The Boy in the Snow

M. J. McGrath's debut novel, White Heat, won favorable praise from readers and critics alike with Parade Magazine exclaiming, "M.J. McGrath opens a window onto a fascinating and disappearing culture in this haunting mystery," and the Associated Press saying, "The Arctic is a big place - big enough, one hopes, for Edie Kiglatuk to find another mystery that needs solving between warm bowls of seal blood soup fresh from the microwave." This winter, Viking welcomes McGrath's return to the vast Arctic world of ice and rock with THE BOY IN THE SNOW: An Edie Kiglatuk Mystery (Viking; On-sale: November 12, 2012; ISBN: 978-0-670-02369-1; $25.95; also available as an e-book).

As THE BOY IN THE SNOW opens, half-Inuit Edie Kiglatuk has headed south of Ellesmere Island to Alaska with her old pal, Sergeant Derek Palliser, in order to help her ex-husband Sammy in his bid to win the famous Iditarod dog sled race. Edie is to be positioned at the beginning of the race, with Derek at the end, so they can assist Sammy as he races sixteen dogs 1150 miles through some of the toughest terrain on the planet. Soon after arriving however, Edie stumbles upon a bear in the woods while exploring the local terrain, and feels compelled to follow it. The bear eventually leads her to a small, decoratively painted wooden house, no bigger than a small dog's, sitting in the middle of the snow. When Edie reaches inside the house, she discovers the body of a young baby boy, wrapped in an elaborate cloth, bearing the mark of an inverted cross on his head. The local authorities are keen to pin the death on the Dark Believers-a sinister offshoot of a Russian Orthodox sect-but Edie's instincts tells her otherwise. With the aid of the ever-cautious Derek, Edie embarks on a journey that will lead her into a world of corrupt politics, religious intolerance, greed, and sex trafficking, that will leave readers chilled to the bone and holding onto their seat until the very last page.

About the Author: M. J. (Melanie) McGrath is a journalist and an author of several books of nonfiction, including The Long Exile: A Tale of Inuit Betrayal and Survival in the High Arctic. She was awarded the John Llewlyn Rhys/Mail on Sunday Award for best British author under thirty-five. She lives and works in London. The Boy in the Snow is her second novel.