In my early teens I spent two and a half years living with a Tlingit elder. He taught me valuable life lessons by telling me stories that always had a message about how you were supposed to behave. A kinder version of Grimm’s fairy tales grounded in the natural world. These stories shaped my beliefs about friendship, loyalty and justice. So when a young shaman’s potion resulted in a death and a native fish buyer went missing along with $75,000 in cash, I trusted my instincts as well as my police training.

My name is Jonah St. Clair, and I’m Koloshan’s only police officer. After college I spent two years in Viet Nam and six years with the LAPD before returning to Koloshan. The only way to get to here is by boat, and until recently, there wasn’t a lot of pressure to become part of the modern world. But 1979 seems to be a turning point, and the culture is becoming a curious blend of old and new. The Tlingit language, the clan structure, and ancestral stories are no longer central to village life. Although some ancient beliefs remain powerful forces within the community.

I lived longer in L.A. than here, but Koloshan is my home. The love of nature and respect for tradition I learned while fishing out of Koloshan with my father and later living with my friend’s grandfather, are an integral part of who I am. What I try to emotionally bury is my time spent in Viet Nam. But it haunts me.

When the young shaman, Chaaky, ran away, I suspected he was hiding out in the red caves because that’s where he got the “sign” that he was an icht’a, a shaman. They are across the island from the village, a honeycomb of chambers slowly carved by nature into the side of a steep cliff. According to legend, the earth in and around the caves is red because it was soaked with the blood of warriors who had battled there. Even though I know iron oxide accounts for the unique coloration, I prefer the legend to the facts.

My search for Chaaky began—and almost ended—in the red caves. But I won’t say more about that now since at the time, even I didn’t understand how the midnight ceremony Chaaky held with a group of village youths was connected to other disturbing events in Koloshan . . . until I was finally required to make a choice between friendship and justice.

Please join me as I travel to the fishing grounds to find the missing fish buyer, trek through the wilderness looking for Chaaky, almost fall in love, engage in a boat chase in dangerous waters, and discover the bittersweet truth of the Raven’s Grave.

Raven’s Grave
Genre: Traditional Mystery
Release: September 2023
Format: Print, Digital
Purchase Link

A young boy dies during a midnight ceremony. A fish buyer and $75,000 goes missing. And a runaway becomes the object of an Alaskan wilderness search.

It is 1979 in a small native village in Alaska accessible only by boat. The local Tlingits continue to honor many traditions of the past, although increased contact with the outside world is accelerating a cultural shift. Caught in a slipstream of time, the village has become a curious blend of old and new.

When a young boy dies from a potion that was supposed to cure his limp, all the evidence points to the teenage shaman as the killer. It is up to Jonah St. Clair, the only police officer in the village, to solve the murder and, at the same time, find the missing fish buyer. To do so, he must use both his police skills and his knowledge of the local culture.

During his investigation, Jonah becomes prey and predator in a nighttime chase through the Alaskan wilderness and barely survives a rugged boat trip in dangerous waters. In the end, he not only apprehends a killer but discovers the bittersweet secret of the Raven’s Grave.

About the author
Charlotte Stuart PhD is an award-winning mystery writer who got her start in academia and left a tenured position to go commercial fishing in Alaska. Her current passion is for writing character-driven mysteries with twisty plots. Her books have placed or made finals in various competitions including: 1st Place in the Chanticleer International Mystery & Mayhem Book Series Award, a Reader Views Silver, a Global Book Bronze, and finals in Foreword Indies, Killer Nashville’s Silver Falchion and Eric Hoffer Awards. She lives and writes on Vashon Island in the Pacific Northwest and is the past president of the Puget Sound Sisters in Crime.