Mark Okrant, professor of tourism management

An Icy Reception is the third book in Okrant’s Kary Turnell mystery series, in which the setting is always one of the main characters. “The venues featured in An Icy Reception are places I have visited: the desolate Arctic coast of Baffin Island, and the communities of Iqaluit, Kimmirut, and Kinngait, otherwise known as Cape Dorset,” says Okrant, who has journeyed to the Arctic six times over the course of his 40 years of studying the region. “My dear friend John Houston is the son of James Houston, who inspired the arts cooperative movement in the Canadian Arctic. In 2006, John invited me to be part of a group that traveled to Kinngait on the Explorer, where James’ ashes were to be scattered. I decided to write An Icy Reception immediately upon learning that the Explorer sank after striking an iceberg in Antarctica in November 2007. Completing the book meant a great deal to me on a number of levels.”