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A disgraced investigator.
A frozen town.
A crime no one wants to talk about.

After a botched high-profile murder investigation, Corporal Elderick Cole is exiled to an isolated posting in the remote, rugged landscape of the Arctic Circle known for its untamed beauty, frigid temperatures, and endless winter nights. With his family having severed all ties, Cole waits out the result of a civil lawsuit alone—the wrong verdict could end what’s left of his flailing career.

His bleak existence takes a sinister turn when he discovers the hanging body of Pitseolala, a troubled Inuit girl whom he had sworn to protect. Her death dredges up demons he thought he’d buried along with the scars of a fractured marriage and the aching divide between him and his estranged daughter.

As Cole’s life unravels—and with it, the fragile thread of his investigation, he turns to Pitseolala’s younger brother, Maliktu, a fellow outsider. It’s then that Cole uncovers what binds them—a singular mission to find her killer.

Against fierce backlash, Cole’s overriding desire to redeem just one aspect of his otherwise failed life becomes an obsession—and he’s willing to break every rule in his unyielding pursuit of justice and the smallest shred of redemption.

About The Author
Malcolm Kempt

Malcolm Kempt spent seventeen years working as a criminal lawyer in the remote Arctic before leaving to write full-time.

He won the Percy Janes Award for Best Unpublished Novel in 2023. His debut, A Gift Before Dying, was published by Crown (Penguin Random House) in January 2026. He is represented by Gideon Pine and Richard Pine at Inkwell Management in New York. He lives on the island of Newfoundland.