Ragged Lake

Frank is a well seasoned character. He's been in the military, knows his way around the wilderness and has been an undercover cop in a biker's group, and now he's a cop. He's going to encounter the strangest case ever in this story. History comes back to bite him.

ECW Press and Net Galley allowed me to read this book for review (thank you). It is being published today.

When Frank gets a call about a cabin with a dead family in it, he gets ready to head out. It's winter, there are no roads maintained in the area so he and the two cops with him will have to go in by snowmobile. They do. The snow slows down the progress of the case but they do have dead people in the cabin: Husband, wife and child. It's an ugly death, a shotgun was used.

The area they are in used to be a logging camp. A lot of Cree Indians lived and worked there. But that had gone by the wayside and it was vacant now. The lodge and the bar were still active though. Not many visitors but some. He wonders why they stay open but it doesn't take long to find out.

After he interviews everyone in the lodge and they have seen the bodies up close and took pictures, it's time to check the other building that may be occupied. It's an adventure group but when they approach the building, they get shot at! Frank has a solution for that. He gets his man posted where he wants him and sneaks to the back to send some flares in. He has a suspicion of how the building is being used. He's right. His flares set the meth lab on fire and the boom can be heard all across the landscape. That's just the beginning of the problem.

This is a tense deadly tale with more bodies all the time. It's a sad tale without a happy ending but justice is served. Frank had already seen a lot of death. Now he's seen a lot more.

There is plenty of violence in Corbett's debut, the first in the Frank Yakabuski series, but it is the gorgeous writing that makes the biggest impression. Whether it is describing a howling storm, depicting the way the fire following a meth lab explosion turns the snow to rain, or sharing the quiet sounds a building makes when everyone has gone to sleep, Corbett enthralls with his writing. Purists may dislike his use of phrases rather than full sentences at times, but his razor-sharp, economical use of words manages to portray a sense of place and depth of feeling better than the most voluble writing.

That direct and to-the-point style of writing suits his main character extremely well. Yakabuski, an ex-military man, is a regional investigator in a land where the regions are huge. When he gets the call that an isolated and reclusive family living in a makeshift cabin far from what passes for civilization along the Northern Divide has been slaughtered, he and his junior officers must snowmobile through the frozen landscape for a full day to reach the area. The town of Ragged Lake consists of just a few people, and none of them is law enforcement. Since the lumbering and milling operations closed decades ago, the lodge, a survival school, and the camp of an elderly Cree woman provide the only ongoing shelter in town other than the squatters' cabin which is the scene of the crime.

When Yakabuski arrives in town, he discovers that lawlessness prevails, with some gangsters from his past having moved into the void. As he attempts to determine what happened to the family, he uncovers the dead woman's journal, which provides history and background regarding the effects of deep isolation and lawlessness as well as the historical relationships between the loggers, millworkers, and native Cree. Beginning with so few residents, Ragged Lake is essentially deserted by the time Yakabuski and the criminals are done with their confrontation. But in the midst of all of the violent action, Corbett allows us to enter the head of the dead woman, giving us a fully realized and sympathetic character. Yakabuski is also well characterized, although we will be learning more about him as the series progresses. Most of the villains are less thoroughly drawn, sometimes fitting neatly into stereotypes.

This is a compelling start to a series set in an unusual location. I am very much looking forward to seeing where Yakabuski is sent next.