The Boy in the Snow

February 25, 2013
In this sequel to 2011’s White Heat, McGrath’s half-Inuit guide Edie Kiglatuk finds herself in Nome, Alaska, helping her ex-husband in the Iditarod dog-sled race. But Edie soon stumbles upon the frozen body of an infant boy lying on the saddle of a snowmobile. Edie and her friend, policeman Derek Palliser, embark on a quest to find the truth behind the baby’s demise. Kate Reading provides clear narration, but over-articulates some of her consonants—notably t and k sounds—in a way that proves distracting. Reading’s rendition of Kiglatuk features the clipped dialect of what is presumably an approximation of an Inuit accent, and the narrator is effective in lending voices to the book’s other characters, including Palliser and the weaselly mayor Chuck Hillingberg. A Viking hardcover.