The book was a suprise winner of the 2006 Book of the Year at the Costa Awards, Britain's most prestigious book awards.
The story revolves around the murder of a French trapper in Canada's Northern Territory in the 1870s. He is discovered by a neighbor, Mrs. Ross, who soon realizes that she has not seen her teenage son, Francis, since just before the time the trapper was killed. Because the town is a Company town (as in the Hudson Bay Company), two representatives are sent to investigate. Mrs. Ross is nervous about the disappearance of her son, but her husband won't go look for him. With the help of a mysterious stranger, she sets out to find him. Trouble is, the stranger is also a suspect. She doesn't know if she can trust him, but he's her only way to find her son. And one of the company men is following their trail. And then there's the mysterious bone carving that brings a once-famous journalist and tracker back to the area, a man with a connection to the local magistrate's family.
There are a lot of subplots involved in this book, and the narrative jumps from different points of view -- Mrs. Ross' narration is the only one in first-person -- so this isn't a light read. But Penney weaves these points of view and stories with skill and beauty. And her descriptions of the Canadian wilderness remind me of Tony Hillerman, author of the the Navajo cop series, and how he makes the landscape of the Southwest a part of the story and his characters. Penney does the same with the frozen forests and plains of the north. The amazing thing is, the British author has never been there. In fact, she was until just a few years ago, agoraphobic. She had to train herself to be able to take the short bus ride to the library to research the book.
Part msytery, part adventure, part romance, this was just an amazing book. Penney is reportedly at work on another book. I'll be looking for that one.
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