Edgar winner Stabenow's outstanding sixth Liam Campbell novel (after 2012's Restless in the Grave, also featuring another series lead, Kate Shugak) finds the Alaska state trooper posted to the Kenai Peninsula with his bush pilot wife as he slowly revives his career after a botched operation years before, which left a family near Denali dead and led to his demotion. Violence immediately interrupts the couple's integration into the community when an archaeologist, whose findings may jeopardize a major oil drilling expansion in the area, is killed near a cave where a terrible crime occurred decades earlier. As Liam investigates, he encounters a slew of richly developed secondary characters, including a movie star who loves luxury rural life and a former bombshell nightclub singer teetering precariously on the edge of dementia. Rich in details of Alaskan life, history, and archaeology, this fast-paced mystery builds to a satisfying conclusion. Fans will hope they won't have to wait another eight years for Liam's next outing. (Feb.)

After a long hiatus, Alaska state trooper Liam Campbell is back (not counting his joint appearance with Kate Shugak, Stabenow's other series protagonist, in 2012's Restless in the Grave) for this fifth entry in his series. The sergeant is newly reassigned, from small-town Newenham to bigger Blewestown, when he has two murders on his hands, one 20 years old and the other new. Campbell finds the body of archaeologist Erik Berglund, one of the first people he has met in town, a man who has pissed off virtually everyone in town over the perennial conflict between digging for oil and preserving historical sites. Campbell's wife, bush pilot Wyanet Chouinard, provides invaluable assistance, with both the investigation and transportation (which exposes Campbell's fear of flying). Stabenow's vivid portraits of the Alaskan landscape, along with the Campbell-Chouinard relationship (these are two people besotted with each other), lighten the tone in this smooth, character-driven mystery featuring Alaskan history and culture and the welcome return of Sergeant Campbell.