KATE SHUGAK FOLLOWS ANOTHER TANGLED CASE WITH A MONSTER...

Spring came to Alaska, and the warm southerly wind brought snow, so that the reservation was flooded with slush. Among other things, private investigator Kate Shugak has one long-delayed matter to deal with: filing a tax return. But if bad luck clings to some people's heels, it must be up to their necks, and if some days are bad, then this one is their king.

Not only does Kate have to deal with rabid grizzly bears and the deranged members of a feuding family, but to top it all off, a jet engine crashes into her backyard. The pesky agents of the National Transportation Safety Board investigating the accident and the corpse in the forest behind the hummocks are just the proverbial icing on the cake.

As much as Kate intends to distance herself from the police investigation at first, in the end she can't just stand idly by, and before she knows it, she's on the trail of a dangerous killer with the Monster at her side.