Alaska’s Deadly Dozen   “Alaska’s Deadly Dozen: Most Notorious Murder Cases,” is a collection of 12 compelling true stories by a connoisseur of crime in the Far North.  Author Tom Brennan is a former newsman who received his first police beat assignment in 1959. His 53-year tenure in the 49th state has kept him up close and personal, not only to the perpetrators and their victims, but with the beat cops, investigators, state troopers and judges who provide justice. This ultimate rogue’s gallery covers the gambit between a serial rapist who frees his victims in the wilderness to stalk and kill for hunting practice, to an Alaskan who finds killing such an enjoyable hobby that he pursues it nationwide. Or consider the environmentalist unhinged by the trans-Alaska pipeline, so eager to protect the state’s singular natural beauty that he begins by picking off his isolated neighbors. “Not all Alaska criminals are outstanding in their field,” Brennan concedes, considering the young, white hunter who used the new rifle he got for Christmas from his dad to kill three Inupiat Natives in the high arctic.  “But the place tends to attract oddballs unique to our wild country.”   Brennan also covers urban extremists, including a blasé young risktaker who aspired to become a mob hit man and the delightful exotic dancer who gave up her career to marry a well-respected doctor, only to be tried more than a decade after-the-fact for the gruesome murder of one of three former fiancés. Then there are the teenage lovers, aged 14 and 19, who successfully integrated home invasion and murder into their lucrative string of burglaries in Alaska’s most sophisticated city. Other true crime classics by Brennan include “Cold Crime,” “Murder at 40 Below,” and “Dead Man’s Dancer.” For additional information, contact Epicenter Press at 907-248-6356 or laelmorgan@cs.com.