The Story Knife by Father Brad Reynolds (Father Mark Townsend Series, Book 1) from Books In Motion.com

A lawyer with questionable ethics lies dead in a Seattle convention center. He was brutally slain by a ceremonial knife from a village a thousand miles to the north. As a Jesuit priest, Father Mark Townsend has spent much time among the native peoples who inhabit the merciless Alaskan tundra. He recognizes the deadly artifact...and knows the Eskimo tribe that carved the intricate pictures on its ivory handle. Now conscience and duty are calling him back to that place of harsh, frozen beauty and ancient spirits; a land where Inuit people, environmentalists and corporate power structures collide. For there are secrets there that the blade can reveal...and a story it must tell of greed, betrayal...and murder!