I really enjoyed this mystery set in the far north which stars an Inuk RCMP officer, Matteesie Kitologitak. Scott Young seems to have done his research well because I found his descriptions of tracking, camping and travelling at minus 30 degree Celsius temperatures to be very believable.

When I described Matteesie as an RCMP officer that wasn't quite correct because at the start of the book he is working on assignment with Northern Affairs but he dons his RCMP hat when the commissioner asks him to help investigate a missing plane. The plane is piloted by the son of the Finance Minister and it went out of radio contact while on a charter flight from Inuvik where Matteesie happens to be visiting. As Matteesie boards a flight to the search area around Fort Norman an old friend, Morton Cavendish, is carried on by stretcher to be flown to Edmonton for medical attention after a severe stroke. Then at Norman Wells a man forces his way onto the plane and shoots Morton point blank then escapes on a snowmobile. Although Matteesie is told to leave the murder investigation to the local officers he decides that he has to try to find the murderer as well as the downed plane. That's all to the good because it soon becomes apparent that the two mysteries are interwoven.

Matteesie is not a conventional hero. He's short, dumpy, drinks a little too much and cheats on his wife. For all that, I couldn't help but like him. Other characters in the book are "as refreshing as a northern wind", as the front leaf says. I particularly liked "No Legs" Manicoche, a trapper who lost his legs to frostbite when he was too drunk to know to come inside. Since then he hasn't touched a drop of liquor and he goes out on his trap line on a little sled powered by ski poles. He credits the murdered man, Morton Cavendish, with encouraging him to start trapping after he lost his legs and thus saving his life. So he has a score to settle with the murderer and Matteesie is thankful for the help.

It's too bad Young didn't write more of these mysteries but I'm glad I had the chance to read them. ( )

First Line:The air terminal at Inuvik has comfortable chairs and some nice Arctic art on the walls and usually a lot more empty space than passengers, so it is not exactly O'Hare, but it's not Tuktoyaktuk either.

Inspector Matthew "Matteesie" Kitologitak of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police is one of the few Inuit officers to make it past the "token" level. For quite some time, he's been on loan to the deputy minister of Northern Affairs in the Canadian government, so it comes as a bit of a surprise when his old RCMP superior manages to get him back so Matteesie can investigate the disappearance of a small plane suspected of carrying members of a drug ring.

Matteesie hasn't even had a chance to investigate when he witnesses the murder of a very powerful local man. While going through the cast of characters, he spots a connection between the two cases, and it boils down to locating the suspects and gathering the evidence.

For me, the first person narrative didn't quite work in this book. Although Matteesie was an excellent guide through the Arctic landscape and very good at describing the other characters, he kept me at a distance, and I never really felt as though I got to know him.

The mysteries of the missing plane and the murdered man weren't particularly suspenseful, but their solutions kept me guessing until almost the end.

The star of this book is the Arctic landscape and how to survive out in it. Matteesie traveled by snowmobile, dog sled and bush plane through a frigid and alien landscape. While he traveled, I learned why old-timers prefer dog sleds to snowmobiles (if the snowmobile breaks down and you're stuck and starving, you can't skin and eat a snowmobile), just what survival gear is mandatory for any sort of travel, and that it's wise to leave your vehicle running in the Arctic cold. If you switch off the ignition, the vehicle may never start again. That's just the tip of the iceberg for all the things I learned.

In reading Murder in a Cold Climate, the author's love of the landscape came through loud and clear, but the story and the characters were not as strong as the setting. ( )