Stan’s Amazon Author Page

1- White Sky, Black Ice (link to book on Amazon)

In the small Alaskan village of Chukchi, what are the odds of two suicides occurring in a matter of a few days? State trooper Nathan Active discovers that his suspicions concerning the deaths are well-founded; the two men were murdered. But what was the motive and who killed them?

2- Shaman Pass (link to book on Amazon)

Nathan Active investigates the murder of a tribal leader who was stabbed to death with an antique harpoon that was recently returned to the village of Chukchhi under the Indian Graves Act.

3—Frozen Sun (link to book on Amazon)

When Grace Palmer, a Chukchi beauty queen, goes missing, Nathan Active mounts a search that will lead him halfway across Alaska—and give him plenty of time to discover he is in love with Grace. Closing in on the answers, however, he discovers evidence that points to an agonizing conundrum: Is she dead, or is she a cold-blooded killer.

4–Village of the Ghost Bears (link to book on Amazon)

Nathan Active investigates a deadly arson at a local recreation center and a faceless body discovered at a remote campsite, but the real fun lies in the dozens of mini-lessons on hardscrabble Alaskan life, covering everything from the illegal trade in polar-bear bladders to the description of a potent indigenous chewing tobacco made from burnt birch-tree fungus.

5 — Tundra Kill (link to book on Amazon)

Nathan Active investigates a hit-and-run snowmobile homicide. He must also fight off the advances of Alaska’s gorgeous man-eating governor, Helen Mercer, who’s making a publicity-driven visit to her Chukchi home while contemplating a run for the White House.

6 — The Big Empty (link to book on Amazon)

Now the local police chief, Nathn Active investigates a plane crash out in Alaska’s Big Empty—and what he finds there casts suspicion of murder on several locals in his small town of Chukchi. Evie Kavoonah, a young mother-to-be, and her fiancé, Dr. Todd Brenner, are on a flight over the Brooks Range when their bush plane runs out of gas and hits a ridge, instantly killing them both.

7 — Ghost Light (link to book on Amazon)

With the help of an Alaska Native grandmother suffering from dementia, Chukchi police chief Nathan Active hunts down the killer who hid a woman’s expertly dismembered body in the ice cellar of an abandoned Inupiat fish camp. The investigation pulls Active into a dark tangle of love and jealousy, even as he struggles with the PTSD that has haunted him since being wounded in a shootout in an earlier case.

Stan’s Dana Forsythe Mysteries

1–The Sand Garden (link to book on Amazon)

Dana Forsythe is a grieving widow and hard-nosed ex-policewoman who turns private eye after her cop husband Frank is killed on duty. She gets an even bigger shock when she learns Frank had twins with a secret mistress who’s just been murdered. What’s more, the orphaned twins are dropped off on Dana’s patio in the middle of the night, then she’s hired by an attorney to help defend the accused killer. The investigation plunges her deep into a world of wealth, privilege and murder in the glittering desert oasis of Palm Springs.

About Me

I was born in Anchorage, Alaska, and have lived in the state most of my life.

In my late twenties, I moved with my wife, Susan, to the Inupiat Eskimo village of Kotzebue.  I found the lovely, barren Arctic landscape absolutely mesmerizing, the extreme climate a joy, and the Native culture fascinating.  I landed Bush planes on the sea ice, drove snowmachines over the tundra, hunted moose and caribou, and once helped paddle a sealskin umiaq in pursuit of a bowhead whale on the Chukchi Sea off Point Hope. It was these experiences that became the basis for the Nathan Active series.

After Kotzebue, I lived in Anchorage, Fairbanks, and then Anchorage again, working as a newspaper journalist.  I won several major national awards for investigative stories that led to impeachment proceedings against one of Alaska’s governors, and for coverage of the Exxon Valdez oil spill.

Later, I worked for the Prince William Sound Regional Citizens’ Advisory Council, set up after the Exxon Valdez oil spill of 1989 to prevent a recurrence. While there, I co-authored with oral historian Sharon Bushell The Spill: Personal Stories from the Exxon Valdez Disaster  (link to book on Amazon).

A few years ago, I began visiting a friend in Palm Springs and became fascinated with that area—especially the contrast between the wealth and comfort of Palm Springs at one end of the Coachella Valley and the poverty and dysfunction that mark the dying Salton Sea and the huge Slab City squatter camp at the other end. Thus was born the Dana Forsythe series. “Exit Sideways,” the second book in series is due out in 2025.

If you’d like to be notified when my next book is published—in either series—you can sign up here. (link)  I’ll only contact you when I do have a new book. Your email address will not be sold or used for any other purpose. (Link: https://forms.gle/p1pwbt3qBzshHGhLA)