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During spring thaw in Alaska, what the locals call "breakup," a dead body is uncovered near Kate's home, and when a deadly bear attack raises suspicions against her, she finds herself drawn into the path of a murderer. Reprint.

256 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Dana Stabenow

100 books2,031 followers
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.

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5 stars
2,379 (47%)
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 293 reviews
Profile Image for Yodamom.
2,077 reviews210 followers
June 11, 2019
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.
Profile Image for Abibliofob.
1,297 reviews80 followers
September 4, 2022
"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.
Profile Image for Judy.
1,049 reviews58 followers
August 30, 2013
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.
Profile Image for Victoria Moore.
296 reviews3 followers
September 25, 2016
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.
Profile Image for Steve.
559 reviews23 followers
March 16, 2012
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.
Profile Image for Bill Lancaster.
89 reviews1 follower
June 26, 2016
'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.
Profile Image for Frederick Masterman.
44 reviews3 followers
February 12, 2010
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.
Profile Image for Sharon.
16 reviews3,075 followers
July 17, 2009
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?
Profile Image for LJ.
3,159 reviews308 followers
October 25, 2008
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.
1,818 reviews72 followers
April 26, 2018
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.
Profile Image for Lynn.
2,015 reviews59 followers
March 19, 2024
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.
Profile Image for Val.
132 reviews2 followers
February 26, 2019
I love hearing about hungry, angry grizzly bears and this book did not disappoint.
Profile Image for T.
845 reviews
June 8, 2012
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.

Profile Image for Andrea.
747 reviews9 followers
September 6, 2011
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.
Profile Image for Lucie Aran.
1,183 reviews19 followers
March 7, 2023
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.
Profile Image for Sheila.
2,178 reviews220 followers
June 12, 2017
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.
Profile Image for Nolan.
2,920 reviews29 followers
October 17, 2023
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.
Profile Image for Patrizia.
1,694 reviews37 followers
March 23, 2024
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 . Anche se non è la prima volta che capita con questa serie.
243 reviews
May 2, 2024
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.
Profile Image for Quinn.
Author 6 books28 followers
May 18, 2018
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.
Profile Image for Sara Palmer.
66 reviews1 follower
October 15, 2019
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
Profile Image for Katie❄️.
1,391 reviews
September 23, 2021
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.
Profile Image for Erin L.
1,023 reviews41 followers
February 26, 2018
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.
Profile Image for Cynthia Letts.
15 reviews
March 24, 2018
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!
Profile Image for Kirsty Darbyshire.
1,091 reviews57 followers
Read
December 7, 2010

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.

Profile Image for Lisa Wolf.
1,723 reviews292 followers
March 19, 2016
The 7th Kate Shugak book pretty much immediately became one of my favorites. Breakup is a stand-out in the series. It's particularly funny, as a string of improbable events -- grizzly attacks, drunken joyriders, a Hatfields and McCoys type of neighborly feud, and a falling jet engine, among the most notable -- all intrude into Kate's life over the span of a few days.

The story is set at Kate's homestead and the area of Niniltna in general, and it's nice to see Kate back on her home turf after the previous several books mostly took place in other locations. Most of the series regulars are here, and it often feels like a gang of friends hanging out and shooting the breeze.

The plot is engaging and fun, but it's not only light and silly. Kate is evolving, recognizing that her self-imposed isolation is changing into something else, as she begins to take on the community leadership role and responsibilities she'd hoped to avoid.

I can't wait to read more and see where Kate's life takes her next!
Profile Image for The Library Lady.
3,775 reviews611 followers
February 19, 2021
The Kate books now really have 2 primary story arcs--the first one ends with Hunter's Moon, and if you've read it you know why! But if you have never read any Stabenow before this one, you could jump in here and then go back to the beginning--I'm pretty sure that's what I did, long ago when I first read these. The spoilers would be minimal and, as Stabenow herself notes in the introduction to the next book, there are what she calls "howlers," so things don't always stay the same throughout the series.

This probably has more laugh out loud scenes than any other Kate Shugak book, it's also one of the best looks at the inhabitants of Niniltna and the Park.
263 reviews
March 20, 2012
While most of the mystery novels by Dana Stabenow (my new favorite escapist author of the week) can get a bit grim, being murder mystery novels, this one is like a National Lampoon movie. Kate's bad day starts when she gets charged by a bear, continues as a bear knocks over her meat cache, and then a jet engine lands on her truck, spraying shrapnel throughout her house. Hilarity continues with one crazy adventure after another, as she guides a friend's Boston-riche parents past the site of a bear kill, into a tavern which soon erupts with gunfighting, and etc. There is a murder mystery, but it hardly pulls its weight into this zany tale of Alaskans going crazy with spring thaw. You don't need to be a fan of the series to read it, but if you do read it you might be converted.

No bedroom action that I remember, just Kate lamenting that she's 200 miles away from her boyfriend.
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