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What I'm Reading Now
Killer SummerA good thriller needs the tension involved in the attempt to defeat the "bad guys", but it also needs fully developed characters that the reader cares about if it is going to be a successful read. "Killer Summer" by Ridley Pearson has those qualities. This is his third novel in a series about Sun Valley, Idaho sheriff, Walt Fleming. Although each novel is a stand-alone, the story line has followed Walt's split from his wife and the romantic involvement of his wife with his deputy sheriff. The Sun Valley setting provides a contrast of the ordinary working people with the wealthy who regularly come to the mountainous playground. Walt must maintain law and order, sometimes in opposition to the out-sized egos of the extremely wealthy. He also works to spend time with Kevin, his nephew. Since it is summer in the mountains,
instead of skiers, events are staged to attract the bored
and wealthy to Sun Valley. On the calendar is an exclusive
wine auction. Supposedly, several bottles of wine have been
discovered that were a gift from wine connoisseur Thomas Jefferson
to John Adams. Summer events are important to the financial
well being of a winter sport based economy, so Walt is pressured
to maintain tight security. Such a valuable item attracts
criminals. Christopher Cantell is a criminal who stages heists
with elaborate planning. Using a tow truck to commit a crime
displays his active imagination. When that plan fails and
a fatality occurs, Walt becomes involved. The complexity of
the crime continues. It is difficult to be sure who is a villain
and what will be stolen. Is the wine authentic? Is it possible
that the sale is simply a huge swindle? A young woman working
on her doctorate is sure that the wine could never have existed.
She wants to use a new method to authenticate or disprove
the seller's claim. As another complication, Walt's nephew
meets the daughter of an unsuccessful producer who is hoping
to make important contacts during the wine sale. His teenage
infatuation leads Kevin into danger when he is trapped on
a private jet that becomes a part of the operation. Twists
and turns of the plot feature an explosion, several elaborate
hoaxes, a jet crash and a kidnapping. The pace of the story
moves along rapidly with short chapters in which positions
shift quickly. Even the mountains of Idaho play a part in
the crime. [1-3-10] Trial By Fire, by J.A. Jance, is the fifth installment the Ali Reynolds series. This mystery finds Ali as the temporary media-relation's consultant for the Yavapai County Sheriff's Department. The department has two employees on administrative leave, and Ali, a former TV journalist, fits the bill. For her first assignment, Ali is dispatched to a fire where an unknown female is pulled from a partially finished burning house, nude and unconscious. After holding a press conference and clearing the hospital of reporters, Ali finds that a domestic terrorist group ELF - Earth Liberation Front, has claimed responsibility. Several fires have bet set in expensive one-of-a-kind homes, but no one has been arrested. Ali calls on her good friend B. Simpson to help investigate anyone connected with the organization. Things are not adding up as Ali gathers information on the fire victim, who is finally identified as Mimi Cooper, a seventy-year-old housewife, whose husband is an airline pilot. Hal can't come up with a single reason for her to have been in the unfinished house, but among the ashes, are the remains of what looks to be a painting. Mimi owns a valuable painting by Paul Klee, and this seems to be the root of the arson and attempted murder. As Mimi struggles to survive, an angel appears in the form of Sister Anselm. She is dubbed the "Angel of Death" as she comforts those who most likely will not survive. She communicates with Mimi by having her blink once for yes and twice for no. With little time, Mimi tries to tell the Sister who her attempted killer is, but with a breathing tube, it's virtually impossible. Ali sets herself up in a corner of the hospital waiting room with her laptop, recording conversations of family members visiting Mimi. It seems that her children are far more interested in the painting, and its insurance value, than that of their mother's decline. When Ali receives an unusual text from Sister Alselm, she grows concerned. The Sister has been kidnapped, and her high-tech phone has GPS. From the trunk of a car, Sister sends messages for Ali to follow. With police in tow, Ali chases after Sister Alselm, and she finds herself looking at the wrong end of a gun! All in all, a respectable story, but you will figure out the killer if you pay attention. [1-17-10] The Big Burn The book "The Big Burn" by Timothy Egan isn't really about the fire. Although the fire and the men who fought the blaze have some coverage, the book is mainly concerned with the politics which created the national forests that caught fire. Over the weekend of August 20, 1910, wildfires in the adjacent states of Washington, Idaho, and Montana merged into one huge, devastating fire. Much of the area which was burned, three million acres, was on land that had been set aside as some of our nation's first national forests. The concept of US National Forests was mainly the creation of two men, Theodore Roosevelt and Gifford Pinchot. Roosevelt, our twenty-sixth president, is well known for his admiration of the natural world. He was inspired by his friendship with Pinchot, the conservationist. Teddy appointed Pinchot to head up the US Forest Service. This was a time when philosophical thinkers called for land to be set aside for the public good. This was in opposition to the political choices granting large tracts of land to railroads as an encouragement to lay track across the country. Pinchot was an avid outdoorsman who hiked over much of the lands that were placed in the national forests. The country endured a seesaw of opinion concerning lands being placed under public domain. The study of forestry had not been a serious scientific study at this time. The only country that treated forest management as a question that warranted intellectual study was France, which had many acres under the control of large landowners. Pinchot was able to study in France, and he then returned to America to help begin the country's first forestry program at Yale University. The politicians had finally been convinced that a US Forest Service would protect everyone's interests by their ability to control wildfires. The rangers were expected to patrol areas and put out small fires so that huge areas would not be destroyed. The dry conditions of the summer of 1910 were more than they could handle with their meager budget. "The Big Burn" is a reminder of
the ways that our attitudes toward conservation have changed.
It seemed as if some of the arguments over creating the
national forests were not all that different from the arguments
over national land use during the Bush presidency. It is
always a balancing act to determine how to preserve something
for the public to use and how to maintain budgets. [1-24-10]
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