An Unforgiving Place

September 15, 2022
In remote Alaska, a National Park Service investigator links two mysterious deaths to the enigmatic leader of a fertility cult. Though she's on vacation from her Investigative Services Branch detail in Alaska's Denali National Park, Felicity Harland is called in for a case that brings her to the remote Gates of the Arctic National Park, above the Arctic Circle. ISB needs to investigate two bodies found along the park's Alatna River. Could they be those of missing hikers Kelsey and Tim Greer? Harland asks her sometime partner Ferdinand "Hux" Huxley to join her, hopeful that both his meticulous eye for detail and his past as a Navy SEAL will help. Plus, at this point, she enjoys Hux's company, which manages to be companionable without asking anything of her. It doesn't take Harland and Hux long to determine that something is amiss with the bodies, which appear to be those of two people who willingly embraced death. Clearly that's not right, but what does it mean? Listening to folks more familiar with the area leads Harland and Hux to believe the deaths may relate to a local fertility group, a cultish cadre of long-term campers led by the enigmatic Zane Reynolds. Tracking down the group is quite a feat, but more difficulties stem from Harland and Hux's decision to pose as a long-term couple in order to infiltrate it. Their investigation threatens to cross the boundaries of safety as well as the personal and professional lines they've been so careful to establish. Will it change their relationship in ways that can't be changed back? Emphasizing personal details over the case marks a definite shift in this parks-focused series.

COPYRIGHT(2022) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.