Murder on the Yukon Quest (An Alaska Mystery) - Softcover

Henry, Sue

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1628152613 ISBN 13: 9781628152616

Publisher: Speaking Volumes, LLC, 2015

Synopsis

Jessie and her team of dogs are competing in the toughest dog sled race in the world—the Yukon Quest. Alone in the vast white wilderness, she's suddenly facing a danger worse than anything Nature has to offer. A young novice racer she met at the start of the race is abducted, and the girl's frantic father is warned that no one but Jessie Arnold is to be told or the girl will die.

Jessie's in the competition of a lifetime as she forges ahead in a desperate race against an unknown kidnapper who will stop at nothing. Speeding through the twists and turns of the icy, broken trails, Jessie has no time for fear. For somewhere in that lonely landscape, a killer waits for a chance to unleash his murderous rage on anyone who dares to get in his way.

About this title

Review:

While most modern mysteries set in Alaska concentrate on the damage done to the ecology or the strange personalities who take refuge in this arctic vastness, Sue Henry's books are more straightforward and usually more fun. In such stories as Deadfall and the Anthony Award-winning Murder on the Iditarod Trail, Henry follows in the sled and snowshoe tracks of writers like Jack London and Robert W. Service, who realized that Alaska was the last great frontier of adventure. Her characters, like champion sled-dog racer Jessie Arnold, are welcome throwbacks to a simpler period when physical challenge was a healthy way to measure self-esteem.

Jessie is testing herself in the thousand-mile Yukon Quest race, which follows the old mail trail from Whitehorse to Fairbanks, when one of the other racers is kidnapped and held for ransom. The kidnappers insist that only Jessie can deliver the money, and it has to be on the most dangerous leg of the race. Any attempt to involve the police will result in the victim's death. Of course, the worst blizzard of the year blows up just as the race gets to that point, and it goes without saying that Jessie risks herself and her beloved dog team to recover the victim and capture the bad guys. Even if the thought of somebody shouting "Mush!" fills you with silent laughter, you're sure to be gripped by Henry's ability to recreate the pleasures and perils of an arcane sport in a breathtaking landscape. --Dick Adler

About the Author:

Sue Henry – Anthony and Macavity Award Winner, her first Jessie Arnold mystery, Murder on the Iditarod Trail, won both the Anthony and Macavity Awards for Best First Novel. She also writes the Maxie McNabb mysteries. Henry is a former college administrator and has lived in Alaska for 30 years. She spends much of her spare time RVing around the Lower Forty-Eight or researching Alaska.

About this edition

• Publisher: Speaking Volumes, LLC
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1628152613
• ISBN 13: 9781628152616
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 306