The Last Dance of the Whale For ninety-seven years, Nalukataq -- the whale hunting festival in icy Barrow, Alaska -- has brought joy to Aana Clearwater's heart. This year, however, when she opens her door to greet one of the marked revelers in the ancient tradition, she is savagely assaulted in her own home. And then she vanishes, leaving behind a house in disarray...and a small puddle of blood. Inupiat police officer Raymond Attla understands the pressure he is under to get to the bottom of the old woman's probable abduction and possible murder quickly and quietly. The many celebrants and tourists who have flocked into town -- every one of them a potential suspect -- will be gone once the forty-eight-hour festival is over. But Attla's hunt for the nature of -- and solution to -- a perplexing and lethal puzzle is leading him far from the games and songs and celebration to the dangerous, deteriorating ice floes away from town...where the relentless policeman will be forced to confront his worst terrors.