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.
Review
''The two-week 1,150-mile Iditarod dog sled race from near Wasilla to Nome, Alaska, forms the backdrop for McGrath's outstanding second mystery featuring half-Caucasian, half-Inuit Edie Kiglatuk . . . McGrath has a firm grasp on a little known culture, its values and language, and excels at bringing to life such characters as conniving Anchorage mayor Chuck Hillingberg and his power-hungry wife, Marsha. This affecting novel should melt even the most frozen human hearts.'' --Publishers Weekly (starred review)
''Edie is fierce in her desire for justice . . . [She] finds herself at mortal risk from the cold, so masterfully described that it chills the reader.'' --Booklist
About the Author
M. J. McGRATH is an award-winning journalist and the author of several books, including The Long Exile: A Tale of Inuit Betrayal and the novels White Heat and The Boy in the Snow. She was awarded the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize for best Commonwealth writer under thirty-five and currently lives in London.