Six months after a bloody and destructive breakout from a Libyan prison, Canadian Intelligence Service Agent Justin Hall, and fellow agent, pilot, and ex-girlfriend Carrie, along with two administrative members of the CIS, are asked to investigate the unidentified icebreakers that have been showing up off Ellesmere Island and Baffin Bay. From the beginning of the mission, Justin suspects there’s a saboteur at work, which is confirmed after a barrage of misinformation and close calls with death. Hall turns to his old friend Kiawak Kusugak, a Canadian Ranger and lifelong resident of the Arctic, for help, and the group soon discovers that one country is setting up another in a quest to claim the Northwest Passage. Defeating the enemy becomes not only a bilateral effort between nations, but a brave stand by a native community determined to defend its country.

Jones’ style recalls when Tom Clancy still wrote his own books — and is far more accurate and entertaining than bestselling military authors Dale Brown, Brad Thor, and James Rollins. Ethan Jones makes his secondary characters as interesting as the stars, which added to the realism and readability of the novel.