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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Meticulous plotting and a rich tapestry of characters,
By Dennis Havens (Corinth, MS United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Cavanaugh quest (Hardcover)
The late Thomas Gifford wrote "The Cavanaugh Quest" in 1974, hard on the heels of his brisk-selling debut novel, "The Wind Chill Factor." Set in Minneapolis and the back country of northern Minnesota, it is the story of a series of murders among the aging members of a hunting and fishing club that had flourished back in the 1930s. Gifford would go on to write seven more novels under his own name (and seven more as either Thomas Maxwell or Dana Clarins), but only once again, after "The Cavanaugh Quest," did he put together as compelling a tale. That was 1992's "Praetorian," surely his magnum opus. "Cavanugh" is tighter and generally better paced than "Wind Chill Factor," and it contains many of the same Gifford touches that characterize all his work: irreverence for the Establishment, rich, almost hypnotic characters, and settings so real that the reader is often convinced that he is part of the ongoing action. There is also Gifford's trademark romanticism, often hidden under a layer of cynicism . . . and, as was the case in "Wind Chill Factor" and the much later "The First Sacrifice," a morbid fascination with incest. At his best, as he frequently was in this novel, Thomas Gifford showed a level of skill and natural talent that, I felt, could propel him into the pantheon of immortal American novelists. That he didn't achieve the status of a Hemingway is probably as much the result of changing tastes and times as it is any lack in his own ability. "The Cavanaugh Quest" was Gifford's second-best novel. I would enthusiastically recommend it to anyone who appreciates taut suspense fiction with lots of rich characterization, strong plotting and a dash of pungent social commentary.
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