The Seductress

A web of deceit and lies caused pain and death.

When a beautiful, intelligent, young woman pitted her three fiancés against each other, someone would die.

Alaska has always attracted adventurers. Whether for a love of the great outdoors or an imagined opportunity to get rich, young people from around the globe flock to the state each year. Substantial economic booms have defined Alaska over the years, including the gold rush during the early 1900s and the building and early operation of the Trans-Alaska oil pipeline in the 1970s. Commercial fishing heydays have also occurred when prices have skyrocketed for seafood such as Pacific salmon, herring, and of course, king crab. These economic peaks transformed Alaska in many ways, both good and bad. The oil boom brought a great deal of money to the state, and workers, mostly young men, hurried to Alaska from the lower 48, hoping to land prosperous pipeline jobs. Criminals followed the money to Alaska and exploited every possible angle to relieve oilfield workers of their paychecks. Drugs flooded the state, and topless bars from Fairbanks to Anchorage popped up overnight.

In the intervening decades since the building of the pipeline, things have mellowed. Anchorage still has problems with drugs and crime, but these issues resemble those of every other U.S. city. Most of the topless bars have long since closed, and…