By GILBERT WONG*
As far as state trooper Nathan Active is concerned, Chukchi, his posting in the harsh north of Alaska, is the wops. The town was his birthplace, but he was brought up the adopted son of white parents in the relative civilisation of Anchorage. Do well enough, he
figures, and he can go back to the big smoke and be a city boy again.
After this first outing readers will hope Active remains where he is. The ethnic detective is a hoary fictional device, but in Active we are introduced to an original character and fresh setting that has as its subtext the terrible toll of alcoholism, abuse and low self-esteem that is too often the price indigenous peoples pay for assimilation by the West.
Active is Inupiat, what the politically correct now call Inuit, but speaks only a smattering of his language and is more a creature of the rational West than a product of Inupiat tradition and superstition.
Someone is killing locals who have links to the big mining operation that has brought relative prosperity to Chukchi. As Active doggedly pursues his investigation, we are drawn into an unsentimental, multi-faceted picture of life in small-town Alaska, where the local Inupiats and Western newcomers barely tolerate and rarely fraternise with each other. Active, hampered a little by his unlikely name - Trevor Trueheart or Tom Strong are imaginary alternatives - finds himself the subject of concern by both communities, even as the landscape of his birthplace slowly and coldly seeps into his awareness.
This is a thriller of the first order and quite the best thing about it is that trooper Active does not ever unholster his gun. His best weapon is his brain.
Pocket Books
$19.95
* Gilbert Wong is the Herald books editor.
