Stabenow was born in an Alaska before Statehood, grew up on and around fishing boats, worked—among other jobs—for an air taxi service, a cannery, and later, on the oilfields of the North Slope. Today, she’s an Edgar-award winning mystery writer with over 25 Alaska-based novels to her credit. Stabenow knows Alaska.

Writing for Alaska Magazine, she revisits old haunts and explores new ones to capture the vital pioneering spirit of her home state. From cruising the Inner Passage to hiking the Chilkoot Trail, bidding on bachelors at Talkeetna’s Winterfest, to a behind-the-scenes look at the Iditarod sled dog race, Alaska Traveler collects over 50 of Stabenow’s columns about life on America’s last frontier. It’s Alaska in all seasons—not just the summer months—and in all its quirky, iconoclastic glory.

Travelers planning a trip to Alaska will find much to inspire them, as will those just interested to read more about the state that residents call “The Great Land.”

Where to Get It

• Amazon.com
• Amazon.co.uk
• Barnes & Noble
• iTunes
• Kobo

If you’re not familiar with the “Men’s Adventure” genre, you may be in for a surprise. Short, pithy, action-packed novels that delight in tweaking the noses of the politically correct, these pocket-sized high-concept reads are far from high-brow, but then again, high brow tends not to be terribly fun. Graham Greene they aren’t—like  James Bond and Mack Bolan, Remo’s exploits are intended to excite. They’re big-budget extravaganzas meant to be projected on the biggest screen of all: the mind’s eye.

Be warned: once  you start, it can be hard to stop reading. Fortunately for the addicted, there are a lot of Destroyer novels to satisfy your sweet tooth. We’re beginning by re-publishing the first five books in the series, along with the brand new sesquicentennial volume, The End of the World. Additional books will be released at a fair clip, so if you find you’ve got a monkey on your back, rest assured, we’ll help you feed it.

(Incidentally, the 1985 motion picture Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins, while based on the characters, was far from a faithful adaptation. If you’ve seen it, don’t let it prejudice you. If you enjoyed it, find out what you missed!)

About Warren Murphy

Warren Murphy was born in Jersey City, New Jersey. He worked in journalism, editing, and politics. After many of his political colleagues were arrested, Murphy took it as a sign that he needed to find a new career and The Destroyer series was born. Murphy has five children—Deirdre, Megan, Brian, Ardath, and Devin—and a few grandchildren. He has been an adjunct professor at Moravian College, Bethlehem, PA, and has also run workshops and lectured at many other schools and universities. His hobbies are golf, mathematics, opera, and investing. He has served on the board of the Mystery Writers of America and has been a member of the Private Eye Writers of America, the International Association of Crime Writers, the American Crime Writers League, and the Screenwriters Guild.

Find him online at warrenmurphy.com.

While other members of the VBI run down the local leads,  Joe and Willy embark on a road-trip. The Feds’ unsolved crime database has turned-up a connection between the MO of their arsonist and similar fires in New Jersey, where organized crime is still very much a force to be reckoned with. But why would a mafioso from the Garden State be torching barns in the Green Mountains of Vermont? And can Joe and Willy bring their quarry to justice before he lashes out again?

St. Albans Fire is the sixteenth Joe Gunther novel.

 “Joe’s an expert at quietly, relentlessly stripping away the veneer to reveal motives like envy and rancor, disappointment and bitterness. But he’s not nearly as good at figuring himself out. His long-time affair with State Senator Gail Zigman is in trouble. Through what might be deliberate neglect, a veneer has formed there, too. Will Joe catch a killer and lose a lover?

“The most understated cop in crime fiction racks up a satisfying 16th in a series that marches confidently to its own unhurried beat.”
— Kirkus Reviews

“Archer Mayor always has tricks up his sleeve, and in St. Albans Fire he deploys them, as always, to good advantage.”
—A.C. Hutchison, Rutland Herald

Where to Buy

On Amazon, for your Kindle.
On Barnes & Noble, for your Nook.
On iTunes, for your iPad or iPhone.

About Archer Mayor

New York Times bestselling author Archer Mayor has been a photographer, teacher, historian, editor, travel writer, lab technician, political advance man, medical illustrator, journalist, publications consultant, constable, and EMT/firefighter. He is half Argentine, bilingual, and has lived in several countries on two continents. Currently, he’s a novelist, a death investigator for Vermont’s medical examiner, and a police officer.

Find him on the web at ArcherMayor.com

Photo of “Barn Studies 2“ by Flickr user pocius (CC BY 2.0)

You wouldn’t be wrong if you guessed that Volume One contains the first three Kate Shugak mysteries — the Edgar-award winning A Cold Day for Murder, along with A Fatal Thaw, and Dead in the Water. But would you also have intuited that we bundled-in “Nooses Give,” a Shugak short story that takes place before the events of A Cold Day? Similarly, Volume Two encompasses not only books four through six—A Cold-Blooded Business, Play with Fire, and Blood Will Tell—but also the shorts “Cherchez la Femme” and “Wreck Rights.” By now, even the laxest armchair detective will have sensed a pattern, and Volume Three stays the course, delivering books seven through nine—Breakup, Killing Grounds, and Hunter’s Moon—along with the shorts “Conspiracy” and “Under the Influence.”

The Shugak mysteries are each self-contained, but there’s a long and gentle arc running through the series—characters age and die, relationships bloom and fade, there are promotions, demotions, emotions, heartaches and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to. If you’re not already a fan, you’d do well to begin with Volume One and the Edgar-award winning A Cold Day for Murder. If you’re feeling cussed, though, the general consensus seems to be that Breakup is the most fun of the bunch… whether that makes it a good introduction, however, is hard to say.

In all of this, we’re assuming that you have at least a passing familiarity with Ms. Stabenow’s most beloved protagonist, but then you know what they say about assumptions. Let’s not make them. So: Kate Shugak, Alaskan Aleut from the rural village of Niniltna, returns to her roots after a somewhat brief career as an investigator for the Anchorage DA’s office. Her one, true friend is a Husky/wolf crossbreed named Mutt, but while she tends toward the misanthropic end of the spectrum, Kate isn’t entirely an island, and her heart isn’t entirely hardened. There will, indeed, be romance. And crime-solving… Kate Shugak is an investigator for hire, and whether it’s drug-dealing on the North Slope, smuggling native antiquities, fundamentalist justice, corrupt land swindles or just plain-old, low-down worst-of-humanity murder, she investigates.

These are merely the first nine entries in the series, by the way. When you find yourself at the end of Hunter’s Moon, wondering what Kate’s next move will be, know that an equal measure of entertainment lies ahead of you as behind. And February 2013 sees the publication of Bad Blood, the twentieth Kate Shugak novel. So, read on!

Where to Buy

On Amazon, for your Kindle: Vol. 1, Vol. 2, Vol. 3
On Barnes & Noble, for your Nook: Vol. 1, Vol. 2, Vol. 3
On iTunes, for your iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch: Vol. 1, Vol. 2, Vol. 3

About Dana Stabenow

Dana Stabenow is an American author who has produced works in the science fiction, mystery, and suspense/thriller genres. Find her on the web at Stabenow.com.

Hat tip to Flickr user Pimlico Badger for LT RT KGK 575 2004-09-26
(CC BY-SA 2.0).

Gatekeeper is the fourteenth Joe Gunther novel.

“A wrenching, no-easy-answers look at current narcotics tactics, set off by intriguing characters.”
—Connie Fletcher, Booklist

“Quiet, unassuming, yet charismatic, the ever-readable Sage of Brattleboro shines […] Page-turner Joe, they call him.”
—Kirkus Reviews

Where to Buy

On Amazon, for your Kindle.
On Barnes & Noble, for your Nook.
On iTunes, for your iPad or iPhone.

About Archer Mayor

New York Times bestselling author Archer Mayor has been a photographer, teacher, historian, editor, travel writer, lab technician, political advance man, medical illustrator, journalist, publications consultant, constable, and EMT/firefighter. He is half Argentine, bilingual, and has lived in several countries on two continents. Currently, he’s a novelist, a death investigator for Vermont’s medical examiner, and a police officer.

Find him on the web at ArcherMayor.com

Photo of “Fix“ by Flickr user wstryder (CC BY 2.0)

Here’s how we describe it elsewhere:

Newenham, Alaska is a Bush town with a six-bed jail, a busted ATM and a saloon that does double-duty as a courtroom. It’s a wide-enough patch to warrant a state police presence, though, and Trooper Liam Campbell is it, posted there to spend some much-needed time in the wilderness. Campbell  didn’t expect the new job to be simple, but finding his ex-lover crouched over a headless body is a hell of a way to get off the plane.

And it doesn’t get any easier. From the (literally) cut-throat business of commercial fishing, to the paranoid misanthropy of back-country prospecting, to drug dealers, serial killers, and caches of forgotten war gold, Campbell will have his hands full. This omnibus edition contains all four of the Liam Campbell novels, Fire and Ice, So Sure of Death, Nothing Gold Can Stay, and Better to Rest, as well as the short stories “On the Evidence” and “Missing, Presumed…” Fans of the modern frontier, of mystery tinged with a frisson of romance, of slow-talking lawmen with good intentions, of tai chi and small aircraft piloting take note: Liam Campbell is for you.

We hope you’ll agree. Note that the first book, Fire and Ice, is widely available for free, making it easy to try before you buy.

Where to Buy

On Amazon, for your Kindle.
On Barnes & Noble, for your Nook.
On iTunes, for your iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch

About Dana Stabenow

Dana Stabenow is an American author who has produced works in the science fiction, mystery, and suspense/thriller genres. Find her on the web at Stabenow.com.

“State Troopers” photo courtesy of Flickr user iBjorn (Bjørn Bulthuis)—(CC BY-SA 2.0).

Tucker Peak is the twelfth Joe Gunther novel.

 “The 12th book in Mayor’s series is the best yet, filled with his usual strong characters, evocative settings, well-researched backgrounds and polished writing. [...] Often labeled a ‘regional’ writer, Mayor, with his intelligent plots, wit, relaxed style and understanding of human relationships, deserves wider recognition.”
—Peter Cannon, Publishers Weekly

“This 12th Gunther mystery by Mayer (now a Vermont constable) again vividly portrays the hardscrabble life of southern Vermont, with its ambivalence toward the ski industry that sustains much of the economy and its dependence on snow.”
—Francine Fialkoff, Library Journal

“It always storms in the last chapter of an Archer Mayor novel—the better for this rugged stylist to top off the narrative with a snow-blinding, wind-howling action scene like the mountain chase that brings Tucker Peak to its invigorating close […] But there’s a point to these theatrics, which are ground cover for a solid study of the ski industry, with Tucker Peak as the ‘company town’ whose complex infrastructure reveals what wrong and what’s right about a business that spells economic life or death for a fragile region.”
—Marilyn Stasio, New York Times

“Why do we like [Joe Gunther]? Because he pays attention to details; because he relates to people in the quiet, effective way that we only dream of doing; and because he cares about protecting his world, rural Vermont, from the horrors that turn the rest of us into cynical mavericks. All of those qualities are on display in this twelfth episode in the series, which finds Gunther and his colleagues going undercover to investigate a crime spree at a ski resort. In the course of exposing the seamy infrastructure of the ski industry, Mayor again displays his remarkable ability to meld setting and character into a fully realized whole.”
—Bill Ott, Booklist

Where to Buy

On Amazon, for your Kindle.
On Barnes & Noble, for your Nook.
On iTunes, for your iPad or iPhone.

About Archer Mayor

New York Times bestselling author Archer Mayor has been a photographer, teacher, historian, editor, travel writer, lab technician, political advance man, medical illustrator, journalist, publications consultant, constable, and EMT/firefighter. He is half Argentine, bilingual, and has lived in several countries on two continents. Currently, he’s a novelist, a death investigator for Vermont’s medical examiner, and a police officer.

Find him on the web at ArcherMayor.com

Photo of “Into the Fog“ by Flickr user Joe Shlabotnik (CC BY 2.0)

We’ve combined the three volumes of Dana Stabenow’s Star Svensdotter series—Second Star, A Handful of Stars, and Red Planet Run—along with the Mars short story, “No Place Like Home,” into a single title, very attractively priced at $4.99. The first in the series is free/99¢ (depending on the store) so there’s a fair chance that readers who enjoy Second Star will feel confident buying the omnibus edition and saving a bit. Science fiction in particular has a long tradition of publishing two- and three-title collections in one cover, and there are a number of them currently offered as ebooks, so it seems a format readers may welcome.

The mechanics of ebook retail are such that there’s not a lot of merchandising small publishers can do, beyond setting a list price. Omnibus editions allow us to offer readers what is essentially a boxed-set at a discount—in this case, 37% off list. Will they respond? Will the omnibus eat into single-unit sales or attract a different customer entirely? All good questions… this is our first, so we’ll be watching.

Where to Buy

On Amazon, for your Kindle.
On Barnes & Noble, for your Nook.
On iTunes, for your iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch.

About Dana Stabenow

Dana Stabenow is an American author who has produced works in the science fiction, mystery, and suspense/thriller genres. Find her on the web at Stabenow.com.

Hat tip to Flickr user Sir Hectimere (Barry Lewis) for RTL 531 in Victoria, BC
(CC BY 2.0).

Stirring up the past can be a dangerous business. Gunther soon finds himself in a cross-border partnership with the Sûreté du Québec, investigating a Canadian mob family whose crimes date back to World War II, but who remain just as deadly as ever.

The Marble Mask is the eleventh Joe Gunther novel.

“Archer Mayor is the very model of a modern hard-boiled detective writer.”
— Clark Cox, The Pilot

“His sense of place is as good as any extant mystery author, and his characters, especially the bad guys and the suspects, are brilliantly painted.”
— Les Roberts, The Cleveland Plain Dealer

“Time warp murder is an intriguing conceit […] Gunther’s a sweetie and Vermont is, well, quaint.”
— Jane Dickinson, Rocky Mountain News

Where to Buy

On Amazon, for your Kindle.
On Barnes & Noble, for your Nook.
On iTunes, for your iPad or iPhone.

About Archer Mayor

New York Times bestselling author Archer Mayor has been a photographer, teacher, historian, editor, travel writer, lab technician, political advance man, medical illustrator, journalist, publications consultant, constable, and EMT/firefighter. He is half Argentine, bilingual, and has lived in several countries on two continents. Currently, he’s a novelist, a death investigator for Vermont’s medical examiner, and a police officer.

Find him on the web at ArcherMayor.com

Photo of DGJ_3112 by Dennis Jarvis, Flickr user archer10 (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Occam’s Razor is the tenth Joe Gunther novel.

“As a stylist, Mayor is one of those meticulous construction workers who are fascinated by the way things function. He’s the boss man on procedures, and he loves to poke around in whatever complicated mechanism is making all the wheels turn. The same attention to detail that leads Joe Gunther to the hidden connections of his divers criminal cases also gives us close-up views of how things get done in other businesses—from a one-room machine shop and an old army-navy store to a giant lumber mill and even the state legislature. And if you should want to know what brutal things you can do with a ball-peen hammer, here’s where you can find out.”
— Marilyn Stasio, New York Times

“Mayor’s sturdy series about police lieutenant Joe Gunther of Brattleboro, Vt., has much more on its mind than just mystery… All the story strings are woven with the common sense and low-key heroics that characterize the series, but Mayor’s greatest strength remains his uncanny ability to capture the seedy, seamy sides of life in his home state of Vermont—from evil smelling public housing projects to factories and workshops rusting away behind the scenic but deceptively pretty greenery.”
— Jeff Zaleski, Publishers Weekly

“Archer Mayor turns in another excellent police procedural…”
— Robert Wade, San Diego Union-Tribune

Where to Buy

On Amazon, for your Kindle.
On Barnes & Noble, for your Nook.
On iTunes, for your iPad or iPhone.

About Archer Mayor

New York Times bestselling author Archer Mayor has been a photographer, teacher, historian, editor, travel writer, lab technician, political advance man, medical illustrator, journalist, publications consultant, constable, and EMT/firefighter. He is half Argentine, bilingual, and has lived in several countries on two continents. Currently, he’s a novelist, a death investigator for Vermont’s medical examiner, and a police officer.

Find him on the web at ArcherMayor.com

Photo of razor blades by Flickr user peretzpup (CC BY 2.0)