Subscribe to my mailing list for my monthly newsletter and learn about some true Alaskan crimes.

 

Mystery Newsletter

Sign Up for my free, monthly Mystery Newsletter about true crime in Alaska.

Email Address First Name Last Name Sign Up For Mystery Newsletter

 

When the daughter of a US senator disappears from the center of Kodiak, Alaska, in the middle of the day, FBI agent Nick Morgan arrives to assist police detective Maureen Horner and Alaska State Trooper Dan Patterson with the investigation. Soon, the officers realize that other young people have vanished from the area as well, and they can find no evidence or eyewitnesses to explain the disappearances.

Meanwhile, bored pilot Steve Larson spends his evenings sitting on the back deck of his floatplane air charter service while he recovers from a debilitating illness. He watches a plane land after dark and sees two men escort a seemingly incapacitated woman to the plane and push her into the rear seat. When the same thing happens a few days later, Steve wonders if he’s imagining things or if these men are kidnapping people. He calls marine biologist and amateur detective Jane Marcus and asks her to sit with him the next time the plane arrives. Jane agrees with Steve: these men are drugging and transporting people against their will. But where are they taking them, and why?

Jane’s curiosity leads her into a nightmare worse than anything she could imagine. As law enforcement officers work to find who’s behind the kidnappings and where the abductors have taken the victims, Jane fights to survive the monsters chasing her in the ultimate hunt.

__________________________________________________

 

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?

Alaska State Trooper Dan Patterson fears a serial killer is murdering women on Kodiak Island. A woman was found floating in the boat harbor in May. In October, an off-duty trooper stumbled upon the body of an 18-year-old girl in the woods, and later that month, two young boys discovered the bones of Deanna Kerr entwined in a pile of kelp on the beach. When a park ranger discovers the body of a fourth woman, Patterson calls the FBI for assistance, and FBI Special Agent Nick Morgan flies to Kodiak to aid in the investigation. Morgan quickly realizes they have too many suspects and too little evidence. Could the killer be the crab boat captain who knew two of the victims, or is the murderer one of the coaches at the high school? As the investigation proceeds, Patterson even begins to fear the killer could be someone on his task force. When the murderer strikes again, tensions escalate, and Patterson and Morgan know they must catch this monster before another woman dies.

___________________________________________________________________________

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

 When the plane carrying Dr. Jane Marcus’ young research assistant explodes above the Kodiak wilderness, Jane is determined to find the person responsible for murdering her assistant, the pilot, and the four other passengers, but which of the passengers was the intended target?  Was it the U.S. senator in the midst of a contentious reelection campaign or her husband, a corporate raider with no shortage of enemies?  Or was the explosive device intended for one of the other passengers or even the pilot?  Jane won’t stop asking questions until she discovers who planted the bomb and why, but she soon begins receiving threats and realizes her own life is in danger.  Can she discover who the murderer is, before she becomes the next victim?

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

________________________________________________________________________

    What 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.