(originally posted on May 3, 2009)
What a shame that Murphy did not live to see his one and only novel published, and that he was robbed of writing more. His evocation of Canada's most frozen north is strong enough to chill the bones, and his ability to merge multiple mysteries together in seamless fashion is on par with writers of lengthy series backlists. Obviously, this series stops at one, but instead of being sad about what wasn't to be, let's celebrate what was and make a point of reading this particular novel.
