White Sky, Black Ice by Stan Jones

Kerrie Smith's Crime Fiction Alphabet community meme on her website Mysteries in Paradise has reached the letter "J". I am posting an outstanding Alaskan mystery by Stan Jones. Bernadette from Reactions to Reading had mentioned it was waiting for her on her eReader last week in her post for "I". Having enjoyed reading White Sky,Black Ice I decided to make it my post for "J". I thought the second in the series, Shaman Pass, was even better. The author has a fine website and has been prompt in replying to emails.

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7. - 470.) White Sky, Black Ice by Stan Jones – It is always exciting to find a new character in a setting outside a major city with a mystery unique to the area. Nathan Active is an Alaskan in the same way the Joanna Kilborn of Gail Bowen and the Russell Quant of Anthony Bidulka are Saskatchewanians. Active is an Alaskan state trooper stationed in his home village, Chukchi, on the northwest slope of Alaska. With the ocean to the west and tundra to the east there are few more remote areas. The indigeneous population is the Inupiaq (the people). Eskimo is a pejorative term. Active was born to an Inupiaq mother who put him up for adoption. He is dutifully putting in time at Chukchi but eagerly looking forward to getting transferred to Anchorage. He has doubts about the suicide of Charley Clinton. Most in the community believe that Charley was driven to suicide because of a curse put on his father’s family by a shaman. Active has doubts about someone shooting themselves in the Adam’s apple with a rifle. Active is asked by his birth mother to help find a missing husband, Aaron Stone. With the aid of local pilot, Cowboy Decker, he finds Aaron, also an apparent suicide by shooting himself in the Adam’s apple. With no curse, a happy family life and a good job at the Grey Wolf copper mine there is no reason for Aaron to kill himself. Local leader, Tom Werner, is advocating the residents vote to ban alcohol. Drunkeness is devastating the community. As Active pursues the investigation he finds romance with Lucy Generous (her grandmother sets them up). The characters are real people. The author captures the Inupiaq contraction of English verbs vividly. The descriptions of the vast Arctic are powerful. Jones must have lived in the winter of northern North America. It is interesting how English has its regional variations. A snowmobile is a snowgo. I look forward to the next book in the same way Maisie Dobbs captivated me last year. Hardcover. (Feb. 2/09) (Tied for third most interesting of 2009)