was given up for adoption and raised in Anchorage, where he graduated from the university. Now that he has been posted to his remote birth village, Chukchi, he longs to return to civilization. Before that happens, he is confronted with atypical suicides. Eskimos are notoriously at risk for self-slaughter, but never has one man after another shot himself in the Adam's apple. Can a shaman's curse really be at work?

Lucy Generous is a beautiful villager who is enlivening Nathan's tour of duty. Nathan's mother tells him to beware; she wants him to find a girl who went to college and has a good job. But with Lucy's help, the nalauqmiiyaak (almost white) state trooper begins to understand his Eskimo heritage, which provides him with the solution to the crimes that he is confronted with.

This is the first in a series of Nathan Active mysteries.


Shaman Pass

A Murder With A Motive Steeped In Inupiat Tradition

Nathan Active is regarded as 'half white' by Alaskans. He is a state trooper, adopted and raised in Anchorage, but now serving a tour of duty in Chukchi, the village of his birth, where he is called upon to investigate the murder of an Inupiat tribal leader. The victim was killed with an antique ivory and wood harpoon returned to the community by the Smithsonian, in accordance with the terms of the Indian Graves Act, just a few days earlier together with an unidentified Inupiat mummy nicknamed 'Uncle Frosty.'


With the help of his girlfriend, birth mother, aged grandfather, and other old-timers, Nathan must grapple with the identity of the murderer and the elusive motive.



16 comments:

  1. Col - I really do recommend this series. The mysteries are well done in my opinion and the setting is really effective.

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    1. Margot, thanks. I'm looking forward to this one.

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  2. Col, these covers look very familiar. I think I've read positive reviews of both these books somewhere recently. Thanks for sharing the review links to Keishon's fine blog that I discovered fairly recently.

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    1. Prashant - Keishon's blog is great, though I wish she would post a bit more often! I'll take what she gives us though.

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  3. Thank you Col and Prashant for the kind words about my blog and thank you Col for the shout out! I'm so glad to see you post about Stan Jones. Like Margot said he is well worth reading. I think he deserves a big audience because his stories are enriched by the Inupiat culture which is apart of the main plots of his mysteries. I really hope you like his novels. The setting is done really well and the main protagonist is a very likable character. I was just thinking the other day that I need to read book three soon. I am looking forward to reading your reviews/thoughts.

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    1. Keishon, you're welcome. I think I will go for this first up in January, by which time you will have read the 3rd!

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    2. I'm pretty sure I will have read the third. Looking forward to it.

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    3. I'll catch up in about 2015 then!

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  4. Well the covers are great, really beautiful! And they do sound interesting. BTW Col have you just had your birthday? I remember you saying there was one due, and your ID suggests you might be a late-October boy - if so very best wishes for a happy birthday and many fruitful years ahead of hard-boiled reading....

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    1. Moira, thanks- YES! I hit the big - 5 - 0 on Tuesday! (Still a kid at heart, though!) Cheers for your kind wishes - I had a few days with the tribe, which were enjoyable, but back to the grim realities of work today......boo,

      I think you'll need some Stan Jones and Alaskan fashion in your life soon.

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  5. I have been known to buy multiple books by unknown authors though I try not to these days as I have had a couple of disasters.

    I hope you enjoy these though...I've read White Sky Black Ice and thought it terrific.

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    1. Bernadette, thanks. Hopefully no disasters here this time!

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  6. I have greatly enjoyed the series which takes place on the edge of nowhere. The author is an interesting guy who spent several years on the northwestern coast of Alaska.

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    1. Bill thanks for stopping by. I'm guessing you would have to experience Alaska to be able to write about it. It seems like a different planet when viewed from the UK!

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  7. So funny, Col. I have done that same thing... bought multiple books by the same author, same series, without reading even the first one. I have also bought multiples in a series after liking one... then found the 3rd or 4th was really not my thing. I try not to do that now but don't always succeed.

    Happy 50th birthday. Lots of good reading ahead. Especially as fast as you read.

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    1. Tracy, thanks for your kind wishes. I will see how I get on with my resolution at least to trim down the number of new books I acquire. It is a bit mad buying more from an author when you haven't sampled their work!

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