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.

KILLING GROUNDS: If it's summer, it must be fishing season and Kate, working as a deckhand on Old Sam Dementieff's fishing boat Freya, finds a body in the water. It's a fisherman who has been beaten, stabbed, strangled and drowned. Overkill. But why?