In the remote, unforgiving expanse of Nunavut, Corporal Eldrick Cole finds himself exiled and isolated after a disastrous high-profile murder investigation.
A GIFT BEFORE DYING
by Malcolm Kempt
Crown, January 2026
After a botched high-profile murder investigation as a cop in Alberta, Corporal Eldrick Cole is exiled to the remote, rugged landscape of Nunavut, Canada, a vast territory in the Arctic Circle known for its untamed beauty, frigid temperatures, and perpetual darkness. Amid these harsh elements, the indomitable spirit of the Inuit people prevails.
Cole’s bleak existence takes a darker turn when he discovers the hanging body of Pitseolala, a wry, troubled sixteen-year-old Inuit girl who had spent countless nights passed out in the detachment cells under his watch. Her battle with addiction 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, whom he abandoned long before he was ousted from Northern Alberta.
As Cole’s life unravels, so does the fragile thread of his lone, faltering inquiry—until he turns to Pitseolala’s younger brother, Maliktu, a fellow outsider, shunned by his community for his burn-scarred face and schizophrenia. It’s then that Cole uncovers what else binds them: the eerie, relentless visitation of Pitseolala’s ghost, haunting them both with a singular mission—to lead them to her killer and, therefore, expose the looming threat to other young women in their sacred hamlet.
Driven by an obsessive need to redeem at least one fragment of his shattered life, Cole defies every rule in his unyielding pursuit of justice for Pitseolala.
Malcolm Kempt worked as a criminal lawyer in the remote Arctic for seventeen years before leaving to write full-time. He won the Percy Janes Award for Best Unpublished Manuscript. He lives on the island of Newfoundland. A GIFT BEFORE DYING is his debut novel.
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