A Gift Before Dying

‘Hypnotically good – instantly immersive, intense, and ultimately inspiring’ Lee Child, Sunday Times bestselling author of the Jack Reacher series

After a botched high-profile murder investigation, Sergeant Elderick Cole is exiled to the remote, rugged landscape of Nunavut, a vast territory in the Arctic Circle known for its untamed beauty, frigid temperatures, and endless winter nights.

His bleak existence takes a sinister turn when he discovers the hanging body of Pitseolala, a troubled Inuit girl whom he had sworn to protect. Her death dredges up demons he thought he’d buried along with the scars of a fractured marriage and the aching divide between himself and his estranged daughter.

As Cole’s life unravels – and with it, the fragile thread of his investigation – he turns to Pitseolala’s younger brother, Maliktu, a fellow outsider. It’s then that Cole uncovers what binds them: a singular mission to find her killer.

Against fierce backlash, Cole’s overriding desire to redeem just one aspect of his otherwise failed life becomes an obsession – and he’s willing to break every rule in his unyielding pursuit of justice and the smallest shred of redemption.

‘One of the finest debuts of the year’ Donald Ray Pollock, author of The Heavenly Table