Title: Spoils of the Dead (Liam Campbell Book 5)
Author: Dana Stabenow
Release Date: February 4th 2021
Genre: Police Procedures
Newenham is an ice-bound bush town with a six-bed jail, a busted ATM and a saloon that does double-duty as a courtroom. It’s a wide-enough patch to warrant a state police presence, though, and Trooper Liam Campbell is it. Campbell has been exiled from Anchorage to Newenham in disgrace, busted down from sergeant to trooper in the aftermath of a mistake that cost a family of five their lives, to spend some time in the wilderness. Campbell didn’t expect the job to be simple and it hasn’t. From the (literally) cutthroat business of commercial fishing, to the paranoid misanthropy of the back-country prospector, to drug dealers, serial killers, and caches of forgotten war gold, he has had his hands full. Now he has a dead archaeologist, murdered at their own dig site, who claimed to be on the verge of a momentous discovery. Fans of the icy frontier, of mystery tinged with a frisson of romance, of laconic lawmen with good intentions, of tai chi and small aircraft piloting take note: Liam Campbell is for you.
A murder mystery set in Alaska? Yes!
This book is number five in the Liam Campbell series. I didn’t feel like I was missing too much by not having read the others. The story is well written. Plenty of descriptive scenes. I could picture the beautiful landscape in my head. The story is good, however I had a hard time getting into it. It didn’t engage me very much. Like something was missing. It seemed like it was being told in a monotone voice the whole way through. The highlight of the book was Sybilla Karlsen. She’s a delight! The rest of the characters weren’t as delightful. It seemed like Liam couldn’t be bothered by anything. Maybe it had something to do with something that happened in the prior books. The ending was interesting. I will say that.
As a whole, this book is a good read. I did struggle a bit to get through the story. The pacing is fine and the story is well written. My issues with the book hasn’t turned me off from reading other books by her. This one didn’t do it for me unfortunately. My suggestion is to check out this book and make up your own mind. I give this 3 stars.
*I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion*
The Literary Vixen 