The Big Empty begins with series detective Nathan Active, a public safety officer in Chukchi, Alaska, searching for a plane crash when a local woman pilot and her doctor fiance go missing. The wreckage is easily found and the investigation by federal authorities said it was pilot error. The plane ran out of gas. The pilot who owned the plane and taught the woman pilot who died insisted that she would never have made such a mistake. Moreover, he also checked the gas was full. They found incontrovertible evidence that this was no accident, it was murder.

The investigation centers around the people who work at the airport who had means and opportunity, though it spreads further when another person is murdered.

Meanwhile, Active has stresses at home. His wife Grace is pregnant but unsure she has capacity and strength to be a mother. Their adoptive daughter (there’s more story here) is struggling with gossip in school that adds to her insecurity.

The Big Empty is a good, fair mystery that makes me want to read more in this series. The setting is interesting and the authors succeed in creating a strong sense of place. The characters are sufficiently complex we come to care about them. There are enough red herrings to make it interesting. It is a fair mystery, every clue is available to the reader, there are not forensic results or reports that are delivered with an “Aha!” without telling us. We know what Active knows and we can solve the mystery ourselves.

I received a copy of The Big Empty from the publisher through Edelweiss.

The Big Empty at Soho Crime/Soho Press
Stan Jones author site
Patricia Watts author page at Goodreads

★★★★
https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpress.com/2019/01/02/9781641290029/ ( )

At first glance, the pieces of a small plane scattered against a rugged mountainside and the bright orange hat Evie Kavoonah always wore when she flew suggest there was a terrible but uncomplicated accident that killed the pilot and her fiancé. Even an experienced pilot can overlook something, and when federal investigators finally reach the scene they conclude she simply ran out of gas, a tragic outcome of a happy trip to Fairbanks by a couple who were on their way to pick out an engagement ring.

But Cowboy Decker, who trained Evie as a pilot, is convinced someone deliberately sabotaged the plane. He's so persistent he convinces Chukchi police chief, Nathan Active, to spend some of his vacation time examining the site, and what they find makes him suspicious. Meanwhile, there are other crimes to investigate on his beat, including a suicide that might not be a suicide and a suspect who has decided to turn the tables and become a detective herself.

Active's home life has its complications, too. His adolescent adopted daughter is getting into trouble at school and his wife has just discovered she's pregnant – and she's not sure what to do about it. She's still suffering from a childhood of vicious sexual abuse and is conflicted about motherhood. Active has his own history to cope with, having been adopted out to white parents when his mother was unable to care for him but now wants to have a family relationship. Though this is the sixth installment in a series, newcomers are given enough information to understand the personal relationships and the complex social life of a town in a part of the world that some call the "Big Empty."

The authors' narrative style is straightforward, yet they are able to work into the storyline touches that help readers visualize a remote and harsh part of the world and to learn something about the challenges faced by people who live at the intersection of Inupiat and white settler culture. A helpful glossary of Inupiaq words and an explanation of the multiple meanings of "Eskimo" help readers enjoy the multilingual moments in the dialogue. For those who read for plot, there's plenty to keep their interest, including an ingenious murder method. Altogether, the latest installment of this series does a good job of spinning a mystery in an interesting setting with a understated style that explores but avoids exoticizing the Inupiat community it depicts.

Reposted from Reviewing the Evidence.

Stan Jones' Nathan Active mysteries continue to be my favorite series set in Alaska-- and it's for a multitude of reasons. There's a strong cast of characters from all walks of life. There are intriguing-- and often spine-chilling-- mysteries to solve. The setting of extreme northern Alaska is often a character, and last but not least, the cultural information is fascinating. Each book comes with a short glossary at the beginning which I find extremely useful because part of learning about a culture is learning a bit about the language.

The Big Empty is 50% mystery and 50% the personal life of Nathan Active. At times I found that percentage weighing too heavily on the personal life aspect, but only because I find Nathan's wife annoying. I shouldn't. Grace Active has had horrendous things happen to her in the past, and she's finding it daunting to overcome them. Anyone would, and I applaud Jones for not only having a troubled character like Grace but for dealing with her problems honestly and with great sensitivity.

The mystery is a good one, beginning with discovering what caused the crash and then moving into whodunnit territory. I did find the killer's identity to be a bit too easy to deduce, but getting to the reveal was enjoyable.

If you're a fellow armchair traveler/sleuth who loves solving mysteries in exotic places, you should meet Nathan Active and learn about the culture of the Inupiat. I still remember one book scaring me badly when Nathan went out on the pack ice. Even though you can pick up The Big Empty and read it as a standalone, I recommend starting at the beginning with White Sky, Black Ice. You've got some mighty fine reading ahead of you. ( )