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A Gift Before Dying

About the Book

A Gift Before Dying

In a hauntingly atmospheric novel set against the unforgiving landscape of the Arctic Circle, a disgraced police investigator discovers that his path to redemption is paved with ice --- and blood.

After a botched high-profile murder investigation, Corporal Elderick Cole is exiled to the remote, rugged landscape of Nunavut, a vast territory in the Arctic Circle known for its untamed beauty, frigid temperatures, and endless winter nights. With his family having severed all ties, Cole waits out the result of a civil lawsuit alone --- the wrong verdict could end what’s left of his flailing career.

His bleak existence takes a sinister turn when he discovers the hanging body of Pitseolala, a troubled Inuit girl whom he had sworn to protect. Her death dredges up demons he thought he’d buried along with the scars of a fractured marriage and the aching divide between him and his estranged daughter.

As Cole’s life unravels --- and with it, the fragile thread of his investigation, he turns to Pitseolala’s younger brother, Maliktu, a fellow outsider. It’s then that Cole uncovers what binds them --- a singular mission to find her killer.

Against fierce backlash, Cole’s overriding desire to redeem just one aspect of his otherwise failed life becomes an obsession --- and he’s willing to break every rule in his unyielding pursuit of justice and the smallest shred of redemption.

A Gift Before Dying
by Malcolm Kempt

  • Publication Date: January 20, 2026
  • Genres: Fiction, Mystery
  • Hardcover: 272 pages
  • Publisher: Crown
  • ISBN-10: 0593801008
  • ISBN-13: 9780593801000