Ragged Lake

Corbett’s well-crafted first foray into fiction (he has published seven nonfiction books) takes the reader into a grisly, claustrophobic world. Det. Frank Yakabuski and two regional police constables head to Canada’s North to investigate the triple murder of a secretive family who built a makeshift cabin on logging land. Frank has to find the killers, battle a deadly gang who have arrived to clear all traces of their exploded meth lab, and confine a handful of residents of the abandoned town—and a few outsiders—in a local fishing lodge for their own protection. As he looks for answers, harsh lives in a harsh land are revealed—particularly those of the indigenous people of the North—along with terrible secrets and the desperation that sets in when jobs disappear. It’s a visceral, occasionally blood-soaked tale that unwinds slowly and provides a shocking conclusion. Corbett knows the North and its people. Both the danger and the stark beauty of the place ring true on every level. Agent: Robert Lecker, Robert Lecker Agency. (Oct.)