Murder, Mayhem, and Mysteries in the Arctic: A Conversation with Attorney and ‘A Gift Before Dying’ Author Malcolm Kempt
Murder Sheet
MurderSheet
3.8 • 3K Ratings
🗓️ 20 January 2026
⏱️ 48 minutes
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Summary
Malcolm Kempt worked for years as a criminal defense attorney in the Canadian Arctic. He served clients in some of the coldest, most remote places on the planet. And he saw some horrific crimes.
He channeled that experience into his incredible debut novel, A Gift Before Dying. That centers a ruined investigator trying to get to the truth in the mystery of a young girl's death in a remote Nunavut community.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm Kevin, and we're here to talk with Malcolm Kemp, who served as an attorney for years in the |
| 0:06.1 | Canadian Arctic, and now he's written a great book called A Gift Before Dying. |
| 0:11.6 | Content warning, this episode contains discussion of rape, sexual abuse, crimes against, |
| 0:16.4 | and committed by children, addiction, suicide, and murder. |
| 0:23.4 | Malcolm Kempt traveled to one of the coldest, |
| 0:30.1 | most isolated communities on planet Earth. And there, he witnessed horrific things. He defended men and women accused of crimes both banal and brutal. Malcolm worked as a criminal lawyer in Canada's |
| 0:36.6 | Nunavut territory. That area is vast, the world's fifth largest country subdivision. It is also remote and isolated as the world's least densely populated country subdivision. Despite that, crime is rampant up there. It leads Canada in violent crime severity. |
| 0:57.0 | Malcolm spent 17 years up there in the Arctic, trying cases, defending clients. Then he quit and wrote a crime novel. |
| 1:04.5 | His terrific new book, A Gift Before Dying, is a mystery set in the Canadian Arctic. |
| 1:10.1 | It is the story of a haunted police investigator |
| 1:12.8 | searching for answers in a young girl's mysterious death. It takes a searing look at a community |
| 1:18.8 | that is isolated, troubled, but full of heart. Reading it made us feel like we dropped down into a |
| 1:25.4 | frigid new world. It was terrific. |
| 1:28.3 | We sat down with Malcolm recently to talk about his career in the law, his experience with crime |
| 1:33.7 | in Nunavut, the systemic issues in play that caused such levels of crime, some wild things that |
| 1:39.2 | he's seen during trials, and of course, a gift before dying. My name is Anya Kane. |
| 1:44.9 | I'm a journalist. |
| 1:46.3 | And I'm Kevin Greenlee. |
| 1:47.5 | I'm an attorney. |
| 1:48.7 | And this is The Murder Sheet. |
| 1:50.5 | We're a true crime podcast focused on original reporting, interviews, and deep dives into |
| 1:55.8 | murder cases. |
... |
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