White Sky, Black Ice

Alaska State Trooper Nathan Active was born in a remote town to an Inupiaq mother, but was raised in Anchorage by adoptive parents. Ironically, he ends up posted to Chukchi, the town of his birth and where his birth mother still lives. He's doing everything he can to earn a promotion out of there. He's not sure whether his current case will help or hurt his chances for promotion. When two Inupiat men die within hours of each other, apparent suicides, Active's gut tells him there's something wrong. He soon learns that the men had something in common, and that's enough to trigger a murder investigation.

I found a lot to like in this series debut. I like mysteries with unusual settings, and northern Alaska qualifies as unusual. Nathan has a show more lot of potential as the central character of a crime series. He has a lot of confidence in his professional skills and training, but he has some insecurities in his personal life. He lives in a tension between two cultures – the Inupiat culture of his birth mother and the white majority culture of his adoptive family. He feels a bit like an outsider in both cultures. He's also resisting his attraction to a native co-worker, since he has ambitions beyond the confines of Chukchi. I'll be looking for more books in this series to see how his life and his career develop. show less

Trooper Nathan Active! Sounds like a sci-fi superhero! Actually he's a young Alaskan State Trooper, who is also a Inupiaq (an Eskimo is a lesser term). He is stationed in a small village called Chukchi and he is investigating a double suicide. Both men died in separate incidents but in exactly the same manner. Were the deaths self-inflicted, pre-meditated murder or the work of a shaman's curse? Jones, an Alaskan native, captures the culture vividly and honestly. This is the first of a mystery series and one I will gladly continue. Question: Why does crime fiction and frigid winter climes, work so well together? I'm not sure but it's a perfect fit!

White Sky, Black Ice by Stan Jones is the first Nathan Active mystery.
Nathan Active is an Alaskan state trooper who's recently been sent from
Anchorage to the remote village of Chukchi somewhere around the Arctic
Circle. Most of the 2500 inhabitants of Chukchi are Inupiat--the people most
of us call Eskimos. Although alcoholism and suicide rates are very high in
Chukchi, it is unusual for two people to commit suicide within days of each
other, and this rarity has Active suspicious.

For someone like me whose idea of hell is anyplace cold, you'd think I'd
steer clear of mysteries set in the Arctic Circle, but I really enjoyed this
book. There is a small glossary in the front that helps with pronunciation
of Inupiaq words. From Jones's show more descriptions, most of the buildings in
Chukchi seem to be constructed of plywood, and since the warmest
temperatures during the timeframe of this book seemed to be below zero, I'm
glad I was sitting out in the pool when I read most of it! LOL

Strong writing, characterization and plotting combined with immersion into
an unfamiliar land and culture made for a very enjoyable reading experience. show less

White Sky, Black Ice by Stan Jones is a mystery set in a small rural town, Chukchi, in northwest Alaska. Getting around often involves using a "snowgo" (snowmobile to me) or light airplane. Alaskan state trooper Nathan Active is a native Inupiat whose young mother gave him up for adoption by white teachers. Now he's back in Chukchi by assignment. The opening of the nearby Gray Wolf mine has caused unemployment to drop, and over-drinking and domestic violence to diminish. Then two men turn up dead, apparently by self-inflicted gunshot wounds. Given the prevalence of suicide in the area and a local curse, their suicides are quickly accepted by everyone but Nathan. Some of the circumstances don't make sense to him, and as he presses the show more questioning, connections start being made. Meanwhile, he's an eligible bachelor whose status the town women seek to change. He finds himself attracted to one in particular, and fights to keep from being distracted from solving what puzzles him about the deaths.

This was a fun read set in a well-rendered and unusual location. Nathan is a straight-shooter well-equipped to handle larger forces at work. I've already picked up the second Nathan Active mystery. Many thanks to LTer Mamie, who recommended this one a little while ago. show less

In the remote Alaskan village of Chukchi, state trooper Nathan Action, who was born Iñupiat but fostered by white parents, is struggling to come to terms with his own background, his feelings about the people and culture of Chukchi, and trying to figure out if a series of strange suicides are in fact something else entirely. I had a little bit of a hard time in the beginning getting a grip on the character, possibly because he isn't very comfortable with himself, but once the actual police procedural starts, the story hits the right pace. In addition to the mystery part, which is rather clever and only somewhat easy to guess, I did enjoy the parts about Iñupiat culture and traditions and found the discussions about old life versus new show more very poignant. A big part of enjoyment of the story is that it feels completely authentic - the descriptions of the people and landscape are beautiful, raw, and sometimes very, very sad. show less

I picked this one up as a Kindle deal for a mere $1.99, and it was worth every penny. Set in the village of Chukchi in Alaska, Nathan Active is an Alaskan State Trooper who happens to be Inupiat by birth. He was raised by white parents who adopted him but kept in touch with his birth mother, who was just fifteen when he was born. He has returned to the village he was born in to work, with the goal of getting transferred back to Anchorage, where he was raised and grew up. So he is an outsider in his own hometown, and now he has two apparent suicides that look suspicious only to him on his hands. With his boss out of town, Nathan is forced to take matters into his own hands, and this is where things get interesting. I liked Nathan, and I show more loved the setting and the supporting cast of this book. Nathan doesn't always play by the rules and he is not afraid to take chances, which make for an entertaining story. Fast paced and intelligent, this mystery holds up from beginning to end. This is the first book in a series that currently has five entries. I have already requested the next book from the library. show less

The first book in Stan Jones's Nathan Active series has the task of painting a picture of who Nathan Active is. The character development is slow in regards to Active's personality. Jones spends a lot of time building the backstory of Active's adoption after his fifteen year old Inupiat mother gave him up. He was raised by a white couple in Anchorage and grew up to be a state trooper. Here's the rub: he has been posted back in his little birth village of Chukchi where he feels torn between the cultures of his upbringing and the traditions in his blood. He's an obvious outsider, being raised in the big city. But when atypical suicides start happening one right after the other Active decides to listen to his ancestral roots and dig in.