Posts by MELISSA COFFMAN
California Lighthouses Guidebook, by Sharlene and Ted Nelson
California Lighthouses Guidebook, by Sharlene and Ted Nelson Sailing along California’s often forbidding coast was a risky venture before 1854, the year the state’s first lighthouse was established. Eventually more than forty lighthouse stations were built to guide mariners along 1,200 miles of coastline from San Diego to the Redwood Coast, and through bays and…
Read MoreHill of Dead Horses, by Sarah Birdsall
Hill of Dead Horses, by Sarah Birdsall In the early twentieth century a bear frightens a team of horses into plunging to their deaths from off a hill near a proposed railroad route through wilderness Alaska. In 1974 young Californians Thomas Findlay and Emily Wells dig post holes for a cabin on that very hill…
Read MoreDeath at the Shipshape Bookshop, by Greta McKennan
Death at the Shipshape Bookshop, by Greta McKennan Junetta Beale is living in paradise. As owner of the Shipshape Bookshop in Southeast Alaska, she sells books in town, operates a lending library for the locals, and serves the villages in her floating bookmobile. She loves her peaceful coastal life. That peace is shattered when she…
Read MoreDeath in the Underworld, by Betsy Longenbaugh
Death in the Underworld, by Betsy Longenbaugh Federal Marshal Frank Leishke is called to the scene of the vicious murder of a prostitute in Douglas, Alaska, in 1916. The site of the largest gold mine in the world, Douglas was also home to numerous bars, prostitutes, and itinerant workers. Leishke is aided in his work…
Read MoreThe Ghost of the Kenai, by Aurora Hardy
The Ghost of the Kenai, by Aurora Hardy In 1796, the men at Fort Kenay or Russian Redoubt Saint Nicholas are terrified. A ghost, a woman in a tattered white dress, screams nightly along the banks of the Kenai River below the bluffs where the fort stands. Young Nicholas arrives with Captain Zaikov on his…
Read MoreChasing the Dark, by Joseph Jackson
Chasing the Dark, by Joseph Jackson Joe Jackson’s life has seemed to follow the hours of low light; waking in the pitch-dark to beat the sun and lingering until it’s long gone. The stories told in between range from hunting snowshoe hares in the cold of Alaskan winter; Spey casting monotonously to king salmon and…
Read MoreMurder in Vancouver 1886, by Marion Crook
Murder in Vancouver 1886, by Marion Crook Vancouver, 1886, a bustling city with a growing population and tantalizing opportunities. Some of those opportunities are illegal. When Amy MacDonald, the school teacher at Hastings Mill, discovers new Winchester ’86 rifles are being smuggled through the city, she tries to enlist the aid of the earnest but…
Read MoreMercy Pilot, by Dirk Tordoff
Mercy Pilot, by Dirk Tordoff Joe Crosson, a brave and skilled pilot, became a national hero between the world wars flying mercy missions in the North. He pioneered air routes throughout Alaska and foresaw the future of commercial aviation. Above all else, he loved to fly. In 1929, Crosson generated newspaper headlines worldwide flying a…
Read MorePatsy Ann of Alaska, by Tricia Brown
Patsy Ann of Alaska, by Tricia Brown In 1929, Patsy Ann arrived in Juneau, Alaska, with an independent streak as big as the territory. The English bull terrier cycled through a couple of households, running away each time, making it clear that she was nobody’s dog. She was everybody’s dog. Meet the canine free spirit…
Read MoreThe Oceanside History of Alaska, by Mike Coppock
The Oceanside History of Alaska, by Mike Coppock A history of Alaska’s seaports settled by fishermen, gold seekers, Scandinavians, Native peoples, and Russian trappers. It is a time of a violent history as these diverse people carved their own isolated world from forests, cliff faces, and raging seas. This is a tale of wild men…
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