Murder on the Iditarod Trail by Sue Henry
Despite not really liking the other Sue Henry books I read I was pulled in by the fact that the rest of her books are set in Alaska. I decided that I owed it to myself to at least try one of her Alaska novels to see if it was different from her Maxine and Stretch series.
At the library I had a hard time picking one to start with. I finally settled on Murder on the Iditarod Trail for no other reason except that it was her 1st. Sometimes an authors first novel is a bit clunky (in terms of the writing), and it was the writing style that I didn’t care for in the Maxine & Stretch novels, so I was a bit worried that this one would disappoint me, but I also always like to start a series at the beginning when possible.
The book sat on my TBR shelf in my bedroom until last weekend when I threw it in my bag to take it to NYC with me. It also just so happened that last weekend was the start of the real Iditarod in Alaska.
Reading this book during the real race helped the book come alive for me. On the other hand, the book made the real Iditarod came alive too! This was a very well timed fun read!
Even though it was a fictional account Sue Henry added lots of details about the race history, what life is like on the race, and lots of Alaska color! The mystery added excitement to the book, but it was not the main draw of the book for me.
In this book Sue Henry introduced us all to Jessie Arnold, her heroine of most of her Alaska mysteries. In many ways Jessie reminds me of Nevada Barr’s Anna Pigeon. Since I have already read every Anna Pigeon book published to date, I’m looking forwarding to diving into some Jessie Arnold novels while I wait for more Anna Pigeon novels!
Check out the real Iditarod online here.
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