In July of 1897, the S.S. PORTLAND sailed from Alaska to Seattle carrying two tons of Yukon gold, setting off the famed Klondike Gold Rush. Now, the SPIRIT OF '98 is recreating that historic voyage and Alex Jensen is assigned to watch the gold. With his lady love, the famous "musher" Jessie Arnold, at his side, he is looking forward to the leisurely trip, until an unexplained rash of shipboard robberies and a probable death jolts him into action. The only law officer in the vicinity, it is now Alex's duty to unravel the twisted skein of lies, greed and lethal secrets that entangles the crew and passengers on this historic cruise, before death once again hails the SPIRIT somewhere along the Inside Passage.
Alaska State Trooper Alex Jensen is faced with solving the mystery of what became of pilot Norm Lewis, whose plane disappeared six months ago in the vast white wilderness. When Norm's battered plane is found, empty except for the decomposed, bullet-riddled body of an unidentified female, his wife, Rochelle, is shocked and puzzled. Norm is nowhere to be found, and Rochelle, herself a pilot, demands to be included in the search. When the body in the plane turns out to be that of a federal agent who was investigating big-game poachers, the FBI steps in. But it's Alex and Rochelle who go after the killers and put their lives on the line to discover what's behind Norm's disappearance.
Maxie McNabb and her miniature dachshund, Stretch, are just back from their latest adventure when a murder shatters the quiet in their hometown of Homer, Alaska. Now it's up to Maxie to find the killer - a search that leads her to a place called 'the end of the road.'
Champion musher Jessie Arnold has been out of racing for a number of years, ever since she incurred a devastating knee injury. Now she's ready to get back into shape for this year's Iditarod. While taking her team on a practice run down a local trail she takes a snowy bump that's never been there before. It turns out to be a snow-shrouded body. Now, Jessie and her boyfriend, Alaska State Trooper Alex Jensen, are back chasing criminals. And the hunt is on for the killer of a supposed earthquake victim -- whose death turns out to actually be a murder
Maxie McNabb, the irresistible Winnebago-driving sixty-something-year-old, is back–and criminals from the frigid Iditarod Trail to the scorching Southwest had better beware. With her canine companion, Stretch, in tow, Maxie is "the most refreshingly original protagonist to come along in years" (Rick Riordan). And this time, she sets out to turn one on-edge town back into a peaceful pueblo….
One of the best parts of zigzagging the country in her Minnie Winnie is the possibility of endless adventure–and Maxie McNabb is always up for trying new things. So she and little Stretch head for the languorous heat of Taos, New Mexico, where Maxie plans to learn how to weave.
But everything changes for the sleepy town when a local woman attempts suicide. A casualty of her husband's midlife crisis, she has been replaced by a newer, sexier model. And to top it off, a sleazy con man has set his sights on her.
Even though she's on vacation, Maxie is determined to help the poor thing. And with her nose for trouble, she thinks she can do it. She'll leave no mesa unturned until she brings two dogs to justice–neither of which is trusty Stretch….
Sled dog racer Jessie Arnold has just gotten back together with her ex-boyfriend and sleuthing partner, Alex Jensen, and she's looking forward to some peace and quiet. But even when she's deep in the wilderness, trouble has a way of finding her.
Jessie's friends Laurie and Jim have acquired their dream–and old lighthouse on the Alaskan Inside Passage–and they've decided to throw a party. Not a party in the typical sense, but one where guests earn their keep by scraping, painting, hammering, and generally restoring Five Finger Light, named after the long, low islands over which the house stands guard. So Jesse decides to leave Alex alone for a few days and help Laurie and Jim.
With the company of old friends, the smell of fresh paint in the air, and a view to die for, Jessie won't soon forget this weekend–especially when she stumbles across a dead body. The death seems like an accident. But even as a frantic Alex learns that someone's cut the phone lines and wrecked the radio, Jessie realizes there's a killer loose on the island. Worse yet, the killing spree might not be over–even though the party certainly is…
At 63, Maxie is cruising down the Alaska Highway in her brand-new Winnebago. She's always been a gypsy at heart, and with her mini-dachshund at her side, and the open road ahead, she's never been happier. But before her exploration of the Lower 48 gets underway, Maxie needs to figure out who burglarized her friend's Colorado home, and why. But the closer Maxie gets to solving the puzzle, the more it becomes chillingly clear that her friend's life isn't the only one on the line.
With August drawing to a close, Jessie Arnold is feeling empty. Not even the return of a friend can lessen her disappointment over having to miss the approaching Alaskan dogsled racing season because of her recent knee surgery. But a request to help man the Iditarod booth at
the Alaska State Fair is a godsend, something that keeps Jessie involved and happy, until a corpse turns up on the fairgrounds.
Famed Alaskan musher Jessie Arnold thinks she's finally put her dark past behind her. But the excavations on her new cabin unearth a decades-old skeleton entombed in a crumbling basement wall, along with a butterfly pendant necklace worn by the alleged victim of a brutal serial slayer who preyed on area women 20 years earlier.
With her cabin a pile of ashes and her lite in pieces, champion Alaskan "musher" Jessie Arnold has gratefully accepted a friend's proposal that she drive his motor home up from Idaho, along the Alaska Highway -- a breathtaking, two thousand-mile-long route winding past hot springs, glaciers, and ice-blue lakes. But the idyllic trip takes a dark turn when a teenage hitchhiker brings terror aboard. Frightened and alone, Patrick Cutler disappears just before the police inform Jessie that the young runaway is wanted in connection with two shocking murders. Suddenly she is cast into a raging maelstrom of dark secrets and deadly consequences. And the cold and empty road she's traveling could be leading her not to her home...but to a grave in the trackless wilderness.
In a breathtaking land of ice and cold, death has come, by fire.
In the lingering chill of the early Alaskan spring, famed "musher" Jessie Arnold confronts the charred remains of a favorite local pub, destroyed by a suspicious blaze that claimed an innocent, unsuspecting life. This lull between racing seasons is meant to be a time of grueling training and conditioning for Jessie and her dogsled team, but instead it has become a time of fear. Because the burning has only begun, and its flames will scar and blister Jessie's world in ways she can barely imagine. And in the wake of more death, her next race will be one for survival, as she struggles to determine whether a desperate friend is a terrified victim, or a killer.
