Two Miles of Black Ice

About this book

Eleven winters after the Dark Grid, the only road between Skelling Point and Kettle Island is two and a half miles of Lake Superior ice. Marit Dahl once decided who could cross it—until the February morning she skipped a final check and fourteen people went through. Now she mends nets in a shuttered bait shop, banned from the ice and from her own name. Then the island needs her. Its doctor-less women need Dr. Ruth Alder, and the only machine that can carry her is a dying windsled being rebuilt by Desmond Achterberg, a drifter engineer with a bad knee and a vow never to stay anywhere long enough to be missed. He can make the engine run. Only Marit can read the ice. They have nineteen days, one warm room, and a hunger neither can afford. Some crossings can't be taken back.