White Heat

Nothing on the tundra rotted ...The whole history of human settlement lay exposed there, under that big northern sky. There was nowhere here for bones to hide. On Craig Island, a vast landscape of ice north of the Arctic Circle, three travellers are hunting duck. Among them is expert Inuit hunter and guide, Edie Kiglatuk; a woman born of this harsh, beautiful terrain. The two men are tourists, experiencing Arctic life in the raw, but when one of the men is shot dead in mysterious circumstances, the local Council of Elders in the tiny settlement of Autisaq is keen to dismiss it as an accident. Then two adventurers arrive in Autisaq hoping to search for the remains of the legendary Victorian explorer Sir James Fairfax. The men hire Edie -- whose ancestor Welatok guided Fairfax -- along with Edie's stepson Joe, and two parties set off in different directions. Four days later, Joe returns to Autisaq frostbitten, hypothermic and disoriented, to report his man missing. And when things take an even darker turn, Edie finds herself heartbroken, and facing the greatest challenge of her life ...'A blazing star of a thriller: vivid, tightly-sprung, and satisfying on all levels. Encountering Edie Kiglatuk, the toughest, smartest Arctic heroine since Miss Smilla, left me with that rare feeling of privilege you get on meeting extraordinary people in real life. A huge achievement' Liz Jensen, author of The Rapture 'Edie is an ingenious and original creation but the most addictive character is the Arctic itself' Sunday Telegraph 'The exotic setting of the Canadian High Arctic gave [M. J. McGrath's] debut, White Heat, a distinctive flavour. Richly realised, it's a gripping story that hinges on the collision of two very different ways of life, and features an Inuit hunter/guide as protagonist' Val McDermid, on her favourite new crime writers 'The best thing about female-authored thrillers is their ballsy heroines -- and White Heat by debut novelist MJ McGrath is no exception ... Dark and atmospheric, it's an unusual twist on the usual crime novel' Cosmopolitan 'A chilling read ... White Heat most resembles Peter Hoeg's 1993 novel, Miss Smilla's Feeling For Snow' Evening Standard 'The author of this very convincing depiction of the northern wastes was born in Essex, but she has lived with Inuit families and conveys a deep understanding of their culture. White Heat plunges the reader into a world where a harsh existence is rendered with unvarnished observation. Edie's struggle with alcoholism, her difficult relationship with her ex, her need to be accepted by the domineering men of the community, make her a deeply empathetic personality. Edie's a tough cookie: she fights her way through the icefields with a tenacity that armchair explorers everywhere will relish. Let's see more of her, even chewing on beaver's paws' Independent 'White Heat is a blazing star of a thriller: vivid, tightly-sprung, and satisfying on all levels. Encountering Edie Kiglatuk, the toughest, smartest Arctic heroine since Miss Smilla, left me with that rare feeling of privilege you get on meeting extraordinary people in real life. A huge achievement' Liz Jensen, author of The Rapture 'For a new kind of crime novel, try MJ McGrath's White Heat, a murder mystery set in the Arctic Circle... Deliciously clever' Red magazine 'Edie is an ingenious and original creation backed up by a cast of crazy scientists, corrupt officials, placid policemen, Russian oil men and locals lost in "a fog of drink, boredom, unwanted pregnancies, low expectations and educational underachievement". But the most addictive character -- both hero and villain of the piece -- is the Arctic itself. It makes a seductive location for a thriller, a land of wonder and terror shut in darkness for months of the year, a place in which temperatures rarely rise above freezing and, in winter, regularly fall below -40 C. McGrath makes the most of every sensory extreme. This is a novel in which the cold seems to leak from the page, leaving you chilled, both by its suspenseful plot and by the epic descriptions of this vast white landscape. For those seeking a palate cleanser after the sensationalist high-violence of Stieg Larsson, this quietly compelling tale of ice and intrigue should be high on their list' Sunday Telegraph 'White Heat the first novel as MJ McGrath by the non fiction author Melanie McGrath, is set on an island in the Canadian Arctic. Edie Kiglatuk, a hunters' guide and teacher, feels compelled to investigate fatal hunting incidents that Inuit elders want her to leave alone. Her quest, which takes her to Greenland, suggests the ostensibly random deaths are linked to a ruthlessly conducted race between nations, scientists and business empires to exploit the Arctic's resources. Although clearly indebted to Peter Hoeg's Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow, White Heat is a striking debut, especially good at working glimpses of the Inuit way of life into its plot' Sunday Times 'Atmospheric and intriguing mystery' Woman & Home