Breakup (29 page)

The hell with all of it.

Twenty feet below, cold, crystal water rushed downstream between narrow banks. From beneath a budding salmonberry bush, a snowshoe hare poked its head out, coat already turning brown for the coming season. An eagle passing high overhead called out a melancholy good night.

A passing breeze caught at the branch of a fir tree. It reached down and brushed her cheek, the needles scratching gently at her skin.

"Emaa?" Kate said softly.

At her knee Mutt stirred, looking up at her with patient yellow eyes, and unthinkingly she knotted a reassuring hand in the coarse ruff.

The bark of the branch smelled strongly of resin. "Emaa," Kate said into the gathering night, "they lean on me. All of them, they lean on me. How do I stand against it? How did you, all those years?"

The silence was the silence of the living land, water tumbling stone, wind through the trees, the chatter of squirrels, and the song was almost lost in it.

She sat up straight, watchful, waiting, listening. It came again, three pure descending notes, floating to her on the wisp of a breeze. The golden-crowned sparrow, the spring-is-here bird, the first one of the year.

It sounded again, nearer this time. Her eyes groped for it in the dusky twilight, and after a moment there it was, six inches long, light brown with darker streaks on its plump body and a golden one on its head. It perched at the end of an insubstantial alder twig, swaying a little as it cocked its head, looking at Kate alternately from each bright eye.

The song sounded again, Spring is here, here is spring. Tha t was its job, to usher in spring in song. That was what it had been made for, what it was best at. It might dream of being an eagle, soaring, aloof, detached, but it was the spring-is-here bird, and it sang the news from the branch of an alder.

Kate let out a breath she hadn't known she was holding. "All right, Emaa."

She got to her feet, and in a flutter of wings the sparrow was gone. "I love you, Emaa," Kate said, raising her voice. "I miss you."

Mutt trotted ahead. Kate paused, shotgun cradled in the crook of one arm, and looked over her shoulder at the fading outline of the mountains, the lambent glow of the rising moon.

"I need you," she said, almost whispering the words.

Her only answer was the song again, three notes, coming clearly over the wind in the trees, the howl of a distant wolf, the drip of melting snow.

It was enough.

It would have to be.

Set against the stunning backdrop of the Alaskan wilderness, the newest Kate Shugak mystery unfolds during the time of year locals love to hate: spring thaw.

"Stabenow offers a knowing portrait of Alaska, its soul-stirring landscape and fascinating culture."

-The Seattle Time s "An intriguing blend of modern morality tale and ageless legend . . . The talented Stabenow tells a riveting tale that's as satisfying to the soul as it is to the intellect," Booklist proclaimed of last year's Blood Will Tell. In Breakup, Kate Shugak's loyalties-to the land, her heritage, her home-are put to the test when a series of mishaps lead to murder.

April in Alaska is typically a period of rebirth and renewal, and after the long winter Kate has nothing more strenuous on her agenda than paying her taxes. But mayhem abounds as the meltoff flows; this year's thaw is accompanied by rampaging bears, family feuds, and a plane crash quite literally in Kate's own backyard. What begins as a series of headaches escalates into possible murder when a dead body is found near her homestead.

Initially unwilling to involve herself in the investigation, preferring in- ' write off each odd occurrence as a peculiarity , yet she continues irresistibly to seek th e truth. Compelled by her friends to act as problem solver and guided by the spirit of her Aleut grandmother, she finds herself slowly taking on the role of clan leader, a post she is bound to by honor and blood.

As breakup becomes increasingly fraught with danger and destruction, Kate must decide whether she can cross the line from passive observer to instrument of change, assuming the role of elder as the mantle of responsibility is passed. Breakup proves once again that Dana Stabenow is "Alaska's finest mystery writer' {Anchorage Daily News).

Dana Stabenow is the author of six other Kate Shugak mysteries: A Cold Day for Murder, A Fatal Thaw, Dead in the Water, A Cold- Blooded Business, Play with Fire, and Blood Will Tell. She lives in Anchorage.

Jacket design and illustration Honi Werner Photograph of the author Linda Longstaf f G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS

a member of Penguin Putnam Inc.