Police Chief Nathan Active investigates a plane crash out in Alaska's big empty—and what he finds there casts suspicion of murder on several locals in his small town of Chukchi. Evie Kavoonah, a young mother-to-be, and her fiancé, Dr. Todd Brenner, are on a flight over the Brooks Range when their Bush plane runs out of gas and hits a ridge, instantly killing them both. Chukchi police chief Nathan Active doubts he'll find anything amiss when his close friend, Cowboy Decker, asks him to look into the possibility of foul play. But Evie was like a daughter to Cowboy, who trained her to fly, and he insists there's no way his protegée made a fatal mistake that day. Nathan reluctantly plays along and discovers that Cowboy's instincts are correct—the malfunction that led to the crash was carefully planned, and several young people in Chukchi have motives for targeting the pair.Meanwhile, Nathan's wife, Gracie, is pregnant, but so scarred by...

Nathan Active, the top cop in a swath of the Alaskan tundra that is larger than fifteen U.S. states, has a new mystery to unravel after a dog musher is killed by a snowmobile. When the case is connected with Alaska's gorgeous female governor, Active is swept into the bizarre family affairs and outsized political ambitions of the most dangerous woman he has ever met. Now the counter-moves that have been put into place by the governor threaten the lives of both his beloved Grace Palmer and her daughter, Nita. With his career on the line, Active has to outwit the governor and save the people he cares for most before time runs out.

Blizzards, tundra, and bush pilots enliven this thrilling mystery starring Alaska State Trooper Nathan Active, who has been assigned to the remote Arctic town of Chukchi. Though born an Inupiat Eskimo, Active was raised in Anchorage by Caucasian parents and has little knowledge of his native culture. During the long months spent in Chukchi, he rallied against the icy weather and struggled to understand his two cultural identities, but he has realized how deeply he has been settling into the rhythms of community life when Grace Palmer, a local beauty queen, goes missing. The state trooper mounts a search that ultimately leads him halfway across Alaska--and gives him plenty of time to discover he is in love with Grace. Closing in on the answers, however, he discovers evidence that points to an agonizing situation: she is either dead, or she is a cold-blooded killer.

Alaska State Trooper Nathan Active is regarded as "half-white" by the Inupiats of the village where he is stationed. He was born in Chukchi but was adopted by Anglos and raised in Anchorage. Now he is called upon to investigate the murder of a tribal leader who was stabbed to death with an antique harpoon, which had been recently returned to the community under the Indian Graves Act.From the Trade Paperback edition.

In the small Alaskan village of Chukchi, what are the odds of two suicides occurring in a matter of a few days? State trooper Nathan Active discovers that his suspicions concerning the deaths are well-founded; the two men were murdered. But what was the motive and who killed them?

Alaska State Trooper Nathan Active must figure out what connects a dead hunter on a remote Arctic lake with a year-old fatal plane crash in the Brooks Range and a fire that killed eight people.