Review by Brian Tanguay, California Review of Books

What most impressed me about Arctic Predator, journalist Kathleen Lippa’s book about the crimes of notorious sexual predator Edward Horne, is her determination to investigate and report such a dark, disturbing story. Reporting on events that happened only a few years ago is challenging enough, going back decades requires total commitment to the truth — even more so in cases of sexual crimes against children where the law seeks to protect victims by restricting public disclosure. Lippa, who dedicates the book to the children of the North, made an extraordinary commitment to telling the story of Indigenous victims and their communities. Such stories are rarely deemed important enough to tell.

Arctic Predator is a reminder that events took place that caused damage and pain to vulnerable children, and affected a web of relationships. It’s the kind of damage and pain that isn’t necessarily visible and rarely ever heals. Deep trauma that plagues Horne’s surviving victims as they enter middle-age. Understanding the consequences of Horne’s crimes requires that one keep in mind the remoteness of Canada’s north and the interconnectedness of its inhabitants. Bonds of blood and marriage, place, culture and language create an insularity that magnifies significant or unusual events, deepens their impact and reverberation, etching them into collective memory. Read More in Articles. KL.