Nik Kane Alaska Mystery - 01 - Lost Angel
| Lost Angel | |
| Nik Kane Alaska Mystery [1] | |
| Mike Doogan | |
| Penguin Group USA, Inc. (2005) | |
| Rating: | *** |
| Tags: | Mystery |
### From Publishers Weekly
Meet Nik Kane, the charming star of a new series by *Anchorage Daily News* columnist Doogan. Kane, a 55-year-old ex-cop who's also an ex-con, not to mention an ex-husband, heads to the Alaskan interior to do some detective work for a remote religious community called Rejoice. One of Rejoice's leaders, Thomas Wright, has hired Kane to track down his teenage daughter, Faith. Maybe Faith ran away, or maybe she was abducted. Kane—only periodically distracted from his detecting by his attraction to a woman he meets at Rejoice—quickly learns that Faith wasn't representative of her conservative religious community. A budding feminist with Ivy League ambitions, she also had a sideline income, $500 a week, deposited in a pseudonymous bank account. While Doogan telegraphs the solution to the riddle of Faith's disappearance, engaging, lucid prose more than compensates. *(Aug.)*
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
### From Booklist
*Starred Review* A white-knuckle flight in a bush plane over the Alaskan wilderness jump-starts this debut novel, establishing both the unforgiving setting and the desperate resolve of the main character. Nik Kane spent 25 years with the Anchorage police, 15 as a detective. He has just been released from a 7-year prison term resulting from a false conviction and is on his own, adrift from the police and from his wife. Kane, forced into private investigation, is headed for Rejoice, a fundamentalist Christian community in the harsh, high desert of the interior. One of the daughters of the Elders, an 18-year-old girl named Faith, has gone missing; no one knows if she has simply broken free from the restrictive life at Rejoice or has met with foul play. This is a richly textured novel on several counts. Kane is achingly well delineated; his struggle to adjust to a much bigger, louder, more confusing world after the confines of prison--and to try to find meaning in a life stripped bare of supports--is gripping. All the exigencies of struggling through an Alaskan winter ring true (Doogan has long been a columnist for the *Anchorage Daily News*), and the portrayal of a religious community that holds both secrets and dangers is fascinating. A top-notch start to a projected mystery series. *Connie Fletcher*
*Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved*
Lost Angel
, kept me up till the wee hours. There is no doubt Doogan can write. This new tale, with its fascinating cast of contrasting characters, simply tells us he can write pretty much whatever he wants to, and do it with style and a convincing voice. Welcome to the mystery community, Mike. More, please.”
—
Sue Henry, author of
The Refuge
“Mike Doogan has taken on a theme as big as Alaska itself—lost Faith, both literally and figuratively—and has done it in this brilliant debut with humor, sincerity, and a love for his characters and his state.
Lost Angel
pulses with realism and a brilliant sense of place. Doogan may have created a new subgenre here: post-modern Alaska noir.”
—
C. J. Box, author of
In Plain Sight
“Doogan really knows the grit and the reality of living in Alaska, and with his first mystery novel,
Lost Angel
, he gives us an involving and hard-edged tale of life on the northern frontier.”
—San Jose Mercury News
“Gripping . . . The portrayal of a religious community that holds both secrets and dangers is fascinating. A top-notch start to a projected mystery series.”
(starred review)
“[An] auspicious debut . . .
Lost Angel
has all the ear-marks of a successful series.”
—Richmond Times Dispatch
—Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
“Former
Anchorage Daily News
columnist Mike Doogan has created a complex character . . . The protagonist initially comes across as a Real Tough Customer but thankfully is much more than that . . . Inside he’s riddled with doubts, sorrows, and fears about the future. In other words, he’s a real human being.”
“[A] righteously appealing hero and terrific local color.”
“Engaging, lucid prose.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Sign me up for the Mike Doogan fan club. This guy can really write.
Lost Angel
is a terrific debut novel.”
James Swain, author of
Deadman’s Bluff
“Alaska emerges as a tough, gritty place where danger lurks even in the most unassuming situations. Here’s hoping that first time novelist and
Anchorage Daily News
columnist Mike Doogan will write many more mysteries with Nik Kane, one of the truly engaging new detectives on the scene.”
—Library Journal
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.
LOST ANGEL
A Berkley Prime Crime Book / published by arrangement with the author
Copyright © 2006 by Mike Doogan.
All rights reserved.
a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.,
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.
BERKLEY® PRIME CRIME
Berkley Prime Crime Books are published by The Berkley Publishing Group,
a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.,
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The name BERKLEY PRIME CRIME and the BERKLEY PRIME CRIME design
are trademarks belonging to Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
the woman who, thank God,
lets me live with her
THE SINGLE-ENGINE BUSH PLANE STAGGERED ACROSS the sky, rocking and rolling on the air currents that rose from the jumbled land below. Nik Kane clenched his teeth and cinched his seat belt even tighter.
