The Bone Seeker

A summer teaching job takes Edie Kiglatuk to Kuujuaq, a Canadian Arctic village, in McGrath’s unsettling third mystery featuring the Arctic guide (after 2012’s The Boy in the Snow). When Edie and Sgt. Derek Palliser, her policeman friend headquartered in Kuujuaq, find student Martha Salliaq’s body in a desolate lake, Derek deputizes Edie to help with the case. Martha’s father recently won a lawsuit against the government, enabling the village to reclaim land used for a Cold War radar base, and the military is about to start its cleanup. When the Department of Defense suddenly takes over the site and the case, the Salliaqs’ lawyer suspects that Martha’s death might be connected to government secrets. A subplot involving Edie’s relationship with her troubled ex-stepson, Willa Inukpuk, adds a redemptive note to an often bleak tale of jealousy, betrayal, and destruction. Despite some clumsy prose, McGrath effectively evokes the spare Arctic landscape and brings life to the people who have inhabited it for generations. [em]Agent: Kim Witherspoon, Inkwell Management. (July) [/em]