Kate Shugak has joyfully stepped down from her position as chair of the Niniltna Native Association, the tribal group her Emaa headed for many years. To help the new chair stand on her own, she needs to get out of Niniltna and the Park completely. As it happens, Alaska State Trooper Liam Campbell just contacted his former instructor Jim Chopin with a case back in Newenham that could use the help of a good P.I.

Finn Grant was a man no one liked, least of all the members of his family and community. When a loosened nut holding the bell housing over the oil screen on his plane engine caused catastrophic (and lethal) failure it was all too convenient for a number of the residents of Newenham. In fact one of those residents, Liam's wife Wy had threatened to kill Grant the day before he died. The loosened nut looked like an accident but as Liam said, "he was an asshole, but he wasn't a sloppy asshole". If Wy's name isn't cleared Liam and she will have to leave the area. Having Kate Shugak investigate undercover means she can give the case her full attention without bias, learning things that no one in the area would tell the Trooper.

I've been reading Dana Stabnenow since the first Kate Shugak book A Cold Day for Murder and added the Liam Campbell series when it began, too. It was a pleasure to read a book where Kate and Liam work together. When authors have tried such things in the past, it has not always been a success but Stabenow pulled it off with her usual panache. I always look forward to some time spent in the forty-ninth state with realistically-drawn quirky characters, not the least of which is the environment. Stabenow has the gift of revealing the heart and souls of difficult characters without letting their human frailties weaken their status as heroes. As always I enjoy my books with a thread of humor and in that manner, too, Dana Stabenow always delivers. RESTLESS IN THE GRAVE is book nineteen in the Kate Shugak series. It could also be considered book five in the Liam Campbell series. If you've not read either of Stabenow's mystery series, I highly recommend them as well as her other books. She also has written the Star Svensdotter science fiction novels and two thrillers.