When a mysterious trapper is murdered, his neighbor’s son disappears and is suspected of the deed.  The Company (which runs just about everything in Canada's Northern Territory in 1867) sends the hapless Donald Moody to investigate.  This is a complex and engrossing tale of human passion and folly, highlighted by the rigors of a wilderness being systematically despoiled.  The characters are distinctive, their portraits startling and incisive, and the writing is fluid and beautifully detailed.