Included in the New York Times list of
“Nonfiction Everyone Will Be Reading This Summer”

One of Oprah Daily‘s “24 Best Books of Summer”

Debutiful, “A Most Anticipated Book of the Year”

“Stevens, a public defender, moved to a remote area of Alaska after her husband died. When two sisters were murdered, she was assigned to defend the prime suspect—a case that threw her into the deep end of the insular Indigenous community where she was a tanik, or outsider.

—New York Times

“A true crime novel worth your time . . . An engrossing read that that blends memoir and cultural criticism.”

—Adam Vitcavage, Debutiful

“In this riveting firsthand account, public defender Rebecca Wright Stevens must solve the murders of two prominent sisters in a tight-knit Iñupiat Alaskan community—both to exonerate her client, a prime suspect, and to preserve the townspeople’s hard-won trust. Widowed, empty-nested, and ready for a change, Stevens left her Washington-state farmhouse for Utqiagvik, a village so far north that, in summer, the sun shines continuously for 83 days straight. This “midnight sun” complicates her present case, blurring witnesses’ memories of when they last saw the victims or any potential perpetrator. Written with curiosity, empathy, and humility, this is true crime, second-act reinvention, and extreme-landscape immersion in one crystalline package.”

—Oprah Daily

“[A]n engrossing blend of memoir, travelogue, and courtroom drama about a double murder in the wilds of Alaska . . . The account culminates with courtroom fireworks, but it works equally well as a more modest fish out of water narrative. Readers will be rapt.”

—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“When the sun rises in the Arctic after having been gone for months, the effect is one of time blindness and disorientation. In Rebecca Wright Stevens’s gripping legal thriller-memoir, Sisters of the Midnight Sun, this unwavering beauty became the staging ground for a crime as chilling as the permafrost. Stevens skillfully sets the scene, detailing the claustrophobia of a town where everyone is a witness and no one is a stranger . . . and the gut-wrenching stakes for a community trying to get justice for people they had known their entire lives, slain and accused alike.
Perhaps the most compelling attribute of Sisters of the Midnight Sun is Stevens’s transparency regarding her own relationship with the Arctic and its community. She details her connections to at-risk teens she was unable to help, as well as her romance with a charming Indigenous man who, like many in the town, had a serious drug dependency.
Sisters of the Midnight Sun is for readers who grew up on the razor-sharp courtroom dramas of Scott Turow or the high-stakes atmospheric tension of John Grisham, delivering an extra bite that feels like a bracing breath of sub-zero air. It provides the satisfaction of a legal thriller while serving as an insightful investigation into a territory those in the Lower 48 rarely see clearly.”

—Elizabeth DeNoma, executive editor, DeNoma Literary Services, Seattle, WA
(Read full review on Shelf Awareness)

“In August 1993, Stevens was public defender for the courts of the North Slope Borough in Utqiagvik, Alaska, previously known as Barrow, a fishing town with a majority Inupiat population. While on vacation in the Lower 48, Stevens learned of the possible rape and double homicide of sisters Bernice and Wanda Ipalook of a large and prominent local family. Back in Utqiagvik, she was assigned to defend Amos Lane, a prickly suspect in the killings who had yet to be charged but was being held for misdemeanors that authorities hoped would keep him in jail while they built their case. Stevens got his bail reduced, and, when the local investigator switched his suspicions toward Bernice’s fiancé, John Adams, she succeeded in getting Lane immunity in exchange for testimony as a witness for the prosecution, meaning he would never be tried for murder. Though the case ended in a dramatic trial, most of this book focuses on Stevens’ adventures as a tanik (an outsider) among the locals. They accept her (though never entirely) as one of their own. The heady mix of true crime and clashing cultures makes for a thrilling, thought-provoking read. ‘The legal system was Anglo, and the location was Native,’ Stevens writes. ‘The two didn’t fit….The Anglo system of written law, due process, and witnesses and juries…did not work well in a place where community and family values took precedence…and where even such seemingly universal qualities as time or factual evidence were blurred in the day-warping constant sunlight.’ Stevens studied English before devoting herself to the law, and her talents as a writer shine through in scene after memorable scene that evoke Scandinavian noir.
Potent, morally complex storytelling that gets under the skin.”

—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Sisters of the Midnight Sun is a marvelous offering to true crime fans everywhere, set in a complex native Alaskan community, with a compelling protagonist in Rebecca Wright Stevens, a Public Defender obsessed with justice for two sisters murdered during the long months of endless sun.”

—James Dalessandro, author of 1906: A Novel and Citizen Jane

“We see many books involving interesting crimes and trials, but Sisters of the Midnight Sun stands by itself. Ms. Wright Stevens is an experienced public defender who finds herself representing a man for murder in an Alaskan Inupiat community. She develops ethical issues when she comes to doubt her client’s innocence. As an outsider, Ms. Wright Stevens skillfully and with great sensitivity explores the character of the community and how its culture and traditions might affect her perception and handling of the case. The ending is a satisfying conclusion to this compelling and beautifuly told story.”

—Harry MacLean, author of Starkweather

“A harrowing literary journey into a stark, unforgiving, and breathtaking land on the edge of the Arctic frontier—where women and girls are murdered with alarming frequency and little notice. A gorgeously crafted fusion of true crime, murder mystery, legal thriller, and one woman’s passage from personal devastation to hard-won triumph. This will remind you why there is still nothing better than a great book.”

—Peter Houlahan, author of Reap the Whirlwind

“The question of who killed the Ipalook sisters serves as a jumping off point for a fascinating exploration of a community, the limits of justice, the capacity for forgiveness, and one extraordinary public defender’s sojourn beneath the midnight sun.”

—Robert Dugoni, New York Times bestselling author

“Ms. Stevens shows the behind-the-scenes of criminal defense. Whether in the South Carolina Lowcountry, or 4,000 miles away in Arctic Alaska, it requires painstaking effort, courage, and a commitment to Constitutional fair play. And it is essential to American justice.”

—Dick Harpootlian, Lead Counsel for Alex Murdaugh and author of Dig Me a Grave