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Critics' Opinion:
Readers' Opinion:
First Published:
Dec 2009, 352 pages
Paperback:
Jan 2011, 352 pages
Book Reviewed by:
Cindy Anderson
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Alaska State Trooper Nathan Active must figure out what connects a dead hunter on a remote Arctic lake with a deadly series of events.
Alaska State Trooper Nathan Active must figure out what connects a dead hunter on a remote Arctic lake with a year-old fatal plane crash in the Brooks Range and a fire at the Chukchi Recreation Center that killed eight people, including the town's basketball star. The case turns out to involve a lucrative polar bear poaching operation and the intense bond between a brother and sister from the village of Cape Goodwin, famous in the Arctic for twins, polar bears, and schizophrenia. The heart of the matter, he discovers, is a dead woman whose killer remembers her as having a mouth so sweet "it was like kissing a Hershey bar."
Chapter One
“See why they call it One-Way Lake?”
Cowboy Decker rolled the Super Cub into a slow arc as
Alaska State Trooper Nathan Active peered over Grace
Palmer’s shoulder. One-Way Lake was a blue teardrop
cupped in the foothills of the Brooks Range, with caribou
trails lacing the ridges on either side. The outlet, One-
Way Creek, lined with stunted black spruce and a few
cottonwoods gone gold, threaded south across the rusting
fall tundra toward the Isignaq River. At the lake’s head,
wavelets licked a fan-shaped talus under a steep slope of
gray-brown shale. More caribou trails cut across its face.
Grace was wearing the intercom headset, so Active was
obliged to shout at the back of the pilot’s head. “Looks
pretty tight,” he said.
“Yep,” Cowboy shouted back. “One way in, one way
out. You land toward the cliff and take off going away.”
Active lifted one of the headset cups away from Grace’s
ear. “What ...
The series has many fans, and for good reason. The novel isn't just a mystery about who started a fatal fire, it's also a source of insight into the lives and culture of Native Americans in Northwest Alaska... If you have enjoyed the previous books, you will probably enjoy this one. If you are new to the series, and want to learn about Inupiat culture through these books, I recommend starting with one of the earlier books so that you don't feel too lost in the beginning of this volume...continued
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(Reviewed by Cindy Anderson).
In Village of the Ghost Bears, Trooper Nathan Active and his fellow law enforcement personnel must discuss the problem of polar bear poaching, because at least one of the suspects in the arson/murder has been involved in the illegal trade of selling polar bear gallbladders to China...
The Value of Bear Gallbladders
As the book correctly explains, gallbladder bile is highly prized in Chinese medicine. It is considered to be a cure for everything from fever and rheumatism to poor eyesight. Illegal trade exists between Alaska and Korea, and between Alaska and Russia (for eventual sale to China), and it is a lucrative enterprise. The Humane Society of America's website states: "The sum of saleable parts can make a dead bear worth in ...
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