What the Aurora Remembers
by Loretta Colton

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Nicky Ryan has been a police officer in Canada’s Northwest Territories for six months when she’s faced with her first homicide investigation. A teenage girl has been maimed, her mother murdered, and her father is the prime suspect. Nicky’s naïve dream of heroic crime-fighting is now up against the reality of life and death in a small Indigenous community. In Fort Gabriel, the wounds of the past still bleed, and white cops from down south are neither trusted nor welcomed. Alison’s mother is dead and her father is in jail. Her aunt Lucy brings her to Yellowknife, where Alison desperately wants solid ground in a world that keeps shifting like melting river ice. Instead, she has to go back to Fort Gabriel to testify. She needs to hide, to find some way to feel safe in her own skin. When she turns to the faith and practices of Islam for that refuge, no one seems to accept or understand it. Nicky’s job is to find out what really happened that night and bring the killer to justice, but she is learning the hard way that being the lesbian rookie on the investigation will only make that job harder for her. Worse, the criminal justice system’s relentless grind can only make everything more painful for Alison, her family, and their community. Can justice be worth the painful cost?

www.lorettacolton.com

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"This successful debut marks a writer to watch." —Kirkus Reviews "In the intriguing series-opening mystery novel What the Aurora Remembers, a rookie officer and a traumatized teenager navigate murder, community, and the long aftermath of violence in Canada’s frozen north... The prose is atmospheric, and the setting is fleshed out with precision." —Foreword Clarion Review

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Loretta Colton worked as a lawyer with Canada’s Department of Justice for 30 years, including nine years as a prosecutor in the Northwest Territories. She now lives in Ottawa. What the Aurora Remembers is her first novel.

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Loretta Colton