Skeleton Lake by Mike Doogan

From the Publisher

Wounded during an investigation and still grieving the loss of his son, Anchorage private detective Nik Kane returns to his first big case, one that he's never been able to close. Danny Shirtleff was an undercover cop gunned down on a muddy road next to Skeleton Lake. But even in Alaska, cold cases have a habit of heating up. And Nik Kane is about to get burned.

Publishers Weekly

Three different stories separated by decades propel Doogan's stellar third Alaska police procedural (after 2007's Capitol Offense): PI Nik Kane's poverty-stricken, fatherless youth in Anchorage during the early 1960s; Nik's first murder case at age 36, the unsolved homicide of fellow cop Danny Shirtleff in 1985; and the aftermath of a shooting in 2007 in which Nik's son, Dylan, took a fatal hit from a stray bullet from Nik's own gun. Nik's sister, Cee Cee, a nun, helps his body and soul recuperate in the wake of Dylan's accidental death. The jarring shifts of perspective, fine-tuned to Nik's lifelong search for his father, intensify as the novel crescendos toward its devastating conclusion. All the characters spring from the page as intense as today's violent crime headlines and as convincing as a .38 slug to the belly. Doogan, a former reporter and now Alaska state legislator, doesn't miss a searing beat in this three-movement symphony of loss, guilt and revenge. (Aug.)

Jo Ann Vicarel - Library Journal

Juggling three plot lines from different times in Nik Kane's life and moving from the 1960s to the 1980s to the present, Doogan fleshes out Kane's family history, his working the still-unsolved murder of a fellow officer, and the aftermath of the shocking events of Capital Offense. Doogan does not disappoint. He shows that there is new terrain to be staked in this genre and that some authors can provide a slam-dunk ending in an understated, unique fashion only achieved by such masters as Bill Pronzini and Jeremiah Healey. [See Prepub Mystery, LJ4/1/08.]

Kirkus Reviews

A near-fatal shooting sends a veteran cop tumbling back to two turning points in his life. After being shot on the job, Anchorage private detective Nik Kane slips in and out of consciousness. His memory of recent events comes back in painful pieces, beginning with the death of his son Dylan. An incremental recovery, aided by his half-sister, now a nun, is counterpointed by two memorable times in his life. In 1985, fledgling police officer Nik faces the first big investigation of his career; in the 1960s, teenage Nik, in the shadow of a juvenile delinquent brother, finds a first love and a first job and tries to find Teddy, the father who abandoned his family. In '85, rookie Nik trails in the wake of his partner, larger-than-life Detective Sergeant Giuseppe Donatello DiSanto, aka Jackie Dee, as they investigate the suspicious shooting of popular detective Danny Shirtleff. Jackie Dee teaches rookie Nik the ropes. Nik now wonders whether his senior partner, who always operated outside the lines, may have known more about Danny's shooting than he let on, or worse. Doogan (Capitol Offense, 2007, etc.) gets maximum impact by interweaving his three related plotlines, each of which could have sustained its own novel. Writing with as much style and authority as ever, he's crafted a plot worthy of his prose. Agent: Marcy Posner/Sterling Lord Literistic

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