The Boy in the Snow

Written by M. J. McGrath

Narrated by Kate Reading

Half-Inuit Edie Kiglatuk is in Alaska with Sergeant Derek Palliser, helping her ex-husband in his bid to win the Iditarod. The race takes a grim turn when Edie stumbles upon the body of a baby in the forest. The ensuing investigation leads to a world of corruption.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Blackstone Audio
• Release date: Nov 8, 2012
• ISBN: 9781470815257

M. J. McGrath

M. J. McGrath was born in Essex. As Melanie McGrath she is the author of critically acclaimed, bestselling non-fiction (Silvertown and The Long Exile) and won the John Llewelyn-Rhys/Mail on Sunday award for Best New British and Commonwealth Writer under 35, for her first book Motel Nirvana. She writes for the national press and is a regular broadcaster on radio. Melanie lives and works in London. White Heat is her first novel. http://www.melaniemcgrath.com

Reviews for The Boy in the Snow

[hfineisen · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

M.J. McGrath's The Boy in the Snow has many great features--Alaska setting, the Iditarod, evil politicians, spiritual elements and history. Perhaps there are too many great features, which keeps the book from being a great book. The Iditarod race and some of the characters seem to be forgotten as the mystery unfolds. But this is worth the read, for Edie Kiglatuck, the half-Inuit sleuth, is an intriguing character that offers something new for the mystery reader. I will be picking up the first in this series, White Heat, and the next. Edie Kiglatuck has the potential to garner a great following.Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to review this book.

[teresa1953_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Diminuitive Inuit Edie Kiglatuk is a character you will grow very fond of. She is an Arctic guide and, on one of her treks in the Alaskan forests, she comes upon the body of a tiny baby boy wrapped in an elaborate shroud and lying within a small "spirit house." The child touches her soul and she vows to find out the truth so this little one's spirit can be at rest.The local Anchorage police force are convinced that this is the work of a breakaway Russian sect called the "Dark Believers", but no one is entirely sure whether such a group actually exists. Edie being Edie, and despite the protests of her friends, one of whom is a police officer from Ellesmere Island himself, she carries on undaunted in her search for the truth. The police think they've found their man, but then another baby's body is discovered in the same circumstances. This one has Down Syndrome.Set amid the cold, arctic backdrop of Alaska where a famous dog sled race is underway.....Edie's ex husband Sammy is one of the participants...I found this a fast paced and atmospheric read. There is also a political angle due to a Mayoral race also taking place and, as so often happens in politics, the candidates are up to their necks in sleaze and false promises.All the characters are well drawn and Edie herself is just wonderful. If only all human beings had her empathy and integrity, the world would be a better place. This is the second in a series, but (having not read the first one) I didn't find this detracted from the enjoyment of the book. In summary, an unusual and well written, exciting read which tells us a lot about the evil way people can behave.

[adpaton · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

When Inuit guide Edie Kiglatuk visits the metropolis of Anchorage for the Iditarod dog sled race, she finds the transition from her isolated home on the Canadian High Arctic challenging.She battles to find Reindeer sausages, and is shocked to be called an ‘Eskimo’ but worse is to come when she discovers the corpse of a new born baby out in the snow, and gets involved in an investigation into a Russian Orthodox cult known as The Dark Believers. This is the second book to feature Edie and it maintains the standard set by the first: details of the famous Alaskan sled race are fascinating as are the political shenanigans, the food, and the mind set of the Great North.

[thedivineoomba · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is one of those books that start weirdly, and ends weirdly, but the middle part is really really good. We have Edie Kiglatuk - an Inuit from Canada who is support for her ex-husband racing the Iditarod. The beginning is odd for two reasons - 1) I don't know why Edie was where she was when she found the baby's body - something about scouting, but as far as I can tell - the race didn't go through those parts. The second reason is, who comes running and screaming at a press conference about a body found - Just because Edie is from a very small village in the Arctic Circle, it doesn't mean she knows how the world works.The middle section was well done - Edie's reasoning for investigating the death goes with her tenacious personality and want of Justice. The twists and turns were a bit unexpected, and it kept me guessing. But the end of the story, after the mystery was solved, was tacked on and unnecessary. Also, everyone survived, including the dogs, which seemed a bit ... out of character for the story.The setting of the story was well done - showing the difference between living in the far arctic vs Alaska - the cold, the dangers of living in a place where you will die in a very short time if you don't wear the proper clothes. This is really a 3.25 book, but since it kept me reading, I've rounded the rating up to A 3.5.

[cathyskye · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Anchorage, Alaska is the farthest south Edie Kiglatuk has ever been, and she doesn't like it much. For one thing, there's too many trees. For another, it's almost impossible to find anything that's fit to eat. A good deal of my enjoyment in reading The Boy in the Snow came from watching her try to acclimatize to Alaska. It's something that I certainly would have to do as a bonafide desert dweller, but I'd certainly be coming at it from an entirely different direction!I was rather sad that the book has more to do with politics and greed than it does the Iditarod, but that's the way this story panned out, and I adjusted well. McGrath shows that Alaska still has ties to Russia (something that I hadn't thought of but should have), and if anything there were a few too many bad guys roaming around. I almost needed a scorecard.Having read the first book in this series, White Heat, as well as a short story, I found that I had the most difficulty with Edie herself. I don't remember her being quite so ill-tempered and combative. Of course, her behavior undoubtedly has a lot to do with those demons from her past, the dead baby, and her dislike of Alaska. Edie is used to getting from place to place on foot, with a dogsled, or possibly on a snowmobile, but here she has to drive cars and trucks. This isn't a good mix for woman nor machine. As someone with her says, "Edie doesn't drive. She bulldozes." And that's how Edie investigates, too. She doesn't pay attention to the good advice her friends give her; friends who'd help her more if she let them. All in all, Edie is her own worst enemy here, and I'm hoping that she's on a more even keel in the third book.

[sleahey_3 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Edie and Derrick are in Alaska to support Sammy's iditerod dream, when Edie finds a frozen baby corpse in a spirit house. She is stubborn in her pursuit of the why's and wherefors of the baby's death, and encounters a religious cult, prostitution, crooked politicians, illegal adoptions, and amoral developers. Plus unforeseen danger!

[greatbookescapes · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Great follow up to White Heat. Edie Kiglatuk yet again cannot leave alone a crime to be solved! Whilst ex-husband Sammy is racing in a sled race, Edie and her policeman friend Derek search for answers after Edie finds the body of baby in the snow. McGrath surrounds the story with ordinary lives, politics and subtle environmental issues. Rather than 'screaming' through the crime as it unfolds, it is steadily and doggedly unpicked by Edie in her quiet but terrier like manner.

McGrath gives you a real feel for Alaska with both traditional and modern life. You get a sense of intimate knowledge of the characters in a way that strengthens the story. She weaves a detailed patchwork of a story.

I did get a bit confused at one point with the people and their links to each other, but that is probably due to my memory problems!

Great read, make sure you read White Heat first.

[elkiedee · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Boy in the Snow is the second book in a series featuring Edie Kiglatuk, an Arctic guide. This time she has come south to Alaska to provide backup to a competitor in the Iditarod dog sled race, but her plans are interrupted when she stumbles across a dead child. In the course of her investigation she comes across corrupt local politicians and the Old Believers, a fundamentalist sect who broke away from the Russian Orthodox Church many years ago, and has to find a way through various suspicion and prejudice.I love stories about private investigators, and although Edie isn't actually a PI or officially employed as an investigator, she fits well into this part of the genre. She is a bit spiky, brave to the point of being foolhardy, fiercely independent, and committed to finding out the truth however inconvenient that might be. She also comes with a lot of personal history and has had alcohol problems in the past. None of this is particularly unusual in the genre. I really enjoyed reading about her in this book though.I was intrigued by the author's efforts to imagine how Alaska would look to someone from an even colder, wilder, more northern place, somewhere which hasn't been absorbed as another of the United States - although Edie's Arctic home is officially part of Canada, it really is another place and culture.White Heat, the first book in the series, didn't quite live up to my expectations, but I thought this book was much better, and I am looking forward to The Bone Seeker.

[readyreader_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

After reading M. J. McGrath's first Edie Kiglatuk mystery, "White Heat," I was a little let down by "The Boy in the Snow." Edie is still a fascinating character and the cultural background about the Inuit Indians of northern Canada that you glean from her stories remains one of the main draws of the books. However, this one seemed a little choppy and I kept losing the thread of the story as well as feeling a little distracted. I had a hard time staying focused. The end of the book had some excitement but when I closed the cover, I felt like all the pieces of the puzzle had not quite been put together.