Permafrost

Two friends grew up together in Scotland. One goes missing in Northern Michigan and the other has time on his hands. The hunt for the lost man begins as a mystery and evolves into an act of redemption.

Tom is a wealthy Chicago businessman with too much time on his hands, a man who “displayed impeccable manners and looked earnestly concerned when he had to,” one who “had taken no chances.” Keith is close to homeless and adrift somewhere in northern Michigan. They were friends once, two decades ago, in a working-class Scottish town brought vividly to life in a series of evocative flashbacks.

Now the search to find one brings life-affirming purpose to the other, and Tom will stop at nothing to find his friend and discover the truth behind his disappearance.

An intuition of impending danger proves to be frighteningly accurate as a small lakeside town grudgingly reveals its dark underbelly, in this debut crime novel that Booklist calls “taut . . . captivating . . . skillfully written, and . . . deeply satisfying.”