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Murder on the Yukon Quest: An Alaska Mystery | 
 enlarge | Author: Sue Henry
Publisher: Avon
Category: Book
List Price: $7.99
Buy Used: $0.98
You Save: $7.01 (88%)
New (24) Used (40) Collectible (3) from $0.98
Rating:  20 reviews
Sales Rank: 172578
Media: Mass Market Paperback
Pages: 320
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 6.5 x 4.2 x 1.1
ISBN: 0380788640
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780380788644
ASIN: 0380788640
Publication Date: May 1, 2000
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com Review
While most modern mysteries set in Alaska concentrate on the damage done to the ecology or the strange personalities who take refuge in this arctic vastness, Sue Henry's books are more straightforward and usually more fun. In such stories as Deadfall and the Anthony Award-winning Murder on the Iditarod Trail, Henry follows in the sled and snowshoe tracks of writers like Jack London and Robert W. Service, who realized that Alaska was the last great frontier of adventure. Her characters, like champion sled-dog racer Jessie Arnold, are welcome throwbacks to a simpler period when physical challenge was a healthy way to measure self-esteem. Jessie is testing herself in the thousand-mile Yukon Quest race, which follows the old mail trail from Whitehorse to Fairbanks, when one of the other racers is kidnapped and held for ransom. The kidnappers insist that only Jessie can deliver the money, and it has to be on the most dangerous leg of the race. Any attempt to involve the police will result in the victim's death. Of course, the worst blizzard of the year blows up just as the race gets to that point, and it goes without saying that Jessie risks herself and her beloved dog team to recover the victim and capture the bad guys. Even if the thought of somebody shouting "Mush!" fills you with silent laughter, you're sure to be gripped by Henry's ability to recreate the pleasures and perils of an arcane sport in a breathtaking landscape. --Dick Adler
Product Description
The Yukon Quest has the reputation of being the toughest sled dog race in the world, taking teams and mushers through more than a thousand miles of North America's most remote and treacherous territory.Jessie Arnold is ready to meet the challenge. Jessie and her team of dogs are well prepared for the daring competition, but her one regret is that her longtime friend and lover, Alex Jensen, isn't there to see her off. Alex has been called home to Idaho for a family emergency and Jessie begins the big race without her biggest booster. Well along the trail, Jessie is stunned to learn that a young novice racer she met at the start has been abducted and held for ransom. The girl's distraught father has been warned that no one but Jessie Arnold is to be told--especially not the police. Feeling isolated and alone, Jessie must decide what to do in the face of terrible odds. It's the contest of a lifetime, yet as the other mushers push toward the finish line, Jessie forges ahead in a race all her own. Unable to ignore the plight of the missing girl, she's in a life and death battle against a desperate, unknown kidnapper who will stop at nothing. Speeding through the twists and turns of the icy, broken trails, Jessie has no time for fear. For somewhere in that vast and lonely landscape, a killer waits for a chance to unleash a murderous rage on anyone who dares to get in his way.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 20
 murder to read September 9, 2005
J. Beck (Northern NM)
I've been painfully trying to read all of Sue Henry's novels, but I think this one has finally ended my quest. Murder on the Iditarod Trail and Sleeping Lady were very good novels, but in my opinion, the rest are just dull. Murder on the Yukon Quest tells of more hardships for Jessie Arnold. It is so implausible that so much "Bad Luck" could befall one woman and her dogs. Alex Jensen shows up briefly in bits of the novel just to give poor Jessie something else to worry about. Sorry Sue, I can't bear to read anymore.
 Not Good March 15, 2004
Taz
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Sue Henry's mystery stories cover ground but her characters are so flat and lifeless that they could be used for ground cover. Even the dogs have more personality.
Good mushing, lousy mystery September 17, 2002
Ray King (Morgan Hill, Ca USA)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
While billed as "An Alaskan Mystery", this is really a book about life on the trail. Even as that, it fails to satisfy. The plot involves a kidnapping and murder on the Yukon Quest race. I believe it fails to live up to its billing as a mystery because the clues necessary to solve it aren't provided. The author basically tells you one of the culprits, you can sort of guess another by elimination, and the remainder require a TV "Perry Mason" like confession at the end (in his books, Gardner did things differently). This isn't the way a mystery should be written. The book is better when viewed as a mushing story but Ms. Henry's writing style reduces what should be an exciting adventure into painful tedium. After finishing YQ, I re-read Ludlum's "Bourne Identity" which I'd rate 5 stars. The differences in pacing, sentence structure, descriptions, ... were startling yet there's nothing about YQ that shouldn't support as exciting a novel as BI. Even if YQ provided the clues to be a good mystery, it would still be boring and that's its worst flaw. The only reason I gave it a second star was the author does a commendable job providing insight into the life of a dogsled racer. If you want a book that provides these insights, this might be an O.K. choice but if you want either a mystery or a well written novel, hunt elsewhere.
 Topnotch thriller May 11, 2002
Karen Potts (Lake Jackson, Texas)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Sue Henry is back to her best form in this sixth book of the Alaska Mystery Series. Jessie Arnold decides to forego the Iditerod in order to compete in the less famous but more rugged Yukon Quest. Partway through the race, one of the mushers is kidnapped and Jessie is asked to deliver ransom to the kidnappers while she is in the middle of the race. As always, Henry's descriptions make the reader feel the freezing temperatures and stark beauty of the Yukon and the Alaskan wilderness. She also describes well the feelings of the characters who are put in dangerous situations. Henry deals with Jessie's ambivalent feelings about her relationship with Alex Jensen in this book. This is the best in the series since the first novel, Murder on the Iditerod Trail.
Disappointing entry in this series March 1, 2002
3 out of 6 found this review helpful
As usual, Sue Henry does a wonderful job depicting the Alaskan wilderness and the excitement of racing dogs. I loved her racing and dog scenes. However, an important component of the plot didn't make sense - why was Jessie pulled into the kidnapping plot? That was never explained. In addition, I am very disappointed at how the author handled the relationship between Jessie and Alex. Jessie is very unreasonable and self-centered, IMHO. She has a great guy and she doesn't seem to appreciate that or seem to have the ability to love and accept a partner's imperfections and mistakes. She also displayed a disappointing lack of empathy when Alex's father dies. Two of the reasons I had loved this series was I really liked and admired Jessie and I also enjoyed reading about a healthy, positive, loving relationship. After this book, I don't really admire Jessie's handling of intimate relationships. This book made me feel as if the author had decided to abruptly put the focus back on Jessie alone and used the "independent woman" routine to do that, whether it made sense or not. I already have the next book in the series, so will read it, but that will probably be the last time I bother to read a Sue Henry book.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 20
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