Loyal to the bone, Edie Kiglatuk, a northern guide, had
reluctantly agreed to leave her home in Autisaq on the high
Arctic in Ellesmere Island to travel down south to
Anchorage, Alaska to help her ex-husband, Sammy Inukpuk
compete in the treacherous Iditarod dog sled race as part
of his healing journey over the death of his son.
Finding the south too noisy, hot, despite the freezing cold
temperatures, and emotionally upsetting to be there, Edie
sets off for a walk in a forest near town to calm her
spirits. Suddenly, she realizes she is being watched by an
unusual bear. Of mixed heritage from an Inuk mother and
Qalunaat father (as Inuit called white folks), Edie is an
excellent hunter and had a strong understanding of bears
and the land. But, as she had only been in Alaska for a
few hours, she lost her bearings after following the bear
for a while. Then, after getting directions from a
taciturn couple on a snowmobile, she heads back to her
vehicle and spot a small yellow object in the drifted
snow. As she brushes off the snow, she realizes it is a
spirit house with a small bundle inside. Edie is shocked
when she discovers it is the small frozen body of a baby
boy with an unknown symbol on him. Who did this to him?
After rushing back to town, Edie is stunned by the lack of
interest by the police and detects that they seem too eager
to pin it on the couple she had briefly met in the
woods. She soon finds out the couple on the snowmobile
belonged to a religious group called the Old Believers, a
breakaway sect from the Russian Orthodox Church, that had
left over 400 years ago. Due to the date of their leaving,
many people stereotyped and hated them as being Dark
Believers.
Could they really have done this? Driven by her strong need
for justice and her own personal issues, Edie sets off to
find out who the baby belongs to, so a proper burial can be
done. Calling in for help from Sargent Derek Palliser,
Sammy's good friend and who is in Nome, Alaska managing the
northern support for Sammy, Edie starts to unravel the
trails of far reaching conspiracies and political sabotage.
But when the petite Edie is violently attacked, Palliser
has to make tough choices between helping Edie and
protecting Sam who is travelling by himself over the
dangerous wild terrain of Alaska on his 1150 miles
journey. Will Sam be make to make this trip that is so
important to his heart? Can Edie and Sam find a way
through the deceit and cover-ups before their own lives
become too endangered?
Best-selling author of White Heat, M. J. McGrath has
written another utterly engaging mystery that both exposes
the hidden and dank underbelly of Alaskan criminal and
political activities while providing well-researched and,
at times quite humorous, insights into the life and customs
of both Inuit and North American customs. The plot
development in THE BOY IN THE SNOW is exciting and
captivating and the story is filled with realistic
characters, ranging from corrupt politicians, Russian women
held as sex slaves, Old Believers trying to live an
isolated life, to native parents dealing with the fallout
of modern lifestyles and their long held traditions.
Edie Kiglatuk is an intrepid and intriguing heroine and I
was totally entranced by her as a character. I just loved
the way, despite her own imperfections and faults, she is
able to draw upon her own knowledge of the land,
traditional customs, and use her intuition and guidance
from teachings from both her parents' cultures to help her
to figure out what to do next. Now, I can't wait to read
another Edie Kiglatuk mystery! So, curl up and enjoy! You
won't regret it!
Edie Kiglatuk’s discovery along Alaska’s Iditarod trail
leads to a massive, far-reaching conspiracy
M. J. McGrath’s debut novel, White Heat, earned both fans
and favorable comparisons to bestselling Scandinavian
thrillers such as Smilla’s Sense of Snow and the Kurt
Wallander series.
In The Boy in the Snow, half-Inuit Edie Kiglatuk finds
herself in Alaska with Sergeant Derek Palliser, helping her
ex-husband Sammy in his bid to win the famous Iditarod dog
sled race. The race takes a grim turn when Edie stumbles
upon the body of a baby left out in the forest. The state
troopers are keen to pin the death on the Dark Believers—a
sinister offshoot of a Russian Orthodox sect—but Edie’s
instincts tell her otherwise. Her investigations take her
into a world of corrupt politics, religious intolerance,
greed, and sex trafficking. But just as she begins to get
some answers, Edie finds herself confronted by a painful
secret from her past.
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