KATE SHUGAK is a native Aleut working as a private investigator in Alaska. She's 5 foot 1 inch tall, carries a scar that runs from ear to ear across her throat and owns half-wolf, half-husky dog named Mutt. Resourceful, strong-willed, defiant, Kate is tougher than your average heroine – and she needs to be to survive the worst the Alaskan wilds can throw at her.

A FINE AND BITTER SNOW. Tensions run high when Kate's friend and chief park ranger, Dan O'Brien, is asked to take early retirement. Could it have somthing to do with his opposition to plans to drill for oil? Kate rallies the troops to fight for his job, but before she can really start throwing her weight around, a longtime resident, a friend of Kate's grandmother, is found brutally murdered. Alaska State Trooper Jim Chopin enlists Kate in the investigation, and it isn't long before she discovers that when it comes to the beauty and danger of living and dying in Alaska, nothing is as simple as it seems...