White Heat is a chilling read

 
Edie Kiglatuk is an Inuit hunter with a sideline in guiding tourists around Craig Island, north of the Arctic Circle. A devotee of Buster Keaton, who did all his own stunts, she insists on investigating the death of a foreign man that the local authorities quickly dismiss as an accident.

Other deaths soon follow - including that of her stepson, who appears to have popped too many pills. Edie's blood is up and nothing is going to stop her discovering the remarkable truth.

Given the title - and the fact that the action takes place on top of the world - you would expect Melanie McGrath (using her initials to distinguish her first crime novel from such excellent non-fiction works as Silvertown) to be a fan of James Cagney. However, White Heat most resembles Peter Høeg's 1993 novel, Miss Smilla's Feeling For Snow.

Those who have read it will get a distinct feeling of déjà lu. Those who haven't will enjoy the outlandish plot, plentiful action and perhaps even the mountain of detail about the Inuit way of life. Whole pages reek of research rapture: "Eighty-three per cent of suicides were of young people under 30 and 85 per cent of them male." Still, "uhuupimanga" is a useful way of calling someone a lump of sperm without getting thumped.