Frozen Sun

For XMAS I decided some ice and snow and serious wind-chill reading was in order, so I searched out my favorite Far North sleuth Nathan Active in his third outing. Nathan's one of Alaska's rare Inupiat (the proper term for Eskimo) troopers and this time he's been nice-talked into searching a cold trail for the once beautiful and super-smart Gracie Palmer, last seen three years ago on Ancharage's notorious 4th Avenue--haven for sleasy bars, prostitudes, and pimps in the night. Stan Jones, the author, really has nailed bush Alaska down: everything from crazed and invincible-feeling bush pilots to the unusual snack fare: muktuk, or outer fat of whale. And he just doesn't concentrate on the mystery; he also has a few other snowballs riding those arctic wind currents: Nathan's developing relationship with Lucy Generous, a dispatcher at his office, and his complicated relationship with both his birth mother who did not keep him and his white adoptive parents. Nathan's checking up on Gracie for her father, the highly-respected principle of Chukchi High School; he says he needs to know what happened to his daughter because her mother is dying from cancer. At first, Trooper Active finds a very frigid trail and one that likely points to Grace's death while being homeless, killed by a snowplow, but then a clue leads to the rainswept Aleutians, and he pays his own way there to investigate. There's lots to keep you involved in this story, and while you're learning about Grace's and her father's past, you get a real tour of the 49th state. Fun winter reading before a fire, any fire.