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Mystery Newsletter

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Was the Mafia involved in the 1972 disappearance of the plane carrying Congressmen Hale Boggs and Nick Begich, or was it just a simple case of bad weather? Who murdered the postmistress in Ruby? How did Alaska State Troopers use cutting-edge science to find Sophie Sergie’s killer? How does crime differ from one part of Alaska to another?

Alaska has always had a high rate of violent crime. From the gold rush to the building of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline to the heyday of king crab fishing, the state’s rich resources have attracted eager workers and criminals alike. Travel through time and space with true-crime writer Robin Barefield as she tells you about murder and mystery in Alaska from the early 1900s to the present day and from Juneau, Kiana, Nome, Anchorage, Kodiak, and places in between.

Learn about serial killers Ed Krause, Richard Bunday, Gary Zieger, Robert Hansen, and Israel Keyes, Why did Michael Silka suddenly start killing the residents of remote Manley Hot Springs, and what reason did Louis Hastings have for murdering his neighbors in McCarthy? Why was no one ever caught and convicted for the gruesome massacre on the fishing boat Investor?

Alaska is vast and beautiful, but it can also be deadly. Take a road trip and learn about Alaska’s past and present through its violent crime. Get a glimpse of murder and mystery in the Last Frontier.

 
 

 

Alaska State Trooper Sergeant Dan Patterson flies to a remote area of Kodiak Island to investigate the massacre of eight people at a small lodge, and he encounters the worst murder scene he has ever investigated. How did someone kill eight individuals in the middle of the wilderness and then disappear?

Patterson takes a hard look at those closest to the lodge owners. Did Brian or Deb Bartlett murder their parents and the six guests at the lodge? Was the killer the neighbor who lived a few miles away or someone else in this sparsely populated bay?

Each time Patterson picks up a lead, new evidence shifts the course of the investigation. Meanwhile, the killer strikes again, murdering one of Patterson’s main suspects, and Patterson knows he must stop the monster before more people die.

Kodiak Island, nicknamed the Emerald Isle, gleams like a gem in the North Pacific. Lush, green mountains soar skyward from the ocean, framing the deep, fjord-like bays. The island’s wet, maritime climate and mild temperatures encourage the growth of thick vegetation, which provides sustenance for the wildlife on the island. The Alaska Current, an offshoot of the warm Japanese Kuroshio Current, flows northward near Kodiak, bringing warm water and nutrients to the frigid Gulf of Alaska. These nutrients form the basis for one of the richest marine ecosystems in the world.

Kodiak bears reign as the monarchs of the island, and they are one of the six endemic mammals on Kodiak. Man has introduced many other wild mammals to the Kodiak Archipelago. The ocean surrounding Kodiak teems with seals, sea otters, sea lions, porpoises, and whales, and no description of Kodiak wildlife would be complete without including bald eagles, puffins, arctic terns, and oystercatchers.

How does the wildlife of Kodiak Island survive frigid winters and violent storms? What manmade conditions threaten the marine and land mammals, and what current or recent research are biologists conducting on the island’s wildlife?

Learn more about this beautiful North Pacific island and its amazing wildlife.

 

Who murdered a floatplane pilot, and why? 

When two men recently discharged from the air force set out for a hunting trip on Kodiak Island in Alaska, they expect the adventure of a lifetime. Instead, they find themselves embroiled in a never-ending nightmare.

More than forty years later, biologist Jane Marcus and her friends discover human remains near Karluk Lake in the middle of the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge. Jane soon learns a bullet was responsible for shattering the skull they found. What happened? Was the gunshot wound the result of a suicide, or was it homicide? Who was this individual who died in the middle of the wilderness, and when did he die? Jane can’t stop asking questions, and she turns to Alaska State Trooper Sergeant Dan Patterson for answers.

Sergeant Patterson doesn’t have time for Jane and her questions because he is investigating the recent murder of a floatplane pilot on the island. Was the pilot shot by one of his passengers, by another pilot, by campers in the area where his body was found, or did his wife hire someone to kill him? The number of suspects in the case overwhelms Patterson, but a notebook in the pocket of the dead pilot provides clues to the last weeks of the pilot’s life.

With no time to spare for old bones, Patterson gives Jane permission to research the remains she found near Karluk Lake. Jane’s investigation into the bones seems harmless to Patterson, but she awakens a decades-old crime that some believed they’d buried long ago.

Will Patterson find out who murdered the pilot before the killer leaves the island, and will Jane’s curiosity put her life in danger? What evil lurks at Karluk Lake?


 

Is a serial killer stalking women on Kodiak Island?

Seventeen-year-old Deanna Kerr fights to start her outboard engine as storm-tossed waves fill her boat with water. Panicked and crying, relief spreads through Deanna when a boat approaches her. She believes she is about to be rescued. Four months later, Deanna’s bones are found in a pile of kelp on the beach. Her ankles are wired together, and her skull crushed.

Alaska State Trooper Sergeant Dan Patterson fears a serial killer is stalking women on Kodiak. Including Deanna Kerr, three women have been murdered on the island in the past six months.  When a park ranger discovers the body of a fourth woman dumped in the park in the middle of a blizzard, Patterson contacts the FBI and requests their assistance.

FBI, Special Agent Nick Morgan has been to Kodiak before on another case, and he volunteers to return to the fascinating island and its unique, independent people. He knows he also accepted this assignment because he hopes to see Dr. Jane Marcus, a woman he met on his previous trip to the island and hasn’t been able to stop thinking about since then.

Morgan flies into Kodiak on an icy, December day to offer his assistance to the investigation. Only 13,500 people live on Kodiak Island, but Morgan soon realizes the list of suspects for these crimes is long. Could the killer be the crab boat captain who knew Deanna Kerr and was the last person seen with one of the other victims, or is the murderer one of the coaches at the high school or the strange assistant coach who seems to have an unhealthy relationship with children? The killer could also be someone related to one of the victims. Morgan believes the killer is a person the victims had no reason to fear, and he thinks they willingly met with him. As the investigation proceeds, Patterson begins to worry the murderer could be a police officer or a trooper and may even be one of the members of his task force.

When the murderer strikes again, tensions escalate, and Patterson and Morgan know they must catch this monster before another woman dies or before the killer leaves the island and begins preying on women somewhere else.

 

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Murder in the Alaskan Wilderness Why would someone blow up a plane over Kodiak Island?    

  Research biologist Jane Marcus senses something bad has happened as she stands on the dock waiting for the overdue floatplane carrying Craig, her young research assistant.  Craig has been on the other side of Kodiak Island digging clams that Jane plans to test for the presence of a toxin that may have caused the death of a woman on that side of the island.  It is a beautiful day for flying, but the plane is an hour late, and when the head pilot for the air-charter company arrives at the dock to go in search of the missing plane, Jane accompanies him.  The pilot assures Jane that the plane is probably stuck on the beach somewhere, but when they fly through a mountain pass, they spot pieces of the plane and debris scattered in a remote valley. Very little remains of the five passengers and the pilot, and investigators soon determine that the plane was blown apart in mid-air by a violent explosion from a bomb placed inside the cabin. Jane grieves for Craig and feels responsible for sending him on the field trip instead of going herself.  She is determined to find out who planted the explosive device that killed her assistant, but to find the murderer, she first must determine who the intended target of the bomb was.  The passengers on the plane included a U.S. senator in the midst of a nasty re-election campaign and the senator’s husband, a corporate raider with no shortage of enemies.  The FBI and Alaska State Troopers focus their investigation on the senator and her husband, but Jane knows that each of the other passengers, and even the young pilot, has at least one person in his life with the means and motive to blow up the airplane, and she convinces FBI Special Agent Nick Morgan to investigate these suspects as well. Darren Myers, the owner of a salmon cannery was going through a bitter divorce, and his wife, Maryann, admits she is happy he is dead.  Dick Simms, the wildlife refuge manager was threatened by renegade guide, George Wall, after Simms conducted a sting operation to catch Wall in the act of breaking several fish and game laws.  Jane also learns that Wall served a prison sentence several years earlier when he was convicted of blowing up his girlfriend’s father’s truck.  Bill Watson, the pilot of the ill-fated plane, had a girlfriend who was possessive and demanding and also has a violent streak.  She once smashed in the windshield of Bill’s truck when he went out with his friends instead of spending time with her.  Furthermore, she grew up in the wilderness and was heard talking about how she had enjoyed helping her dad use dynamite to excavate an area of their property.  Jane’s many questions pull her into the center of the investigation, and soon her own life is threatened. Since the clams Craig collected were blown up with the airplane, Jane must fly to the other side of Kodiak Island and repeat the collection.  She is happy to head out into the wilderness and leave town and the threats on her life behind her, but is she flying away from danger or toward it?  Will the mystery of who blew up the airplane follow her?

Murder Over Kodiak has received some great reviews including the following 5- Star  editorial review by K.C. Finn for Readers’ Favorite.  5star-shiny-web   Murder Over Kodiak is an Alaskan adventure by author Robin L. Barefield with plenty of thrills and suspense. The plot centers on Jane Marcus, a biologist researching deadly toxins on Kodiak Island, who tracks down her beloved assistant Craig, only to find he’s been blown to pieces in a plane bomb incident. Jane is determined to discover who planted the bomb, but when she starts digging into the lives of the other victims who perished on that flight, she realizes the methods of murder deduction aren’t that simple. Everyone related to the victims had a motive for blowing up the plane, and eventually, Jane escapes to the remote wilderness of Kodiak to clear her head. And it’s there that her most harrowing adventures begin. I have read plenty of dialogue-driven mysteries with multiple suspects, but author Robin L. Barefield has done something totally new with the genre by throwing it straight into the wilds of Alaska. I found myself immersed in a vivid and fascinating world where the wild nature of the surroundings seemed to bleed into the nature of the people who may or may not be vicious killers, and Jane’s position as a researcher gives her a strong intellectual angle on events. There were plenty of red herrings thrown in to keep you guessing right up to the story’s conclusion, making for an involved and delightfully unpredictable read. Overall, I’d say Murder Over Kodiak is one of the best adventure and mystery novels of its kind, and I’d highly recommend it. If you love mysteries and the excitement of the Alaskan wilderness, download your copy or order a print version of Murder Over Kodiak today.

Listen to a sample from the audiobook version of Murder Over Kodiak narrated by Carol Herman.

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    BigGameCoverWhat are the politicians planning in a remote Alaskan hunting camp? Can Jane stop them before it’s too late?   

When research biologist Jane Marcus watches a speeding car sail off the highway and into a wheat field, she rushes to the scene to provide first aid to the driver. The man is seriously injured, but he uses his last moments of consciousness to beg Jane to relay a message to someone named Andy. To soothe the man, Jane promises to give Andy his message, even though the message makes no sense to her, and she has no idea how to find Andy. After the mysterious stranger dies two weeks later, Jane finds herself at the center of a plot so sinister that she doesn’t comprehend its scope until all the pieces of the puzzle finally fit into place. The driver’s cryptic message and other clues he left behind lead Jane to a remote hunting camp on the Alaska Peninsula where Jane finds powerful men with a diabolical plan that will affect the highest level of government. Jane is out of her element in the Alaskan wilderness. She must not only escape a group of men who will not hesitate to kill her to protect their secret, but she must also navigate a hostile environment and wild animals to survive.  Download your copy of  Big Game.

15 thoughts on “Books

  1. Just finished reading “Murder Over Kodak”. I really enjoyed the adventurous book! It also was nice to get a feel of the wilderness of Kodak Island. Looking forward to meeting you in Aug when we come to the camp. I did not realize there was another book. I’m going to get that and read it next.

  2. Thanks, Tami! I’m glad you liked the book, and we are looking forward to meeting you this summer!!

  3. Just finished The Fisherman’s Daughter. Great! Didn’t want to stop! That idea of doing it day by day really kept it going. Most of all, the story kept you involved. I even started to do my own investigation! I thought I had it figured out a couple days before the end but I was wrong! Thank you for an exciting book! Hope to see another soon!

  4. I have read Murder over Kodiak and The Fisherman’s Daughter. I enjoyed both! Would Big Game be available in Hardback? If not, I will download it, but I prefer to have sets if I’m going to start reading an author. Thanks for the great plot twists!

  5. Thank you, Bonnie! No, Big Game is only available in e-book format. Eventually, I hope to have a print version of it. My next novel, Karluk Bones, should be out late this summer. Thanks so much for your comment!

  6. How do I get paperback copies of your books. I bought “Murder on Kodiak” while we were visiting my cousin; it’s awesome! I don’t have kindle!

  7. Hi Linda,

    Thank you for reading Murder Over Kodiak. You can order my books online at Amazon or Barnes and Noble, or I can send you the books. You can e-mail me at robinbarefield76@outlook.com. My first book is only a digital book, but the other three are available in print and digital formats.

  8. I am anxious to have your first book, “ Big Game” to become available also in( paper ) book form. I have so enjoyed all of your other books Robin. Keep writing!!!

  9. I’ve recently read Murder over Kodiak and Fisherman’s Daughter. Both fascinating reads! Can’t wait to finish Karluk Bones. You are an amazing Alaskan writer. My mother was a writer for the Alaska Sportsman aka Alaska magazine. Love Alaska writing!

  10. Hi Robin, Just finished reading The Fisherman’s Daughter and really enjoyed it! I’m wondering if there is or will be a follow up book- so many mysteries left to solve ?

  11. HI, my name is Kossiwa Logan , an aspiring fiction writer and I’m watching an episode of Cold Blooded Alaska Cabin Fever when I came across you. I’m so excited to read your novels. I don’t know much about Alaska and to one day listen to your podcast. Just wanted to drop you a line and say hi.

  12. Hello! My husband, David Newsome, along with one of our sons, Jim Newsome, and one of our grandsons visited the bear camp with Al Strydeskey and a few others in August, 2022. They absolutely loved it! …and everyone there! …and now if find that there’s an author in the house as well…what a talented family! I just read and completely enjoyed “The Fisherman’s Daughter”, and am looking forward to “Murder Over Kodiak”, which David brought home as a gift for me. Do you have a book about the local animals a high school boy might enjoy?

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