The blurb says "a tense atmospheric thriller" and to an extent I agree. I didn't think there were many thrills though, the investigation moves along rather slowly with a little progress here, a dead end there. Some really nice imagery of the wilderness and the tragedy of drug addiction in small-town Montana. There are some interesting facts about Glacier National Park and the politics of the park system, but I thought there was too much of that "As you know, Ted" feel to them, not woven seamlessly into the story. The edginess comes not from the investigation but from the inner turmoil of Ted Systead. He's suspicious of the rangers supposedly helping him, he's in a place where he's continually re-living his past tragedy, he doesn't admit he's got biases. If the author gave us clues to the villain, I didn't pick them up, but this isn't really that kind of a whodunit. In the end, I didn't care much for it. I do enjoy books set in the outdoors especially in the West, but I couldn't warm up to the protagonist and his inner turmoil. Plus I don't enjoy reading about drug addicts, just my personal quirk. I do see why a lot of people liked this book, but unfortunately for me the only character I really cared about was the bear.
I chose this book because I'm a native of the area Christine writes about. The references to local places were fun to read but the book was hard to get through, it had all the makings for a good mystery, Christine just had a hard time pulling the reader in and hooking them. A little romance or more mystery would have helped. Most times I can read a good mystery in 3-4 days. This one took me 3 weeks! It was easy to put down.
Excellent first novel set in Glacier Park.
Highly recommended!
Highly recommended!
