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2000s: The third in the Edie Kiglatuk mysteries set in the Arctic. The Inunit community find one of their own is missing. In the Arctic’s wild winter nights, the outcome is not looking good.
The Bone Seeker- Edie Kiglatuk 3
What you need to know before your trail
Young Inuit Martha Salliaq disappears from her settlement. Edie was her teacher and so is concerned at what has happened to her. She asks her police friend Derek Palliser to help search for the girl. Fearing the worst, they search for the girl. But then a body is found.
The location of the body may be significant – it’s discovered floating in a polluted lake on the site of a decommissioned Radar Station. Could the culprits be stationed on the soldier camp nearby?
Soon links between the camp and the girl appear but the military is more than keen to help which Edie finds strange. And then the lake is cordoned off…Just what is going on?
Travel Guide
Edie is teaching a summer programme away from home as the book opens. A nice break and a gorgeous location – but the murder of an Inunit girl found near Lake Turngaluk changes all that. That and the fact that the lake may in fact be poisoned in some way.
The local Inunit community are at pains to find out what happened to one of their own. Theirs is a unique and harsh lifestyle, remoteness surrounds them and fear of the outside, of outsiders keeps them and their traditions strong.
However the Inunit lifestyle and way of life is not easy – they do not subscribe to more common and widespread standards of education for example preferring a more practical and useful way of educating their young. Their suspicion of outsiders lies close to the fact that they have fought many battle across history with the government over land and land use. The isolation they must feel, the prejudice they must face is evident.
In her admittedly limited – experience of Qalunaat she’d sensed that they could be picky about form. Most assumed that Inunit would play by Qalunaaat rules. Very few ever though to accommodate themselves to the Inunit was of doing things.
So, when one of their own is killed and the military is suspected, the stage is set for a battle of wills, strength and years of tradition.
The setting and the mystery are intrincsiallu linked – despite the cold Arctic setting it is summer, where the sun rarely sets – keeping the people in this part of the world stuck in their worst living nightmare. How far is someone willing to go to hide a secret? What does the Defence department have to hide?
Never ending light means the darkness is just not seen, but felt.
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