First published 2011
Sig discovers his father's body frozen beneath the ice near their remote cabin during the Alaska gold rush. The fourteen-year-old boy must handle this tragedy alone in the wilderness. Hours later, a threatening stranger arrives at the cabin door. The man claims Sig's father stole gold and owes him a share of the treasure. Sig knows about the Colt revolver hidden in the storeroom, but he has never fired a gun. The stranger grows more menacing as he searches for the gold. Sig must decide whether to use the weapon to protect himself. The choice will test everything he believes about right and wrong. In this frozen landscape, a boy confronts the violence that shapes men.
Genres: fiction, 20th-century, adventure, 19th-century
Vibes: dark, emotional, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: coming-of-age, fish-out-of-water, moral-dilemma
Setting: Alaska
Period: Alaska Gold Rush
204 pages · Library Binding · Turtleback Books
Content warnings: death, violence