Shaman pass

Nathan Active, an Inuit raised by white adoptive parents, has returned to his native town, where he is an Alaska State Trooper. When the murder of a curmudgeonly old Inuit leader is linked to the theft of a mummy slated for display in a new museum, Active finds himself in charge of the case. His investigation takes him back to a nineteenth-century rivalry between an Eskimo social reformer and a powerful shaman and deep into the treacherous, frozen wilderness, where he must find and stop a killer. The suspense is on the tepid side, but Jones' second Nathan Active mystery stands up nicely against Tony Hillerman's books in terms of the richness of its cultural specifics and the easygoing character of its protagonist. From the dialogue peppered with Inupiat terms (Jones leads off with a glossary) to the shivery sense of the bitter cold that permeates every aspect of Alaska life, Jones creates a stunningly authentic sense of Alaskan history and of a culture still in the throes of change. --Stephanie Zvirin

In Jones's stirring, often moving second mystery (after 1999's White Sky, Black Ice), set in Northwest Alaska, trooper Nathan Active must solve the theft of a sacred Inupiat mummy. Well-meaning "naluaqmiut" (white men) at the Smithsonian have sent mummified "Uncle Frosty" to a museum, only to have the body stolen by villagers wishing to respect traditional native funeral customs. When a tribal elder turns up impaled on the mummy's harpoon at his lonely ice-fishing outpost, an extensive investigation follows across a vast barren area. Active tracks down a fascinating series of suspects living in isolated hunting and whaling camps and in squalid igloos, each with an intriguing story to tell. Active soon finds himself caught in a struggle between the fearsome power of "Shamans" (pagan devil doctors) and the legacy of Natchiq, a murdered prophet and social reformer. In time, the trooper and the reader achieve a deeper level of understanding of bygone traditions in a remote society where snowmobiles are replacing dogsleds and young children crave Pokmon cards. Jones skillfully depicts the beauty and desolation of the "treeless tundra" in winter as well as the hardships of survival in one of the world's most hostile climates. In the compelling ending, Active and his posse fly to a remote mountain pass to hunt for Uncle Frosty and his abductor. A handy Inupiat glossary and background history are included. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved