Breakup

Kate Shugak #7

by Dana Stabenow

When winter’s done, but spring has not yet fully-sprung, much of Alaska turns to slush. Locally, it’s called “breakup,” and it’s a… messy time of year. It’s certainly messy for Kate Shugak; between doing her taxes, being chased by grizzlies and getting shot-at by feuding families, she has to cope with an NTSB investigation that hits very close to home. Then, of course, there’s the body in the woods. And up at the old mining town. And… being Kate Shugak, somehow she can’t leave well enough alone, and begins to tease-apart a well-planned and surprising crime.

Breakup is the seventh novel in Stabenow’s Edgar Award-winning Kate Shugak series, and is often-cited as a fan-favorite.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Crime, Mystery Thriller, Suspense, Audiobook, Thriller

256 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Dana Stabenow was born in Anchorage and raised on 75-foot fish tender in the Gulf of Alaska. She knew there was a warmer, drier job out there somewhere.

Reviews

[Yodamom · Rating 5 out of 5]

The BreakUp is insane ! Seriously this state goes nuts on speed during breakup in this book. Kate, she is one strong woman I would have just gotten in my truck and driven south. You think you have difficulties, LOL wait till you read about her days. Her story continues, and I've already ordered book #8
I loved this one most so far it hit all my "Woot Woot Love It" buttons and left me wanting to reread it just to experience it again.

[Abibliofob · Rating 5 out of 5]

"I hate Breakup" Is a line that is kind of a red line through this book by Dana Stabenow is in my opinion the best book so far in this series. I had so much fun reading this book that I actually disturbed people around me with my laughter. Kate has a few encounters of the deadly and some unusual kind. There is so much going on in this book both serious and deadly and most of all funny. After reading 8 books back to back it's good to get some great writing just as you where feeling that the stories where getting somewhat repetitive. I still find this series entertaining and will read some more before the new one arrives next year.

[Steph · Rating 4 out of 5]

Marguerite Gavin is again the narrator for the audiobook version of this novel.

[Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Totally fun read -- lots of Alaskan mayhem in the springtime, a couple of murders, people shooting each other for a variety of reasons, and things falling out of the sky. The name "Breakup" refers to the setting of the story, during the springtime when all of the ice is breaking up, the ground is muddy, and the locals are going crazy from cabin fever. Kate Shugak is a great character, I need to go start at the beginning and read through this series.

[LJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

BREAKUP - VG+
Stabenow, Dana - 7th Kate Shugak

Kate finds herself involved in a murder investigation after a body is found near her homestead and, through the guidance of her Aleut grandmother's spirit, she assumes the role of clan leader and takes on major responsibilities to help her people.

This was a non-stop, very funny read from the opening page. It's a delightful contrast to the rest of the books in the series.

[Bambi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I haven't read Dana Stabenow's Kate Shugak's series for almost two years now, and I must say, it was a breath of fresh air.

I don't know why, but this particular book, Breakup, had me laugh out loud and shake my head a couple of times. First of all, the title "Breakup" is not what I thought it would be. I honestly thought Kate is breaking up with Jack, but apparently breakup has a whole other meaning, especially when you live in snowy regions, like Alaska for instance. So, I learned something new and Kate and her friends knows, once breakup starts, things happen.

(Spoiler paragraph)
And things did happen all right! Poor Kate didn't know where to go and what to do. First a bear chases her, another bear does a break-in in her outside cache, meat thrown everywhere. Then Mutt alerts her of something new, and her whole house shakes, believing it's an earthquake, just to find a jet engine fell from the sky onto her truck. The very truck she needs to buy supplies! The Jet crash crew comes to investigate and discovers a dead body not far away from Kate's homestead. Then while all this is happening, her friend Mandy drops her parents off and asks Kate to take them sightseeing, for they are driving Mandy crazy. She bribes Kate with payment, but all Kate wants is to borrow Mandy's truck to buy supplies. On their (Kate, and Mandy's parents) way to see the copper mine with Mandy's truck, they almost collide with a bear! The bear does a number on the new truck, and Kate discovers there is blood on the bear's face. They are met with a frantic and hysterical man, pleading with them to help his wife from a bear. Yes, yet another bear!!. Kate discovers it is too late for the wife, she didn't make it, the bear got to her. While waiting for the plane to land (the same copper mine town), it crashes and flips upside down, and skids against the truck. Another dent along with the bear damages! This time, the door won't open. Then not long after, a wife shooting at her drunk husband, decorating the poor truck with bullet holes along the way. And who got the best view (front row seats people!) while all this was happening, Mandy's rich parents!

These couple of chapters had me laughing! There is no way that so much can happen to one person in such a short time period. But it did, and it happened to Kate. Breakup is book no. 7 of the Kate Shugak series, and I can honestly say, that this book was by far my favorite. I'm curious to see what the next few books will be like, but I enjoyed this one tremendously, and I hope there is more like this one!

Between all the shooting and fighting, and yes, there were two bar shootings between two families, Kate still managed to take lead (what her grandmother desired), held a meeting to help the townspeople, helped to solve two murders and managed to drive a CAT tractor to make two new roads to stop the fight between two families.

What I noticed from all the Dana Stabenow books that I've read so far, is that the story has its own time. It's not fast paced and packed full of action all the time. You actually get the chance to see how the character lives and be a normal human being. One thing to keep in mind though, is that Dana has a lot of characters in her books, so sometimes you can find it hard to follow some characters. So, my advice for the first time Kate Shugak readers, is to make a little note and keep it close to the series, so whenever you start the next book, you know who is who.

In short, I really enjoyed this book. I loved the fact that the character had to endure so many problems, and she blamed everything on Breakup!

[Victoria Moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tense and slow going in parts and meditative, witty and biting in others, "Breakup" by Dana Stabenow is such a beautifully written mystery it brought the story and characters to life with stunning clarity. Set against their annual "Spring Thaw" the story focuses primarily on Kate Shugak, an Aleut woman who lives with her dog, Mutt, in a colorful, but close-knit community. Initially I didn't understand why Stabenow chose the term "breakup" for the title until I plunged deeper into the drama Shugak experiences in such a short period of time. First it does mean the transition from winter to spring displayed by the ice cracking caused by a warmer season, but second, in this story, it also means the possible dissolution of the Aleut family and culture due to alcoholism, grief and other issues.
A natural leader, because of her past as a law enforcer, age, strength and intelligence, Shugak immediately became a literary role model for me by using cleverness and persistence to staunchly face two back-to-back wildlife encounters, adjust to being temporarily homeless and stranded without transportation, refereeing a lengthy neighborhood feud, and advocating for improvements at her tribal council. And if this weren't enough she soon becomes involved in a homicide and puzzling bear mauling that may or may not be suspicious. Surrounded by the majestic loveliness of Alaska, she's highly regarded by the people around her-Dan O'Brian, a policeman, Mandy, her best friend, her Auntie Vi, Bernie, the owner of "Roadhouse", Bobby, her ex-lover, and Dinah, Bobby's current fiance. Somehow they form a close and diverse family that provides support to her and each other despite the challenges they face.
Profoundly meaningful, especially when it centered around the daily struggles of the Aleut's and those who live in such a contentious environment, "Breakup" is such an adventurous and action-packed tale it kept me highly engrossed throughout.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kate Shugak grabs the bull by the horns, any bull before her, with tenacity and initiative, sometimes whether it’s hers to take or not. A thirty-something Aleut woman living on her own in rural Alaska, the forces weighing on her personally include an alluded-to past in law enforcement (this is my first Kate Shugak book, but the seventh in the series) and the responsibilities inherited from her deceased grandmother who was a very capable tribal elder. In Breakup, these forces are put to serious test by the events of the long-awaited spring thaw, called breakup, a time of natural change, but of unpredictable bears and human behavior, too. In the first two chapters alone Kate and sidekick wolf-mix Mutt face jet engine parts falling from the sky and more than one bear adventure. The bears keep on coming, newly out of hibernation, hungry and cantankerous, and the human weirdnesses blossom. There’s the deaths in question, a body revealed near Kate’s in the thaw and woman’s death that may or may not have been a bear’s doing. Families engage in shoot-outs within their own ranks and with other families over land rights. Kate ends up having to be the tour guide for a local friend’s visiting high-society parents, a job the friend didn’t want herself. Kate is an enjoyable character, well made and with enough weaknesses to provide some balance to her great strengths. Perhaps they were revealed better in previous series books, but I found that the secondary characters were not particularly well-developed beyond basic appearance and one or two personality traits (an exception here, the parents mentioned above). This won’t keep me from looking for more of Kate, knowing I will be entertained in an interesting setting.

[Bill Lancaster · Rating 2 out of 5]

'Break up' in Alaska is evidently the spring season when the snow thaws and everyone starts moving and working again after a long winter. I always enjoy reading about different locations and cultures in a fictional context, but in this case, the improbable plot simply got in the way of enjoying this work.

Kate Shugak, the super protagonist, is chased by a bear, has a plane engine fall on her car, breaks up two families who are shooting at each other (and at innocent bystanders in a bar) over an access road, tour guides a stuffy Boston couple to a mine and resolves an Indian Reservation dispute. All in a day or two. And yes, I forgot, paves a new new road and solves a murder.

The plot is primarily a series of disconnected events that happen to Kate; it is not a compelling set of developments that lead to the solving of a murder. In fact, the murder seems to be of little consequence in the book, with the murderer being told by Kate to leave and never come back again.

Lastly, the term "break up" is used repeatedly in the novel. Mostly, when one improbable event after another occurs, Kate says, "I hate break up". She says it so often in the book that she reminds herself to not say it anymore. And then, later on, she says it again.

The book has vast potential: interesting locale, quirky characters, but it is lost on a meandering series of actions that hardly arrive anywhere.

[Frederick Masterman · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am reading the Kate Shugak series from the start, and this is the latest book I've read. With each passing story, Shugak's Native American roots are developed more profoundly, along with the difficulty tribal life faces on many fronts. Shugak is a tough, appealing character, and the author does a marvelous job deepening the reader's understanding of the woman as the stories unfold...as well as painting a fascinating word-portrait of life in Alaska. My only complaint (if it's that) is the unbelievable number of events that tumble one upon the other, which frequently happens in the books. In the course of one day there are so many convenient arrivals of various characters to move the story along, that it's comical. Perhaps that's the mood the author wishes to convey, and once you accept the fact that anybody can suddenly drop in at any time in any place, the story is acceptable. Sort of a fantasy of the wildness of Alaskan life, its frontier atmosphere, its tragic interplays of people, both native and white. Though the series is classed as "mystery", that element is often the least interesting and least developed. It's a story about the lives and loves of real people, which is the true value of the book.

[Sharon · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my first Dana Stabenow book. I found it at a Boucheron conference and then made the mistake of opening it. After that, I didn't want to do anything but read, and as soon as I got home, I bought the rest of Dana's mysteries. She offers a darkly compelling view of life in the Alaskan bush, well laced with lots of gallows humor. Her characters are very believable, the story lines are always suspenseful, and every now and then she lets a truly vile villain be eaten by a grizzley. Who could ask for more?

[Jeff Dickison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow! A Shugak novel with a sense of humor. Many weird and funny things happen to Kate when the Spring thaw begins. Kate manages to take charge, even when she doesn't want to, solves a murder mystery and generally straighten out all of the messes. Reminds me of the witticisms of the old Johnny Horton song: When It's Springtime In Alaska It's Forty Below. Highly recommended, especially to Shugak fans.

[Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Spring breakup in Alaska makes everyone a little crazy, both humans and animals. It's the euphoria of the melting snow as the sun blazes overhead. It makes a person positively giddy. And way up north in Kate Shugak's community, pent-up cabin fever has exploded into chaos.

This book was so much fun. Over the top action is not usually my thing, but I think I needed to be back in this gorgeous setting with characters I didn't even know I missed. Lots of laughs and encounters of the ursine kind.

You could probably read this book as a stand-alone as the narrative takes a detour from the usual happenings; however, if you love a rugged outdoor environment with spectacular beauty, this crime series set in an Indigenous community may be just the ticket.

[Val · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love hearing about hungry, angry grizzly bears and this book did not disappoint.

[T · Rating 3 out of 5]

And in this episode....

Kate's homestead gets sat on by an airplane engine falling out of the sky. While the investigators are checking the engine landing out, they discover a body in the woods outside of Kate's property.

Kate's friend Mandy's parents are in town and driving Mandy nuts, so Mandy begs Kate to take them on a tour, using Mandy's new truck. Kate and the parents run into a man who claimed his wife was killed and eaten by a bear.

And through all of this Kate is finding her new and evolving role in the community as a mediator/arbitrator, investigator, and an elder-in-training.

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just when I think I know what to expect from this series - moody, atmospheric mysteries with a heavy dose of Alaskan history and spiritualism - along comes this crazy, mad-cap romp through the craziness that is an Alaskan spring. Definitely a fun read, in spite of the grizzliness of the murder.

[Lucie Aran · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tak tohle byla zatím jednoznačně nejlepší kniha z celé série. Vtipná, sarkastická, plná akce i Aljašky - a to ne jen jejích krás, ale i nebezpečí. Prostě skvělé, co k tomu říct víc, než.... Tohle si musíte přečíst.

[Laurie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hillarious thriller - yes, that is possible.

[Sheila · Rating 4 out of 5]

Many odd things are going on with the coming of spring. The bears are waking and are very hungry. A plane engine drops on Kate's truck and cabin. Bodies are found.

[Nolan · Rating 3 out of 5]

To suggest that the seasons of the year don’t impact us would be a real fallacy and would vacate the entire premise of this humorous mystery. It’s Breakup in Alaska. No, that’s not a sequel to an old Johnny Horton song. Breakup is that brief period when Alaska begins to unfreeze after a long winter. Bears wake up hungry, and people act crazy, sometimes even life-threateningly crazy.

The giant jet engine that slams into park ranger and amateur sleuth Kate Shugak’s house does serious damage. It narrowly misses her and her half-wolf dog Mut. But that’s only the beginning of the craziness. Not long after others come to gawk at the broken engine and Kate’s broken house, a crazed Grizzly tears through the area within feet of where Kate and others stand.

Minutes after the bear appearance, Kate’s friend, Amanda, shows up with her wealthy snob parents from Boston and begs Kate to take them on a tour of a local abandoned coper mine—anything just to get them out of Mandy’s house! Since the fallen jet engine victimized Kate’s truck, she takes Mandy’s, and off they go—Kate and the cream of Boston society.

They encounter the bear again, and this time it wants the truck and all inside it. It seriously damages Mandy’s new truck, and the wealthy Bostonians are hip deep in Alaska culture whether they want to be or not. But there’s something different about that bear this time. Now, Kate notices it has torn flesh in its claws. Soon, the reason for the torn flesh becomes evident. It looks like the bear killed Mark Stewart’s wife, Carol. He’s in shock not far from the body. But something about it doesn’t seem right to Kate.

Read this to enjoy a good mystery made richer by a cast of colorful, unforgettable characters. The entire series is quirky like that, and I’ve a lot more books to go before it finishes. I only hope it doesn’t run out of gas like so many of them do long before the author retires the characters.

[Patrizia · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stelle e mezza
E' breakup in Alaska, ovvero l'inverno fa posto al disgelo e alla primavera... e succede di tutto! Dopo mesi passati al chiuso e al freddo sembra che tutti impazzischino: nel giro di 3-4 giorni, se ho tenuto bene i conti, Kate assiste a tre/quattro attacchi di orsi, tre sparatorie e una presa di ostaggi, senza contare i due cadaveri che sembrano dovuti all'ambiente naturale sfavorevole. Devo dire che in un paio di occasioni, mentre leggevo di pallottole volanti, mi sono ritrovata a ridacchiare per come la scena veniva raccontata. Mi sono divertita a leggere il libro, il mio unico problema è col fatto che un assassino alla fine la faccia franca. Anche se non è la prima volta che capita con questa serie.

[Marta E C R · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, this was fun! I knew about this author from a friend, so her name popped out at me in the “take one, leave one” area of my library a while back. It’s #7 in her Kate Shugak series, so was just a little harder to follow than if I’d begun with #1. But since it’s very likely I won’t do that, I’m very glad I read this one! There was a sticker in the book saying that it was part of a website called BookCrossing, where people can post on where they found the book, what they thought of it, and where they “released” it. I’m excited to be moving this book from Ellsworth, ME to Phoenix, AZ where I’m going on a trip, and I will be “releasing” it to a favorite Little Free Library and hoping it continues to be read and enjoyed.

[Quinn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kate Shugak (the hero in the book) is having a bad day. In the first 50 pages, an airline engine falls on her house, her garage, and her food storage, she is nearly eaten by a grizzly bear, a body is found near her house, and it's breakup--the early Spring when ice melts and refreezes at night, creating emotional and physical havoc.

While this is #7 in the series, I had not read any of the others. I'm interested in her conflicts--she is Aleut, torn between being a cop and a female tribal leader. In this book, she is highly conflicted, and that part of the book was really interesting to me.

The one flaw of the book is that everyone hates breakup--and I get it--but if one more person mentions it and blames *everything* on breakup, I may become violent. Heaven knows, everyone else in the book is! An easy and interesting read.

[Sara Palmer · Rating 5 out of 5]

this was handed to me by Walden's Book Store employee (RIP Walden's, FU Borders Books) as she said she laughed her way through it and couldn't recommend it more - and she was right! More than any other book in the series, this was all about comedic timing and people damn tired of being cooped up all winter

[Katie❄️ · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s breakup in Alaska and it sure does leave Kate and a few others blowing in the wind. Goodness what a mess. I loved the glimpse into the wilderness.

[Martha · Rating 5 out of 5]

So far my favorite in this series! So funny in parts. A great story.

[Erin L · Rating 5 out of 5]

The action in this one starts out in the first chapter as Kate encounters two bears in the first several pages. Followed by a jet engine crashing into her yard, more bears, a moose, drunk hunters, and just the general chaos that seems to be expected by the characters in the spring. In fact, my husband worked on the Alaska highway and when I told him about a couple of the scenes and assured me that those kinds of things really do happen.

With Kate's grandmother's death, she's feeling a lot of pressure to be everything that Ekaterina was to the community. Big shoes to fill while she's also trying to deal with the removal of a jet engine from her property among other spring tasks she should be doing. Yet she isn't. She's running around being everything to everyone.

I love Kate as a characters. She's fully rounded with flaws and emotions and a hardness that years of seeing the worst in people instilled in her. There is a reason that at 34, people look to her to act and fill her grandmother's shoes, including solving a mysterious death.

This series is a great one, even if it is older and has 20+ books in it.

[Mary Heron · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh this one starts with a bang and does not let up till the.end.

Lordy, Lordy, Lordy the author describes the plot.for this book s "all the crazy ways I could almost kill Kate" and he does not disappoint. I'm not going to.spoil the plot by listing any of Kate's near misses they my detract from your enjoyment if you then choke to read it yourself. Suffice to say spring has arrived and Kate is not looking forward to all the work she has to do around her homestead when all help breaks loose ................ earthquake she thinks and dives for cover ........... So starts three days of hell where Kate starts to question bicycles she can have annoyed so badly.......she's that beleaguered that even a dead body found near her land doesn't interest her...........

[Cynthia Letts · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although I've read all of Kate Shugak's adventures, I had the most fun with Breakup. It seems that Ms. Stabenow had some fun with this one and I could just imagine her giggling through many scenarios!

[Kirsty Darbyshire]

This series seems to revolve less and less around mystery as it goes on. This isn't necessarily a bad thing but it can get a bit bemusing at times.

I spent the first half of this book enjoying what was going on (gun fights, bear attacks, engines falling out of the sky) but waiting for the main mystery to break. In the second half I just got on with enjoying it and didn't worry about it. In retrospect there is a murder in the book and it is solved but the proportion of page space taken up by this compared to the other sub plots isn't what I was expecting. It's an interesting book but it didn't quite all come together for me.

I found this book to be more of a character study of Kate than a plot centred book. It's more of a case of presenting Kate with various situations, people, and surroundings and seeing how she copes with them. As such I think it may move the series on to be rounder and deeper than it was before especially as I mainly read these books for the characters and the scenery anyway. This is definitely not a book to read out of order, if you're starting in on this series you'd get a better taste of it by reading one of the earlier more plot orientated books first.