Talkeetna

Paul Kitka likes fast cars, women and his job as a lieutenant in the Alaska State Patrol.Candace Marshall doesn't know what she likes - being married to an abusive husband does that. She came to Alaska to kill herself: figured it was easy there, just pick a trail and keep going. Something will get you, the terrain, the wildlife, or the weather. But she discovered something she did like - Alaska. And after all, that trail would always be there.Then Candace finds her ex-husband dead on her cabin floor. She says didn't do it, and Paul Kitka believes her. But who did kill the most hated lobbyist in Alaska?Everyone is lying to him: Candace, the victim's family and co-workers, even Paul's own friends and neighbors. To make matters worse? The murderer isn't done.

Yes, you can go home again. But will you leave it alive? Paul Kitka hasn't returned to Sitka, Alaska, in 18 years -- not since a cop shot and killed his father. Now he's a cop himself, a lieutenant in the Alaska State Patrol. When his brother is arrested for the murder of the cop who killed their father, Paul heads back to Sitka. It's time to unravel the secrets that have haunted him and his family for decades. Candace Marshal has just gotten her pilot's license, and she's happy to fly him there on her maiden voyage. Sitka, she hears, is a beautiful city. What could go wrong?This is the second book in the Talkeetna series, following Everybody Lies.

Find them. Find the missing women. Paul Kitka, a lieutenant in the Alaska State Patrol, is half-Tlingit, half white. And when an Inuit elder from Bethel gets the brush-off from the Anchorage police, it's Paul she turns to. Her granddaughter, a student at the University of Alaska in Anchorage, is missing. She thinks there may be more women missing. And the Anchorage police don't seem to care. But Mary Ayek, elder of her village and a director of the Bethel Native Alaskan Corporation, cares. And she has the power and prestige it takes to make others care. Starting with Lt. Paul Kitka. Find them, she orders. What is happening to our women?Third in a series of mysteries featuring Paul Kitka and Dace Marshall in Talkeetna, Alaska.

Mayday.When the call came over the radio at Purdue Flight Service, Candace Marshall started making the calls - first to her boss, Lanky Purdue, and to her fiancé, police Lt. Paul Kitka. And then she had a whole list of people to notify.They had a plane down. A pilot in trouble. Passengers in jeopardy. And then she got another message from the pilot just for her: Dace. Someone shot at us. Tell Paul.Book 5 in the Talkeetna, Alaska, series.

A Favor Is Owed The Iditarod. A race across 1000 miles of Alaska done by dog sled, with a racer and a dozen or so dogs. The ceremonial start is in Anchorage; the real start is in Willow on the first Saturday of March. It will end some 10-15 days later, one of the hardest endurance races in the world. It takes thousands of volunteers to make it happen. Thousands more turn out to watch. After a winter of cabin fever, the Iditarod is the first sign that spring will come. Not for a while, mind you. Spring won't happen in Alaska until June. But the days are longer - dawn is at 8 a.m. and sunset is at 5 p.m., a welcome change from the winter days where you never see the sun at all. Still damned cold, however. Twenty below, at times. Storms. But the worst challenges are always caused by people. Isn't that the way it always is? Benny Askoak had been a musher once. He'd even finished when he was young. But it was expensive to run a team. Expensive to care for them. Now, he carried for the town of Skwentna instead. A town the Iditarod teams came through every year. It always made his heart glad to see the teams of dogs come through. The race was important to Skwentna. Very important. But someone wasn't cheering for the dogs and the race this year. Someone wanted bring the race to a halt altogether. Benny Askoak didn't know who. He didn't know why. But he knew Skwentna wouldn't survive without the race. Finally, he admitted he needed help to solve this. It couldn't be solved quietly after all. He picked up the phone and made a call. A favor was owed. He would call it in, and hope for the best. "Purdue Flight Services," a woman's voice said crisply. "How can I help you?" Book 7 in the mystery series Talkeetna. L.J. Breedlove is a former journalist writing mysteries and thrillers about what she knows: complicated people, small towns, big cities, cops, reporters, politicians, assorted bad guys."I write about religion and politics. About race and gender. I believe in the journalism axiom: Comfort the afflicted, and afflict the comfortable. To which the labor organizer Mother Jones was supposed to have added: And in general raise hell. That works for me."L.J. grew up on a cattle ranch and then went to college to be an oceanographer. She decided getting seasick was not a good trait for any oceanographer to have, and discovered journalism instead - a field that liked people who asked questions!As a reporter and editor, she worked in Alaska, Oregon, Idaho, Texas, Washington, D. C. Then she got homesick for the Pacific Northwest and came home to work with college newspapers and teach journalism.She is an over-educated, bleeding heart liberal with a penchant for heroes such as Jack Reacher. She isn't particularly bothered by the inconsistency.You can follow her on Twitter @ljbwrites for her political stuff, or on Facebook at ljbreedlove for her writing life. Best place to find her - besides a local coffee shop - is at ljbreedlove.com. You can sign up for her email newsletter there. Or read her blog, snark included, and check out all her books. Paul Kitna likes fast cars, women, and his job as a lieutenant in the Alaska State Patrol. He doesn't do complicated. He figures being half Tlingit, half white makes his life complicated enough. Candace Marshall isn't sure what she likes -- being married to an abusive husband does that. She came to Alaska to die, and instead the state gave her reasons to live.