DANA STABENOW – Better to Rest. Signet, paperback reprint, September 2003. Hardcover edition: New American Library, 2002.

   I’ve never availed myself of the method, but I’m told that a good way to learn a new language is to immerse yourself in it completely — in a class or a group session in which nothing but the language is spoken, for example — and eventually, by necessity, you’ll start to catch on.

   As I say, I’ve never tried it, but I’ve often done what seems like the equivalent. Such as picking up a new mystery series in the middle, for example, and trying to pick up on who’s who and why this one doesn’t get along well with that one, and why these two are an item but aren’t talking to each other at the moment.

   Sometimes, though, it seems to take an awfully long time.

   Such as with this one, just as a handy example. Stabenow started out as a science fiction writer, but after three books, she seems to have abandoned the field and has concentrated on writing mysteries. Her first series character was Kate Shugak, whom I think might be best described as an Aleut private eye. There have been some 13 books about her since A Cold Day for Murder, which won an Edgar in 1992. Better to Rest, to get back to the book at hand, is the fourth in her second mystery series, featuring Alaskan state trooper Liam Campbell.

   Alaska being what it is, the two major means of relaxation and/or pleasure are alcohol and sex, or at least that’s what I’d have believe after reading this book, as Liam, his current love, pilot Wyanet Chouinard, and their assorted families and friends (and not-so-friends) indulge in one or the other (or both) throughout the book.

   But they all know each other, and I didn’t know any of them. Some of them, by the time I’d figured out who they were, the book was over. Which is OK, in a way. Some of them I decided I didn’t care about knowing.

   The lovemaking scenes are often free-spirited if not totally rowdy, and one of them is outright distasteful. On the other hand, the Alaskan countryside is definitely spectacular, especially with winter arriving soon. On the other hand, the slow decay of Alaskan life in the town of Newenham, with the imminent death of the fishing industries, makes for a rather melancholy backdrop to the mystery that has to be solved.

   And, yes, there is one, or rather two, but a long-time mystery reader will get the feeling early on that perhaps they are connected. (Whether they are or not, I leave for you to discover.) The major one is the discovery of a wrecked World War II airplane in a nearby glacier, complete with bodies and a gold coin clutched in the hand of a dismembered arm.

   The other is the murder of a sexy 74-year-old grandmother, whose death Liam takes very badly. There’s very little detection involved. On page 259 (or 293) Liam says he knows who did it, and so he does. It seems more like guesswork to me.

   Educated guesswork, I hasten to add, since he knows and lives with these people. For the most part, though, reading about them suits me just fine. Alaska sounds like a great place to visit, but I don’t think I’d care to live there.

[UPDATE] 07-01-12.   Bad Blood, book number 20 in Dana Stabenow’s Kate Shugak series, is scheduled for next year (2013), but for whatever reason, this is still the most recent book-length adventure for Liam Campbell.