The Boy in the Snow

‘Half-Inuit Edie, who debuted in White Heat, here finds herself at mortal risk from the cold, so masterfully described that it chills the reader. McGrath adds an element of Inuit spirituality to this fast-moving mystery of corruption and cover-ups, meeting expectations established by the compelling series opener’ Booklist

'Acknowledged as one of our most gifted younger writers, McGrath’s first thriller - featuring Arctic guide Edie Kiglatuk - was the exceptional White Heat, published last year to deserved acclaim. This second confirms just how good this Essex-born writer with a taste for Alaska really is . . . The snow-laden wastes of Alaska are so brilliantly evoked that it almost make you shiver reading it, and the plot is every bit as chilling, laced as it is with politics, sects and modern greed' Daily Mail

‘The Boy In The Snow is a thrilling chiller . . . Wrap up warmly. M. J. McGrath's earlier Arctic-set outing White Heat may have borrowed its title from an old James Cagney film but was in every other respect a totally original piece of work, demonstrating for a first novel an authoritative grasp of the thriller idiom. That book made people sit up and take notice but inevitably raised expectations for its successor. Has McGrath managed to match her achievement with The Boy In The Snow, the second book to feature her female Inuit hunter turned sleuth Edie Kiglatuk? . . . As anybody who has read McGrath's earlier book will know she is an author with a quietly impressive command of character. Edie is a heroine with whom it is extremely easy to identify, however alien her lifestyle will be to most of us. Yet the author's real skill is in the astonishing evocation of the frigid landscape, along with the sharply conjured details of Inuit life. What's more, McGrath is able to keep all these elements satisfyingly balanced, even as the tormented past of Edie begins to invade the present. The burying of secrets in both the physical and metaphorical sense in a snowbound landscape is hardly a new idea but McGrath makes us feel we are encountering it for the first time. This is turning into a series that readers will want to follow with close attention’ Barry Forshaw, Daily Express

‘Outstanding . . . McGrath has a firm grasp on a little known culture, its values and language, and excels at bringing to life such characters as conniving Anchorage mayor Chuck Hillingberg and his power-hungry wife, Marsha. This affecting novel should melt even the most frozen human hearts’ Starred Publishers Weekly review