With her husband under arrest for murder and Meg desperate to prove his innocence, she flies to Yellowknife, where a tangled web of family secrets and greed awaits her.
Meg Harris is forced to leave the sanctuary of Three Deer Point and fly to Yellowknife, where her stepdaughter lies near death and her husband is in jail for killing a man. Expecting to find Eric shouting his innocence, she instead finds him cowed and willing to do hard time. But Meg doesn't believe he's guilty.
Convinced that there's more to the murder victim - and the attack on her stepdaughter - than the police think, Meg finds herself on a sordid trail of family secrets and greed, hoping she can prove her husband's innocence. Fragments of an ancient embroidery lead her to a remote Dene hunting camp, where all is not what it seems.
This is the 8th book in the Meg Harris series by R.J. Harlick. This series has been on my radar for a couple of years, recommended by a good friend of mine. She knows I love mysteries set in the wilderness, and bonus points for First Nations themes or arctic settings (or both). This was my first foray into the series, but I am definitely going to go dig up the other books in the series immediately.
The author has an amazing facility with description. Breathtaking scenery and wilderness really made the story come alive for me. In fact the writing and descriptions reminded me a lot of Tony Hillerman's books and the characters' delicate balance (or imbalance) trying to be true to their culture whilst being forced to conform to white culture were a recurring theme in this book as well.
The story itself is a well plotted mystery with greed and double crosses, politics and assault, old history and old crimes which won't stay buried. The plot twists and denouement were fairly done and I hadn't worked out the whole solution by the end of the book.
For anyone who is a fan of C.J. Box's Joe Pickett books, or Nevada Barr's Anna Pigeon series, definitely find this book. I can't believe it took me this long.
Four stars, I'll definitely be reading the rest of the series.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher.
