Murder in a Cold Climate

The Canadian author of more than 30 books here introduces a likable hero, native Northerner Inuk Matthew Kitologitak, who is also a Mountie, one of the few Inuit officers in the RCMP. Just as ``Matteesie'' is beginning an investigation into the disappearance of a small plane and its passengers-- who might be involved in a large drug ring--a politically powerful advocate of Native rights is murdered. Gradually connecting the missing plane and the killing, Matteesie meets some memorable inhabitants of the Northwest Territories just below the Arctic Circle: the victim's angry and secretive son, a woman who likes her sled dogs better than she does people, and a trapper who lost his legs to frostbite. But most compelling is the land itself. Before he can resolve the case, Matteesie struggles through the frigid and demanding, but to him consoling, landscape, his thoughts flagging back to his youth, when life was simpler. While the reader may find the plot's twin mysteries slightly overwrought, the book is distinguished by the author's fine characterization of the supporting cast as well as his middle-aged hero, who reflects on his position as a Native in the mainstream, on his relationships with his wife, a long-time lover and his fellow workers, and with the most formidable character of all, the North. (Oct.)