Butcher, Baker

By Walter Gilmour and Leland E. Hale (Todd Communications, $8.99)

The blurb: Gilmour and Hale provide an account based on interviews and police records detailing the case of serial killer Robert Hansen, who owned a bakery in Anchorage.

Excerpt: "The Anchorage police had known for three years that something was amiss in their fair city. The place was getting to be dangerous for prostitutes and topless dancers. Anchorage had always been a Wild West city, where men forever outnumbered women, and it was tricky going for these women in the best of times. All the same, Anchorage police detective Maxine Farrell had begun to notice an increasing number of missing persons reports involving topless dancers. Did it mean anything? Initially it was hard to be sure."

Restless in the Grave

By Dana Stabenow (Minotaur Books, $25.99)

The blurb: The latest entry in the author's Kate Shugak series of novels, private investigator Shugak goes undercover to uncover a web of secrets surrounding a plane crash in southwest Alaska.

Excerpt: "The only official speed limit through the village of Niniltna was the one observed by common sense and a decent respect for the lives and property of others, neither of which did Kate have on display that January evening. She used the hill down from the school as a launchpad and hurtled the snogo into a long, heart-stopping skid of a right turn onto Riverside without letting up on the throttle, worthy of a 911 call all on its own. The Meganacks house flashed by on their left and that's when Kate really hit the gas. Mutt let out another startled but this time also exhilarated yip and took a firmer grip on Kate's parka."

Wolf: A Freedom Story

By Tom Lang (Boudelang Press, $6.95)

The blurb: In this eighth book in the author's Little Books, Big Stories series, a member of the Wolf Protection Program goes undercover as a domestic dog in a small, coastal town in southeast Alaska.

Excerpt: " 'Fetch!'

" 'Excuse me?'

" 'Fetch. Go get the stick and bring it back.'

" 'Go get the stick? I don't want the stick. You want it, you go get it.'

"I was halfway through my training for the Wolf Protection Program. The Alaskan government was shooting wolves from the air again and a pack of us alpha wolves came up with a plan to save our species. We would train ourselves to behave as domestic dogs so we could be taken in by human packs where we would be protected until it was safe to go back into the wild."

Compiled by Matt Sullivan, Anchorage Daily News