Raven's Grave

by Charlotte Stuart

Overview

A young boy dies during a midnight ceremony. A fish buyer and $75,000 goes missing. And a runaway becomes the object of an Alaskan wilderness search.

It is 1979 in a small native village in Alaska accessible only by boat. The local Tlingits continue to honor many traditions of the past, although increased contact with the outside world is accelerating a cultural shift. Caught in a slipstream of time, the village has become a curious blend of old and new.

When a young boy dies from a potion that was supposed to cure his limp, all the evidence points to the teenage shaman as the killer. It is up to Jonah St. Clair, the only police officer in the village, to solve the murder and, at the same time, find the missing fish buyer. To do so, he must use both his police skills and his knowledge of the local culture.

During his investigation, Jonah becomes prey and predator in a nighttime chase through the Alaskan wilderness and barely survives a rugged boat trip in dangerous waters. In the end, he not only apprehends a killer but discovers the bittersweet secret of the Raven's Grave.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783988320223
Publisher:	Vine Leaves Press
Publication date:	09/19/2023
Pages:	300
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.75(d)

About the Author

Charlotte Stuart PhD writes about diverse topics such as hidden treasure, chimeras, commercial fishing, friendship and betrayal. Her books have received numerous awards including a Global eBook gold, two NYC Big Book Distinguished Favorites, and a Pinnacle Achievement Book Award. Before she started writing full-time, she left a tenured faculty position to go commercial fishing in Alaska, spent a year sailing in the Washington and Canadian San Juans, and was a partner in a management consulting group. She lives and writes on Vashon Island in the Pacific Northwest and is the past president of the Puget Sound Sisters in Crime. Visit: charlottestuart.com

Editorial Reviews

"Charlotte Stuart's evocation of the power of Alaska's untamed wilderness on its inhabitants and her readers is palpable and profound." Gerald Elias, musician and author of the Daniel Jacobus mystery series

"Charlotte Stuart's masterfully woven mystery includes vivid threads describing the rugged Alaskan scenery, isolated native villages, local myth and tradition, and haunting images of the past." Kathi Daley, USA Today Bestselling Author

"Raven's Grave is a deeply moving story of murder and cultural erosion in an Alaskan Tlingit fishing village during the late 1970s. Charlotte Stuart paints the magnificent, unforgiving land-and seascapes with a sharp eye and steady hand. She endows her characters with true dimension and complexity, particularly the principled lawman, Jonah St Clair. You can't read Raven's Grave without being touched by the author's love and respect for the region and the people she portrays. Teeming with authenticity and rich cultural detail. A wonderfully satisfying novel." James W. Ziskin, author of the Anthony, Barry, and Macavity award-winning Ellie Stone mysteries

From the Publisher

2023-10-02
Stuart presents a murder mystery set in small-town 1970s Alaska.

Jonah St. Clair, the only police officer in the tiny Alaskan town of Koloshan, investigates the death of 10-year-old Johnny Simpson. The boy seems to have died as the result of a potion given to him by a native Tlingit shaman named Chaaky, who was trying to cure the boy’s limp. St. Clair is trying to withhold judgment; although the locals have already mentally tried and convicted Chaaky, St. Clair reminds himself that the death could have been an accident, although other events—including a disappearing man and a disappearing fortune—start to seem interconnected in ways that will test St. Clair’s skills, which were honed by six years with the LAPD (and two years of service in Vietnam). At first, the case of the missing man seems more straightforward, particularly since the world of Tlingit mysticism is, in many ways, the antithesis of the scientific, forensic world of modern crime: “With less science to explain their world,” St. Clair reflects at one point, “the Tlingits, like other people throughout the world, had welcomed actions that had the appearance of exerting control over the unknown.” But if Chaaky is innocent, who might be responsible for little Johnny’s death? His father? His older brother? And how does it all connect to the missing man and the missing money? Patiently and skillfully, the author unfolds a story that’s equal parts traditional mystery and atmospheric evocation of Alaska’s people and customs, in the tradition of Dana Stabenow’s beloved Kate Shugak novels. St. Clair emerges as a stolid, self-possessed rock of a hero for the book, and Stuart is equally adept at fleshing out her cast of supporting characters.

A solidly constructed and very satisfying murder mystery set in a largely vanished Alaska.

Kirkus Reviews