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ARCTIC BLUE DEATH
by R J Harlick
RendezVous Crime, September 2009
328 pages
$16.95 CAD
ISBN: 1894917871


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Meg Harris comes from a very wealthy family in Toronto. Her father disappeared in the Arctic region years ago when his plane went missing and he is presumed dead. Her relationship with her mother and sister is rather strained, all the more since she inherited her beloved aunt's Victorian cottage in the wilderness of Western Quebec. After her divorce, Meg left the city and moved there making a new life and new friends for herself.

However, her newfound peace is shattered when her sister drops by with staggering news. Someone from Iqaluit, capital of the Nunavut territory, has sent her mother a note saying her father is alive. Along with this news came a a newspaper clipping about a plane recently found and Inuit drawings. Meg is coerced by her family to go to Iqaluit and find out if her father is indeed still alive and who the artist behind the drawings might be.

Her investigation takes her into the world of Inuit art, particularly Inuit art forgery. The author manages to introduce us to those riches without being didactic and opens a whole new world to the reader. Her journey up North is also very enlightening about the every day life and culture of both the Inuit and the white men (qallunaat) in that frozen region. We really get a feel for the people, from the way they dress to their value system. The story is sprinkled with native expressions but nothing to overwhelm or detract from the basic story.

The mystery is captivating and full of adventures, danger and even death. Meg is naïve enough openly to question the numerous characters she meets on her trek and that sometimes leads to threats to her life. As a bonus, we learn more about her private life and that of her family. The ending is both exciting and satisfying. Despite a tendency to product placement which I find irritating (Tim Horton, Zeller's….), if you enjoy well-done forays in strange physical and cultural settings, good story-telling and a well-rounded main character, you won't be disappointed in this book.

Reviewed by Nicole Leclerc, November 2009

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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