Book Review: Murder on the Iditarod Trail by Sue Henry (An Alaska Mystery #1)

Stars: 4 out of 5

Pros: Engrossing book with an explosive finish

Cons: Several things could have been better, but overall, it still works

The Bottom Line:

Dog sled race setting

With action to draw you in

Well written debut

Race to Stop a Killer

I have long heard about Sue Henry’s Alaska Mysteries, and I’ve always wanted to read one. I snagged the first, Murder on the Iditarod Trail, when it was cheap for Kindle a few months back. And I figured my Alaskan cruise was the perfect time to read it. 

The story takes place in March, during the famous Iditarod, the 1100 miles dog sled race between Anchorage and Nome. It’s a hard a grueling endurance event, but it has never been deadly for humans - until now. First, someone falls asleep on his sled and winds up crashing into a tree. State trooper Alex Jensen is brought in to figure out what happened, but before he can make a complete determination, another body turns up dead. He takes the offer of help from musher Jessie Arnold willingly. But will that be enough to keep anyone else from dying? 

Before I get into the flaws with the book, let me first say that I did enjoy it. However, it didn’t quite work for me as well as I had hoped. 

First, I had a hard time keeping all the characters straight. It didn’t help that sometimes they were called by their first names and sometimes they were called by their last names. Honestly, Jessie, Alex, and one or two others were the only ones who had much personality, which didn’t help either. 

The mystery was also uneven. It started well, but sagged a bit in the middle before coming back for a thrilling, page turning climax. 

Along the way, we get plenty of background about the race and the communities the action is passing through. I might normally have found that a bit much, but here I found it fascinating. Maybe because I was reading the book while in Alaska. 

Not that I was anywhere near where the action took place. Let’s be honest, an inside passage cruise just barely scratches the surface of Alaska. But it still made me much more interested in where the action of the story was taking place. 

And I really did get caught up in the action. I was rooting for the racers to overcome overwhelming odds to survive, much less win. Honestly, this book is as much about the race as the mystery, and that’s one reason why the mystery plot dragging in the middle didn’t bother me as much as it normally would. 

I also really like the leads and wanted the best for them. That includes rooting for their fledgling relationship. I will say that some of Alex’s actions in that regard were a bit much for how little time they’d known each other. I get the dramatic tension it was supposed to provide, but it just didn’t make any sense to me. 

I’m not a fan of being cold, and the descriptions in the book brought the cold to life. Multiple times, I thought to myself that I could never imagine willingly doing something like this because of how cold it was. But I did admire the people who do this willingly and enjoy it. 

All told, I really did enjoy Murder on the Iditarod Trail. How much did I enjoy it? I spotted the sequel in a bookstore in a port where my cruise ship stopped, and it is coming home with me as a souvenir I’m hoping to read soon.