Penney, Stef

Seventeen-year-old Francis Ross disappears the same day his mother discovers the body of his friend Laurent Jammet, sending Mrs. Ross and a half-Indian trapper named William Parkeron on a journey across the frozen landscape to find the murderer, her son, and two sisters who went missing years before.

Small-time private detective Ray Lovell lies delirious in a hospital bed. Before he had the accident that landed him in the hospital, he had been hired to find Rose Janko, the estranged daughter of a traveling Romany family. Because he is half Romany himself, he is aware that he was hired because of that and is surprised at the hostility he has encountered from the Jankos as the case progressed. As he struggles to get better he wonders if they're hiding a terrible secret connected to Rose's disappearance.

Seventeen-year-old Francis Ross disappears the same day his mother discovers the body of his friend Laurent Jammet, sending Mrs. Ross and a half-Indian trapper named William Parkeron a journey across the frozen landscape to find the murderer, her son, and two sisters who went missing years before.