Greenland is a visually stunning place. It has a long history, and its indigenous people have lived there for thousands of years. The climate can be unforgiving, though, and those who live there know to respect the power of nature. It’s a fascinating place, and for a lot of people, it’s a sort of exotic place, too. It’s no wonder, then, that it can be an effective setting for a crime novel. The harsh climate, the different sorts of people who live in Greenland, and its strategic location all combine to make for a compelling story.

For instance, Peter Høeg’s Smilla’s Sense of Snow is the story of Smilla Jaspersen, a Greenlander who’s now living in Copenhagen. One day, a boy who lives in the same building dies from what looks like a tragic fall from the roof. When Smilla looks at the snow on the roof, though, she sees signs that this might not have been an accident. She’s been raised to understand all types of snow, and all the signs that snow offers, so she pays close attention to what she sees. Unsatisfied with the ‘tragic accident’ explanation, she starts to ask questions. The trail leads back to Greenland and to the past. It also leads to some highly-placed people who are hiding important things.

M.J. McGrath’s White Heat is the first novel to feature Edie Kiglatuk, a licensed hunting guide who lives in Canada’s Far North. As the story begins, she is accompanying Felix Wagner and Andy Taylor on a hunting trip when Wagner is fatally shot. Taylor claims he’s not responsible, and there’s a great deal of pressure to put this death down to a tragic accident. Even Edie’s Council of Elders wants her to ‘rubber stamp’ the case as an accident. But she’s not sure this death was an accident. So she starts asking questions. Then, her stepson dies of what’s put down to suicide. Edie doesn’t believe that, either, and his death only has her asking more questions. As part of her investigation, Edie goes to Greenland. She finds that these deaths are related to a much bigger web of international conspiracy.

Christoffer Petersen’s Katabatic features Constable David Maratse. One day Maratse is informed of a bar fight between Aqqalunnguac Lundblad and his brother Frederik, in which Frederik was killed. The narrator of the story is a writer who witnessed the murder. He wants to write about the case, so he asks Maratse to go along as Maratse searches for Lunblad. Maratse agrees and the two set off. The trip is treacherous, and there are a number of weather-related obstacles. There’s also the fact that the two men are going after a murderer who could be armed. As the search continues, we get a look at how unforgiving the terrain and the weather in Greenland can be. We also see how the indigenous people of Greenland have developed ways to deal with the climate. Petersen has written other stories featuring Maratse, as well as another Greenland-based series featuring police detective Petra Jensen.

In Erica Ferencik’s Girl in Ice, linguist Valerie ‘Val’ Chesterfield travels to a remote station in Greenland. It’s the same station where her twin brother, Andy, supposedly committed suicide while he was there doing research. Val is still devastated by his death, but she goes at the request of Wyatt Speeks, a climate researcher who worked with Andy. It seems the scientists have found a young girl frozen in ice. She’s still alive, but she speaks a language that no-one at the research station understands. Val is a specialist in Old Danish and other dead Nordic languages, so it’s hoped that she can understand what the girl is saying. Val has a hidden agenda; she also has more questions than answers about Andy’s death, and she wants to find out what really happened to him. Among other things, this book shows the importance of Greenland as a bellwether of what’s happening with our climate.

There’s also Mads Peder Norbo’s The Girl Without Skin. Matthew Cave is a Danish journalist. He’s deep in grief over the loss of his pregnant wife, and still having nightmares about it. He is sent to Nuuk, in Greenland, to cover a fascinating story. The body of a mummified Viking corpse has been discovered, and Cave is asked to report on it. But the next day, the mummy goes missing, and the police officer who was guarding the mummy is found brutally murdered. The murder is similar to a set of murders that happened in the1970s.  Could it be a serial killer who’s at work again? A copycat? Or something else. It’s not long before Cave finds that the local police cannot be trusted, so he’ll have to go it alone. But that will put him in a great deal of danger.

Life on Greenland isn’t easy. But it’s a fascinating place with its own wild beauty. And its danger and beauty, along with the ways of the people who’ve always lived there, can add to stories set there.

ps Thanks, Kayak, for the lovely photo!

*NOTE: The title of this post is a line from Pete Seeger’s The Greenland Fisheries.