cook_memorial_public_library's review against another edition
4.0
Recommended by Susie. Check our catalog: http://encore.cooklib.org/iii/encore/search/C__Sbone%20seeker%20mcgrath__Orightresult__U?lang=eng&suite=pearl
tasmanian_bibliophile's review against another edition
3.0
‘That Friday afternoon in late July was the last time Edie Kiglatuk saw Martha Salliaq alive.’
This novel is set on Ellesmere Island in the Canadian Arctic. Edie Kiglatuk is working as a summer schoolteacher. When Martha Salliaq, one of her students is found dead in nearby Lake Turngaluk, Edie is determined to find out the truth. Edie seeks help from Police Sergeant Derek Palliser and together they investigate what is quickly shown to be a brutal murder. The girl’s Inuit family is devastated, and deeply suspicious. Suspicion falls on the soldiers at a nearby military camp.
Lake Turngaluk is toxic and is scheduled to be cleaned up after a long campaign. As the investigation into Martha’s murder continues, the Department of Defence takes an interest. Sonia Gutierrez, the lawyer who has championed the clean-up, wonders if Martha’s death is part of a larger conspiracy. Efforts are made to shut down the investigation, and Edie, Sonia and Derek are in danger.
‘People call it the bone seeker.’
This is a complex, multi-layered mystery which contains many uncomfortable truths. Solving Martha’s murder sheds light on government cover-ups and exploitation of the local Inuit community. While Edie and Derek are both regarded as outsiders, they manage to gain the trust of at least some of the local Inuit.
The environment, with the endless days of summer, is a key part of the story. This is the third (and I believe final) book in this series by Ms McGrath. I hope to read the first two. The world described is utterly foreign to me, and Ms McGrath bring it to life.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
This novel is set on Ellesmere Island in the Canadian Arctic. Edie Kiglatuk is working as a summer schoolteacher. When Martha Salliaq, one of her students is found dead in nearby Lake Turngaluk, Edie is determined to find out the truth. Edie seeks help from Police Sergeant Derek Palliser and together they investigate what is quickly shown to be a brutal murder. The girl’s Inuit family is devastated, and deeply suspicious. Suspicion falls on the soldiers at a nearby military camp.
Lake Turngaluk is toxic and is scheduled to be cleaned up after a long campaign. As the investigation into Martha’s murder continues, the Department of Defence takes an interest. Sonia Gutierrez, the lawyer who has championed the clean-up, wonders if Martha’s death is part of a larger conspiracy. Efforts are made to shut down the investigation, and Edie, Sonia and Derek are in danger.
‘People call it the bone seeker.’
This is a complex, multi-layered mystery which contains many uncomfortable truths. Solving Martha’s murder sheds light on government cover-ups and exploitation of the local Inuit community. While Edie and Derek are both regarded as outsiders, they manage to gain the trust of at least some of the local Inuit.
The environment, with the endless days of summer, is a key part of the story. This is the third (and I believe final) book in this series by Ms McGrath. I hope to read the first two. The world described is utterly foreign to me, and Ms McGrath bring it to life.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
wordnerdy's review against another edition
3.0
http://wordnerdy.blogspot.com/2014/07/2014-book-156.html
nicolepeck's review against another edition
4.0
7/16/14 - Won this on Goodreads.
8/12/14 - Received this a week plus ago.
11/19/14 - Took me a while to read this book that I won here on Goodreads because it's in a series and I have this OCD thing about reading books in a series out of order and it took me a bit to track down the first 2 books, so my library only had the 1st book and, again, that OCD thing, so I had to find the 2nd one so I could read them in order. LOL However, that said, I'm really glad that I won this book and that I was able to read the 3 (so far) books in this series. I'm a huge fan of mysteries and this is different than the more "popular" mysteries out there.
The title is a red herring, at least it was to me, and it ends up there are 2 different but connected plots going on. It'll be interesting to see how far with this series the author is able to go in such an isolated setting (though, yes, the 2nd book took place in Alaska and this one took place in Derek's Kuujuaq instead of Edie's Autisaq, where the 1st one took place). I also keep thinking the author's going to steer Edie and Derek into more of a relationship, but Sammy keeps being a strong part of her life and they don't, after all, live in the same town. I had hopes for more at the end of this one when Derek asked her something, but Edie squashed those hopes pretty quickly. As much as I don't like the cold and as isolated and desolate the Arctic sounds, these books make me want to go there and see the environment and scenery Edie and Derek live in, although, I freely admit, I don't want to eat their food (blood soup anyone?).
Well written, entertaining, thought provoking, and extremely interesting.
Content: Some intense situations but nothing violent or graphic. Strong language in some spots (F bomb).
8/12/14 - Received this a week plus ago.
11/19/14 - Took me a while to read this book that I won here on Goodreads because it's in a series and I have this OCD thing about reading books in a series out of order and it took me a bit to track down the first 2 books, so my library only had the 1st book and, again, that OCD thing, so I had to find the 2nd one so I could read them in order. LOL However, that said, I'm really glad that I won this book and that I was able to read the 3 (so far) books in this series. I'm a huge fan of mysteries and this is different than the more "popular" mysteries out there.
The title is a red herring, at least it was to me, and it ends up there are 2 different but connected plots going on. It'll be interesting to see how far with this series the author is able to go in such an isolated setting (though, yes, the 2nd book took place in Alaska and this one took place in Derek's Kuujuaq instead of Edie's Autisaq, where the 1st one took place). I also keep thinking the author's going to steer Edie and Derek into more of a relationship, but Sammy keeps being a strong part of her life and they don't, after all, live in the same town. I had hopes for more at the end of this one when Derek asked her something, but Edie squashed those hopes pretty quickly. As much as I don't like the cold and as isolated and desolate the Arctic sounds, these books make me want to go there and see the environment and scenery Edie and Derek live in, although, I freely admit, I don't want to eat their food (blood soup anyone?).
Well written, entertaining, thought provoking, and extremely interesting.
Content: Some intense situations but nothing violent or graphic. Strong language in some spots (F bomb).
beckylej's review against another edition
3.0
Edie is spending the nightless summer in Kuujuaq as an interim teacher for the local school. It's supposed to be a break from her home and the memories of her ex stepson's all too recent death. When one of her students goes missing and is later discovered gruesomely murdered, Edie once again gets drawn into the investigation. This time it's at the request of her friend Derek Palliser. With the only other officer in Kuujuaq off for training, the force is grossly unequipped to deal with a murder. His reinforcements - the medical examiner and forensics "team" tasked with the territory are unavailable and Derek knows that every lost minute could be detrimental to such an investigation. What's worse, the locals are all certain the killer is a soldier from the nearby base. The longer Derek takes in solving this one means increased bad blood between the townsfolks and the outsiders.
I was pretty excited to return to Edie after THE BOY IN THE SNOW. Before this I hadn't actually read any of the series I'd consider comparable (the Alaska based ones, that is). But even those are Alaska and to my knowledge there aren't any series featuring Inuit. (Flavorwire mentions Smilla of SMILLA'S SENSE OF SNOW as being part Inuit, which I'd forgotten.) All in all, though, M.J. McGrath's series has a definite exotic flavor considering the setting.
As with THE BOY IN THE SNOW, McGrath does a fine job yet again of placing the reader smack dab in the center of this setting. This time it's a quite unforgiving part of the Canadian Arctic. And in the middle of summer with 24 hour sun (though the character's complaints of hot 10 degree C weather - which is about 43 F - made my jaw drop. I'm NOT made for cold weather climate!).
This is a little bit of an issue-y book but it wasn't overwhelmingly so. The incident that inspired part of the plot is outlined a bit in McGrath's afterword and is a nasty bit of history indeed. There's also a lot of attention paid to the relations between the people of Ellesmere and outsiders, which ties directly into the subplot. I've not actually mentioned it in the above synopsis, I think I'll leave it for you to discover, but it's definitely an element that makes THE BONE SEEKER intriguing from the very start.
One thing I did have a bit of trouble with in this third of the series was a series of sections that seemed to be fairly unnecessary to the overall plot. The appearance of Sammy, for example, did little in the way of helping the story move along. I wasn't even sure why he was there except to possibly add a little emotional turmoil for Edie (though I think she had enough otherwise).
THE BONE SEEKER is fairly well executed and thoroughly gripping. Like THE BOY IN THE SNOW, THE BONE SEEKER can work quite well for someone new to the series. Do know, however, that there are more mentions of the incidents from WHITE HEAT so if you were to go back to that first book later you'd have a handful of those plot points in hand already.
I was pretty excited to return to Edie after THE BOY IN THE SNOW. Before this I hadn't actually read any of the series I'd consider comparable (the Alaska based ones, that is). But even those are Alaska and to my knowledge there aren't any series featuring Inuit. (Flavorwire mentions Smilla of SMILLA'S SENSE OF SNOW as being part Inuit, which I'd forgotten.) All in all, though, M.J. McGrath's series has a definite exotic flavor considering the setting.
As with THE BOY IN THE SNOW, McGrath does a fine job yet again of placing the reader smack dab in the center of this setting. This time it's a quite unforgiving part of the Canadian Arctic. And in the middle of summer with 24 hour sun (though the character's complaints of hot 10 degree C weather - which is about 43 F - made my jaw drop. I'm NOT made for cold weather climate!).
This is a little bit of an issue-y book but it wasn't overwhelmingly so. The incident that inspired part of the plot is outlined a bit in McGrath's afterword and is a nasty bit of history indeed. There's also a lot of attention paid to the relations between the people of Ellesmere and outsiders, which ties directly into the subplot. I've not actually mentioned it in the above synopsis, I think I'll leave it for you to discover, but it's definitely an element that makes THE BONE SEEKER intriguing from the very start.
One thing I did have a bit of trouble with in this third of the series was a series of sections that seemed to be fairly unnecessary to the overall plot. The appearance of Sammy, for example, did little in the way of helping the story move along. I wasn't even sure why he was there except to possibly add a little emotional turmoil for Edie (though I think she had enough otherwise).
THE BONE SEEKER is fairly well executed and thoroughly gripping. Like THE BOY IN THE SNOW, THE BONE SEEKER can work quite well for someone new to the series. Do know, however, that there are more mentions of the incidents from WHITE HEAT so if you were to go back to that first book later you'd have a handful of those plot points in hand already.
lizdesole's review against another edition
4.0
Thanks to Goodreads Giveaways for this book.
If you are looking for a fast paced mystery, this is definitely the wrong book for you. However, given the setting of the high Arctic, this glacial pace (pun intended) worked for me. The real star of the book is the place. The descriptions of the Arctic as well as the way people live there were immensely satisfying for me. This was particularly a great escape to read in the middle of an East Coast heat wave. I felt cooler just reading it.
The characters are a bit underdeveloped but somehow that worked for me as well because the place descriptions were so lush.
The mystery itself had an unsatisfying resolution but I liked that the red herrings had an even bigger importance to the life of the area ( a soupcon of political/ environmental issues)
If you are looking for a fast paced mystery, this is definitely the wrong book for you. However, given the setting of the high Arctic, this glacial pace (pun intended) worked for me. The real star of the book is the place. The descriptions of the Arctic as well as the way people live there were immensely satisfying for me. This was particularly a great escape to read in the middle of an East Coast heat wave. I felt cooler just reading it.
The characters are a bit underdeveloped but somehow that worked for me as well because the place descriptions were so lush.
The mystery itself had an unsatisfying resolution but I liked that the red herrings had an even bigger importance to the life of the area ( a soupcon of political/ environmental issues)
mctmama's review against another edition
4.0
I received a copy of this in Kindle form from Net Galley. If you liked the previous Edie Kiglatuk mysteries, you will probably enjoy this one as well. I liked it, but found it a bit hard to believe at the end. I still enjoy the Arctic setting, and learning about the customs of the natives of the high Arctic area. I did read the portion of the book where McGrath explains about nuclear testing and different cover-ups of the United States government, so perhaps the premise is not so far fetched!
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