Bone Dust White by Karin Salvalaggio

Seventeen year old Grace Adams is startled by a noise and people beyond her wooded backyard. As she crosses the snow covered yard and passes through the gate, she sees a body on the ground. She runs to it, a woman, and she hears her plead for help, using Grace’s name. At first the emaciated body is unfamiliar to Grace, but soon she realizes it’s her mother, Leanne, who she hasn’t seen in 11 years. Recovering from a recent heart transplant, Grace uses her fragile body to cover her mother and that is how the paramedics find her, covered in snow.

Thus begins Bone Dust White by Karin Salvalaggio, a tale of sex trafficking, infidelity and murder. The police detective on the case, Macy Greene, is eight months pregnant. She was involved in the investigation 11 years ago of Grace’s uncle and mother in sex trafficking, so it stands to reason that she should travel from Helena, Montana to the wilds of small town Collier to investigate the murder. Could it be related to the original case?

I really liked the characters in Bone Dust White, regardless of their infidelities and imperfections. And I expect we may see more of Macy Greene, which I wouldn’t mind one bit. While I liked the story, I did find it confusing at times. But, hey, for a debut novel, it’s damn good. The bleak, snowed covered landscape. The hopelessness of a small Montana town close to the Canadian border. Everyone knows everyone else’s business..the gossip mill goes non-stop.

Salvalaggio knows how to weave a story. There are the required twists and turns. While, for some reason, I found the beginning a little slow going, by page 50-ish I wanted to keep on reading to find out what happened.

Karin Salvalaggio is now on my list of authors to watch for. I’ll bet she’ll be on yours too once you read Bone Dust White.