Frozen Sun (Nathan Active Series #3)

by Stan Jones

Overview

Blizzards, tundra, Eskimos, bush pilots, and bingo-loving grandmas enliven this literate ethnic mystery starring Alaska State Trooper Nathan Active, who has been assigned to the remote Arctic town of Chukchi. Though born an Inupiat Eskimo, Active was raised in Anchorage by white parents and has little knowledge of his native culture. During the long months he has spent in Chukchi, he has rallied against the icy weather and struggled to understand his two cultural identities, but he realizes how deeply he has been settling into the rhythms of community life when Grace Palmer, a local beauty queen, goes missing. The state trooper mounts a search that ultimately leads him halfway across Alaska—and gives him plenty of time to discover he is in love with Grace. Closing in on the answers, however, he discovers evidence that points to an agonizing situation: she is either dead, or she is a cold-blooded killer.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780979980374
Publisher:	Bowhead Press
Publication date:	09/01/2008
Series:	Nathan Active Series , #3
Pages:	292
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Stan Jones is an award-winning newspaper and public radio journalist and the author of Shaman Pass and White Sky, Black Ice. He lives in Anchorage, Alaska.

Editorial Reviews

"Readers of Dana Stabenow and Mike Doogan will appreciate Jones's take on Alaskan justice. Recommended for all collections."  —Library Journal

"That rare thing, a deftly plotted mystery that's also an irresistible love story. With it, Jones's Alaska series (Shaman Pass, 2003, etc.) takes a quantum leap forward."  —Kirkus Reviews

"Jones doesn't pretend to find anything remotely character-building in the conditions of those who have survived the unforgiving climate of the Arctic only to disappear on the streets."  —The New York Times Book Review

From the Publisher

No one shows you the ugly side of Alaska the way Stan Jones does in his somber novels about Nathan Active, an Eskimo state trooper posted back to Chukchi, his native village in the Arctic Circle…[Jones] doesn't pretend to find anything remotely character-building in the conditions of those who have survived the unforgiving climate of the Arctic only to disappear on the streets.
—The New York Times

Marilyn Stasio

Jones doesn't pretend to find anything remotely character-building in the conditions of those who have survived the unforgiving climate of the Arctic only to disappear on the streets.

The New York Times Book Review

Nathan Active, an Alaskan trooper assigned to Chukchi, an Inupiat Eskimo village in the Arctic where he was born, is looking for the estranged daughter of the local high school principal because her mother is dying of liver cancer. When the principal is found shot to death, the girl is the only suspect. This third book in Jones's Alaskan series (White Sky, Black Ice; Shaman Pass) does not disappoint. The investigation turns Active's life upside down and reshuffles his beliefs. Readers of Dana Stabenow and Mike Doogan will appreciate Jones's take on Alaskan justice. Recommended for all collections.

—Jo Ann Vicarel

Library Journal

They call her Amazing Grace and, dead or alive, Alaska state trooper Nathan Active has to find her. Grace Palmer is a golden child. So smart and so "beautiful from the day she was born," her father tells state trooper Nathan Active. That's why, he claims, he named her Grace. But the golden child is gone, dropped out from the university in Anchorage. Why? No one knows, and her parents have stopped asking. Now, however, her dying mother wants desperately to say goodbye. Could Nathan please go to Anchorage to look for her? Our hero is reluctant. For one thing, he's half convinced she's dead. A more disconcerting reason is harder to acknowledge, even to himself: He's been bewitched by her picture. At any rate, in Anchorage he discovers that Amazing Grace, as she's known in Four Street's bad bars and dangerous dives, has spiraled downward, her life a dismal history of exploitative men, run-ins with cops, violence and booze. Depressed and discouraged, Nathan sees little hope that she has survived this nonstop array of largely self-inflicted wounds. But Grace is indeed amazing. And unpredictable. And determined. And, as Nathan learns the hard way, oh so tricky. That rare thing, a deftly plotted mystery that's also an irresistible love story. With it, Jones's Alaska series (Shaman Pass, 2003, etc.) takes a quantum leap forward.

Kirkus Reviews