Blindfold Game

November 28, 2005
Edgar winner Stabenow makes a strong entrance into the world of international thrillers with this fast-paced story. CIA analyst Hugh Rincon and his estranged wife, Sarah Lange, second in command of the Coast Guard cutter Sojourner Truth, must battle disbelieving superiors, North Korean terrorists and an angry Mother Nature as they race to stop a dirty bomb from exploding in an Alaskan city. Beth McDonald gives an earnest performance and provides each of her characters with their own distinct voice. Whether portraying a tough as nails sea captain or a Korean terrorist, she keeps her voice shifts subtle and believable, never falling into caricature. She is especially adept in her reading of the book's seagoing action as Lange and her crew chase down and confront an enemy freighter on a stomach-churning stormy sea. McDonald is helped by Steve Atinsky's fine abridgment. Given the complexity of thrillers, it is true skill to keep the abridgment process from truncating characters and plot to the point of incomprehension. Both Atinsky and McDonald have been able to keep intact the novel's integrity-and thrills. Simultaneous release with the St. Martin's hardcover. (Reviews, Oct. 17).

January 15, 2006
Fans of Stabenow's two Alaska mystery series featuring investigators Kate Shugak and Liam Campbell will recognize her skill with setting and dialog in her first standalone political thriller. The plot involves international terrorists who target the United States with a ship loaded with a dirty bomb, with the narrative shifting between the terrorists and the federal agents who are tracking the operations. As in Stabenow's mysteries, this book features strong character development that even encompasses minor characters. In her acknowledgments, the author notes that she spent 16 days with the U.S. Coast Guard in the Bering Sea, and those experiences bring sharp realism to the ship scenes. To boot, Stabenow is skillful at building suspense. She will find new readers with this foray into the thriller genre, but many of her mystery fans will also enjoy the ride." -Beth Lindsay, Washington State Univ. Lib., Pullman"

Copyright 2006 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 2005
Best known for her Kate Shugak mysteries, Stabenow turns her talent for description to her first stand-alone thriller. As in her Shugak books, Alaska figures closely into the story but here in a much different way. Hugh Rincon and Sara Lange are Alaska natives who, despite being married, have careers that keep them apart: Sara is executive officer on a Coast Guard cutter in Alaskan waters; Hugh gathers information for the CIA, a continent away. When Hugh's discovery of a terrorist plot to drop a dirty bomb on an Alaskan city isn't taken seriously by his own agency, he realizes that it's up to him to save his wife and protect the people in a place he still holds dear. Stabenow's descriptions of the ensuing duel at sea between Sara's cutter and a fishing vessel crawling with armed pirates make for edge-of-seat stuff, more than compensating for a few bumps in the plot. And the creepy, authentic-sounding terrorist scenario will make readers sit up and take notice of a state that some Americans forget is actually there.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2005, American Library Association.)

Starred review from October 17, 2005
Known for two successful Alaskan mystery series (featuring Kate Shugak and Liam Campbell respectively), Edgar-winner Stabenow (Fire and Ice
) has crafted a taut, credible thriller that should win her a much larger audience. Opposing resourceful, ruthless and well-funded terrorists ready to bring unimaginable devastation to American shores are a husband-and-wife team: Hugh Rincon, a Langley-based CIA honcho, and Sara Lange, the executive officer aboard the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Sojourner Truth
, which patrols the Maritime Boundary Line in the northern Pacific Ocean. Globe-hopping action moves from Thailand to Hong Kong, Korea and Russia, culminating in a naval showdown off the Alaskan coast. The author's depictions of the Alaskan environment, its seas, storms and cold, have never been more vivid, while the sea and air operations she recounts are both heroic and enthralling. Stabenow has established herself as a fine mystery writer, but she may have found her true metier with this excellent thriller. Author tour.