About the Book
A riveting Arctic mystery that marks the fiction debut of a "wickedly talented" writer (New York Times)
Half Inuit and half outsider, Edie Kiglatuk is the best guide in her corner of the Arctic. But as a woman, she gets only grudging respect from the elders who rule her isolated community on Ellesmere Island. When a man is shot and killed while out on an "authentic" Arctic adventure under her watch, the murder attracts the attention of police sergeant Derek Palliser. As Edie sets out to discover what those tourists were really after, she is shocked by the suicide of someone very close to her. Though these events are seemingly unrelated, Edie's Inuit hunter sensibility tells her otherwise. With or without Derek's help, she is determined to find the key to this connection--a search that takes her beyond her small village and into the far reaches of the tundra.
White Heat is a stunning debut novel set in an utterly foreign culture amid an unforgiving landscape of ice and rock, of spirit ancestors and never-rotting bones. A suspense-filled adventure story that will captivate fans of Henning Mankell's bestselling mysteries, this book marks the start of an exciting new series.
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 The Boy in the Snow and White Heat, which was longlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger for best crime and mystery novel of the year. She currently lives in London.
Kate Reading is the recipient of multiple AudioFile Earphones Awards and has been named by AudioFile magazine as a "Voice of the Century," as well as the Best Voice in Science Fiction & Fantasy in 2008 and 2009 and Best Voice in Biography & Culture in 2010. She has narrated works by such authors as Jane Austen, Robert Jordan, Edith Wharton, and Sophie Kinsella. Reading has performed at numerous theaters in Washington D.C. and received a Helen Hayes Award for her performance in Aunt Dan and Lemon. AudioFile magazine reports that, "With subtle control of characters and sense of pacing, Kate's performances are a consistent pleasure."
Review :
"White Heat is a blazing star of a thriller: vivid, tightly-sprung, and satisfying on all levels. Encountering Edie Kiglatuk, the toughest, smartest Arctic heroine since Miss Smilla, left me with that rare feeling of privilege you get on meeting extraordinary people in real life. A huge achievement."
-- "Liz Jensen, author of The Rapture"
"In a gripping debut novel, McGrath transports the reader to a land of almost incomprehensible cold and an unfamiliar but fascinating culture, taking on issues of climate change, energy exploration, local politics, and drug and alcohol abuse. Edie, a fiercely independent woman in a male-dominated milieu, is sure to win fans. Expect great things from this series."
-- "Booklist"
"M. J. McGrath's White Heat is a tour de force, a book with a stunning grip on all the elements that make a mystery story great. The characters are unique and profoundly human, the plot wonderfully labyrinthine, and the sense of place beautifully--chillingly--evoked. I challenge any reader to pick up this marvelous novel and not be completely mesmerized."
-- "William Kent Kreuger, author of Vermillion Drift "
"M. J. McGrath's White Heat pulls you along like a steel cable, inexorably welding you to the characters and a place that you'll never forget."
-- "Craig Johnson, author of The Cold Dish and Hell Is Empty"
"McGrath has written a mystery but one reminiscent of Tony Hillerman's culture-clash novels. The language is beautiful, especially the descriptions of the Inuit people, living in 'a place littered with bones, with spirits, with reminders of the past...surrounded by our stories.' Detailed in her knowledge of setting, McGrath vividly invokes the frozen land, and her portrayals of the rugged people who cherish its beauty and bounty, especially Edie and Derek, ring true."
-- "Kirkus Reviews"
"Once in a blue moon a book comes along that exposes the world to us in a new light, makes us question everything: who we are, what we think we know, our beliefs and values, even the nature and purpose of our existence. White Heat is such a book. Seek it out and bask in it."
-- "James Thompson, author of Lucifer's Tears"
"This debut novel encompasses the hard, otherworldly beauty of the far north and the rapaciousness of energy moguls determined to exploit the area's natural resources."
-- "New Yorker"
"An arctic setting so real it'll give you frostbite."
-- "Dana Stabenow, New York Times bestsellilng author "
"Kate Reading, with her straightforward descriptions of the stark Arctic tundra and the cold, unforgiving weather, brings a strong sense of place to her narration. The characters she creates are fully realized, each with its own distinctive voice. Especially well rendered is the troubled Kiglatuk, who comes across--warts and all--as an earnest, courageous, and appealing heroine in this promising new series."
-- "Publishers Weekly audio review"
"M. J. McGrath opens a window onto a fascinating and disappearing culture in this haunting mystery."
-- "Parade"
"She weaves a strong strand of whodunit into a broader story about life in a twenty-first-century community on Canada's Ellesmere Island. The plot is wholly satisfying, and McGrath's portrait of a culture that uneasily blends yesterday and today is engrossing on its own merits. The Arctic is a big place--big enough, one hopes, for Edie Kiglatuk to find another mystery that needs solving between warm bowls of seal blood soup fresh from the microwave."
-- "Associated Press"
"The most addictive character--both hero and villain of the piece--is the Arctic itself. It makes a seductive location for a thriller, a land of wonder and terror shut in darkness for months of the year, a place in which temperatures rarely rise above freezing and, in winter, regularly fall below -40°C."
-- "Telegraph (London)"
"With a poet's confidence McGrath makes an unforgiving Arctic landscape, and then gives us a smart and strong yet vulnerable survivor in Edie Kiglatuk. You root for Edie. You can't do otherwise. In her risk-all pursuit of truth resides the best in all of us."
-- "Kirk Russell, author of Redback: A John Marquez Crime Novel "
