The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney

The body of a French voyageur has been found brutally murdered in his cabin outside the small isolated town of Dove River in eastern Canada around 1866.  It was discovered by a local farmer's wife with a secret past and a new found passion.  Was the murderer her son who is also missing and has been hiding a forbidden relationship with the French man?  Is it her angry withdrawn husband?  Is it the strange American who came to claim an ancient bone tablet that contained markings he believes could change they way we view Native Americans?  Is it the wild rugged looking tracker whose stoic silence belies all that he knows. The narrator alternates among many of the main characters but the frozen landscape is a vivid constant. This was the 2006 COSTA book of the year winner and her first novel.