A Taint in the Blood pdf

Dana Stabenow (born March 27, 1952 in Anchorage, Alaska) is an American author of science fiction, mystery/crime fiction, suspense/thriller, and historical adventure novels.Many of Stabenow's books are set in her home state of Alaska, where she was raised by her single mother who lived and worked on a fish tender in the Gulf of Alaska, and feature numerous descriptions of Alaska's geography, geology, weather, and wildlife.Stabenow received a BA in journalism from the University of Alaska in 1973 and, after deciding to try her hand as an author, later enrolled in UAA's MFA program.Her first novel, Second Star, was bought by Ace Science Fiction in 1990. It was followed by two other science fiction books. Her first Kate Shugak mystery, A Cold Day for Murder, won the Edgar Award for Best Paperback Original in 1993.Her 2011 Kate Shugak mystery, Though Not Dead, received the 2012 Nero Award.In 2007 Stabenow was named Alaska Artist of the Year in the Governor's Awards for the Arts and Humanities.In 2011, Stabenow wrote on her blog an informative article about her childhood reading experiences and how these influenced her to write detective novels.

A Taint in the Blood pdf by Dana Stabenow

Thirty-one years ago in Anchorage, Alaska, Victoria Pilz Bannister Muravieff was convicted of murdering her seventeen-year-old son William. The jury returned a quick verdict of guilty, believing the prosecutor's claims that she had set fire to her own home with both her sons inside; William died and the other, Oliver, narrowly escaped. Victoria was sentenced to life in prison without parole, and though she pled not guilty at the trial, she never again denied her guilt.
Now her daughter, Charlotte Muravieff, has hired Kate Shugak to clear her mother's name. Her daughter has always believed in her innocence, and now that Victoria has been diagnosed with terminal cancer, Charlotte wants her free. Kate is the only p.i. Charlotte can find who's willing to take such a long-shot case. Kate, on the other hand, is only willing because she's suddenly a single parent to a teenager, a teenager she hopes will decide to go to college. Besides, it can't be bad to do a favor for the Bannister family, one of the wealthiest and most prominent families in Alaska's short history.
As Kate begins an investigation, Victoria protests, refusing to cooperate. But soon it seems she isn't the only one who wants to leave the past in the past. In this spell-binding novel, Kate's confrontation with thirty years of secrets and regret-and murder-in one of Alaska's most powerful families shows award-winning crime writer Dana Stabenow at the top of her game.
"My mother was convicted of killing my brother." Kate absorbed this in silence for a moment. Okay, even she had to admit that this was a bit out of the ordinary. If anything, it made her even less inclined to listen to Charlotte's sob story, but the other woman was still drinking Kate's coffee, so she said, "How?" "They said she burned down the house with him in it." Arson, Kate thought. One of the easiest crimes to detect, given the current state of forensic technology. It was next to impossible to hide even the most minuscule remnants of a timer, no matter how unsophisticated, from an experienced arson detective with a good lab tech behind him, to say nothing of the dogs trained to sniff out accelerants. "How did they decide it was her?" Now that the worst of the story was out, Charlotte was eager to speak. "It mostly circumstantial. She lived in the house with us, she'd just taken out insurance policies on all our lives"