Dead North: Summary and book reviews of Dead North by Sue Henry, plus links to an excerpt from Dead North and a biography of Sue Henry.

What was once the home of champion Alaskan "musher" Jessie Arnold is now a pile of charred logs and ashes. With her life in pieces, she gratefully accepts a friend's proposal that she drive his RV up from Idaho, along a two-thousand-mile-long road that winds past glaciers and glass-blue lakes, hot springs and breathtaking wilderness: the Alaska Highway. With her lead sled dog, Tank, along for the ride, Jessie sets out from the Lower Forty-Eight, sharing the journey with new friends she encounters along the way. One of them, Maxie, a colorful senior citizen living life at full throttle, makes the miles melt away. But it's Patrick Cutler who brings terror aboard. Jessie offers the hungry, frightened teenager shelter, a compassionate ear, and a ride. But at Jasper National Park, he disappears. Suddenly police are swarming around Jessie and Maxie, searching for the runaway in connection with two shocking murders. Jessie's instincts are telling her that Patrick is innocent, but her concern, linked with a determined need to uncover the truth, has plunged her and her elderly companion into the deadly center of a crazed blood vendetta. There are dark secrets in the boy's past that could have devastating -- perhaps fatal -- consequences for anyone who unearths them. Because, stalked victim or murderous maniac, Patrick Cutler is a lightning rod for violence and death. And now Jessie is a target -- a traveler on a cold and empty wilderness road that could be leading her not to her home...but to her grave. Once again, the remarkable Sue Henry brilliantly evokes a magnificent northern landscape -- and chills the blood with a riveting tale of suspicion, suspense, and lives found and lost on an unforgettable journey.

Media Reviews

Cleveland Plain-Dealer Henry revels in the wilderness of Alaskan scenery and keeps the tension mounting...a fine adventure.   Publishers Weekly This is one of Henry's best if not the best, because characters, not a dog team, drive the plot.... This book, with its stunning locale, will appeal to armchair travelers and readers interested in Alaska, as well as Henry's usual fans.   Booklist .... a tough mystery, compelling characters, vivid scenery, endearing dogs, and a breakneck pace. Paradoxically, the fast-moving narrative sometimes seems to undermine Henry's strengths as a writer, drawing our attention away from her characters and use of landscape in a frantic push toward the climactic showdown.

Recent Reader Reviews

Rated of 5 by CotHound
Like Jessie Arnold, I had many questions and not enought answers...
I enjoyed reading this book as I have other Sue Henry books. That being said, I need to say that this book Dead North was just as cornball as the others with a totally implausible plot line. Characters take actions that do not make any sense....   Read More

Rated of 5 by Rebecca Hannum Age: 17
Suspense
Thank you for your novel about the Alaskan Highway! I traveled the highway over the summer of 2006 and It was as interesting as you had said in the novel yet nothing that tragic happened. I love the way that you told the story and had me sitting on...   Read More

Rated of 5 by Thomas Lyle
this is a great book and I recomend everyone to read it

Rated of 5 by lee ann martinsen
what a great trip you travel on in the novel.. i wanted to learn more about the alaskan highway, and want to travel it some day. since i have read other novels by sue henry, i was in suspense until the last sentence, wondering what twists the...   Read More

Rated of 5 by Terry G. Lacy
A slow pleasant start that picks up the pace and becomes a furious chase - I couldn't put it down.
Thank you once again, Sue Henry.

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