The Big Empty

The sixth entry to the Nathan Active Alaskan mystery series.

Evie Kavoonah, a young mother-to-be, and her fiance, Dr. Todd Brenner, are on a short-run flight when their plane runs out of gas and hits the big empty beneath, instantly killing them both. Chukchi State Trooper Nathan Active doubts he’ll find anything amiss when his close friend, Cowboy Decker, asks him to look into the possibility of foul play. But Evie was like a daughter to Cowboy, who trained her to pilot, and he insists there’s no way his protegee made a fatal mistake that day. Nathan reluctantly plays along and discovers that Cowboy’s instincts are correct–the malfunction that led to the crash was carefully planned, and several locals have motives for targeting the pair.

Meanwhile, Nathan’s wife, Gracie, is pregnant, but her memories of domestic abuse in years past trigger such severe trauma that she doesn’t know if she can go through with another childbirth. Nathan must support her and their adopted daughter, Nita, while managing an increasingly complex and dangerous murder case.