The first Nathan Active mystery

Born to a poor Inupiat girl in Chukchi, Alaska, north of the Arctic Circle, State Trooper Nathan Active was adopted and raised by a white family in Anchorage. Now, an unwelcome job reassignment has returned him to the stark, beautiful landscape of poverty-stricken Chukchi. Two suspicious suicides in the span of a week and rumors of trouble in the village and at the local copper mine lead Active to believe there is a killer at large. As a nalauqmiiyaaq, or someone regarded by the community as “halfwhite,” he must fight for every clue before the killer strikes again.

In the small Alaskan village of Chukchi, state trooper Nathan Active questions the odds of two suicides occurring in a matter of days. The two men were indeed murdered, but what was the motive and who killed them?

Praise for White Sky, Black Ice

“Trooper Active proves such an interesting and likable guide that the selfish reader can’t but hope Nathan won’t get that Anchorage transfer for at least a few more books.”
—The Wall Street Journal

“What will keep readers enthralled are cinematic descriptions of the Alaskan wilderness and an unvarnished portrayal of life among the Inupiat . . . It’s a harsh existence, but one that Jones infuses with warmth, humanity and not a little magic. I can’t wait for Nathan Active’s next adventure.”
—Chicago Tribune

“You can feel the bite of the west wind that comes screaming across the Alaska tundra and sense the isolation of the Inupiat Eskimos who live in this desolate part of the far north.”
—The New York Times Book Review

“Active’s struggle between the cultures of the colonized (and his own internalized prejudice) and the colonizer provides an interesting twist to White Sky, Black Ice, a mystery steeped in land and culture.”
—The Bloomsbury Review


Praise for the Nathan Active mysteries

"Robust . . . Active maintains his awe of the vast Alaskan tundra, a forbidding region that Jones renders in all its bone-chilling beauty."
—The New York Times Book Review

"Jones captures in precise detail . . . The starkly individual spirit of thi village's collection of characters . . . His depiction of a freezing world of tarpaper houses and whaling camps is absolutely convincing."
—Houston Chronicle