Why a Booktrail?
2000s, 1970s: The first in the Greenland murder series
The Girl Without Skin
What you need to know before your trail
When a mummified Viking corpse is discovered in a crevasse out on the edge of an ice sheet, journalist Matthew Cave is sent to cover the story. The next day the mummy is gone, and the body of the policeman who was keeping watch is found naked and flayed—exactly like the victims in a gruesome series of murders that terrified the remote town of Nuuk in the 1970s.
As Matt investigates, he is shocked by the deprivation and brutal violence the locals take for granted. Unable to trust the police, he begins to suspect a cover-up. It’s only when he meets a young Inuit woman, Tupaarnaq, convicted of killing her parents and two small sisters, that Matt starts to realise how deep this story goes—and how much danger he is in.
Locations
ResetTravel Guide
The locations in this novel are eerie and chilling so very apt for the subject matter, but readers should be aware that the themes of abuse, child abuse and skinning of victims may not be suitable for all.
Nuuk Greenland
Where the mummy is discovered and where Matthew, the journalist comes to investigate.
This is a cold desolate and unforgiving place as he will soon discover. But for now, the interest of finding a mummy is what drives him on:
“It was rare for mummies to be discovered these days, though, and this one, of Nordic appearance rather than Inunit, would be unique. It would be the first time a well-preserved Norseman had ever been found, and historians and archaeologists already had high hopes that this mummy would teach them more about the everyday life of the Norsemen.”
The landscape is one of piercing whiteness. It’s a land of Norsemen too and history so finding a possible Norseman mummified would be groundbreaking. Matthew has read that the Norseman had disappeared leaving practically no trace after inhabiting Greenland for more than four hundred years. Why would they disappear so suddenly?
It’s in the middle of the “White loneliness” that they hope to find out.
There are no spirits or musk oxen on the ice cap.” but “It is full of spirits of demons underground” apparently. The people here can use them against their enemies by carving little tupilak figures.
And there are plenty of enemies, demons and evil behaviour here…in the middle of nowhere.
BookTrail Boarding Pass: The Girl without Skin
Destination: Greenland, Nuuk, The Arctic Author/guide: Mads Peder Nordbo Departure: 2000s
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