Customer Reviews

An Eye for Gold

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

I was not originally going to review this book but disagreed wildly with the other reviews. I thought the mining detail was one of the most interesting facets of the book, not at all hard to follow, and added immensely to my enjoyment of the book. Similarly, i was delighted with the non-formulaic nature of the plot; it is intriguing not to be able to unravel the whole thing on page 10 or so. I also enjoyed the digression into the character of the missing geologist and his relationship with his wife. For me, the most unconvincing and flattest part of the book is Em's relationship with Ray, her ostensible love interest. Maybe he will develop some in later books, but I just could not believe that this woman could have reached the point of thinking about marrying someone who wants her to abandon the intellectual side of her nature. Nor am i convinced by Em's repeated soul-searching and rejection of requests to helf the FBI. This woman could not be this un-self-aware.

I really enjoy the Em Hanson books and would have easily given the other books in the series 5 stars, but this book is far too technical for the average reader. At times, I felt like I was reading a miner's manual. For me, all of the explanations of mining procedures, chemical analysis and mineral analysis did not add to the story. I found myself skipping over many paragraphs then would have to back up and reread. That got very tedious.

It has been a bust for the oil industry with prices so low that many companies are laying off long time employees. Forensic geologist Em Hansen is out of work again so she visits her boyfriend Ray to see if their relationship has any longevity. While in Salt Lake City, Em joins FBI agent Tom Latimer for lunch. They successfully worked together on a case and Tom actively recruits Em to join the Feds. Em rejects the notion of joining such a regimented group as the FBI.

She accompanies Tom to Nevada where he investigates a claim filed against a mining company. Pat Gilmore claims that this proposed mining operation will destroy the habitat of an endangered species. However, by the time Em and Tom reach their destination, Pat has died in a car accident. Em cannot resist the lure of sleuthing, which brings her to the attention of someone whose actions place the geologist on a personal endangered list.

Oil prices aside, a Sarah Andrews mystery is a human drama. Her latest tale allows her fans to see inside the heroine in such a way tht the reader grasps Em's confusion due to the conflict between her inner fears and dreams. The mystery is well done and fast-paced aided by complex secondary characters. AN EYE FOR GOLD is treasure for anyone who enjoys an environmental who-done-it.

Harriet Klausner

I thoroughly enjoyed An Eye for Gold. I read the book for my geology class, but I found myself not being ble to put it down. Structurally, the writing style was unique, but because we discuss a lot of the subject matter in class, I found it more interesting. The biggest hinderance to me was her plot structure because it wasn't the traditional conflict-climax-resolution, but once I got past that I found it to be a real page turner.

I enjoy the Em Hansen books, but found this one difficult to read in the Kindle version because of the constant errors. And, they are very strange errors: "die" used instead of "the", "Mister" instead of "blister" and such. For some reason periods at the end of sentences seems to be optional and commas, hyphens and asterisks appear at random. It is not unusual for there to be three to five errors in a paragraph. It is very distracting. I wondered if an OCR reader had been used to transfer the text to an electronic form. Even so, publishers should ensure that the result is proofread. There are still times in this automated world when a trained human mind is required.

The story itself is interesting and engaging. At times there could have been less mining detail, and it seemed that a lot of mining jargon was used without explanation. The Kindle built-in dictionary dealt with that, though it would have been frustrating in a printed book to keep stopping to look up words in the dictionary.

I'm interested to see where Em will go with her new insights.

I would have enjoyed more of Sarah Andrews' books on my Kindle, but after seeing what a terrrible typist did to this book, I can understand why Andrews would balk at any more being produced. I hope the paperbacks/hardbacks are not of the same caliber.

I read this on my Kindle. The text looked like it was from an old book with some of the text more bold than others. There were some lines where the letters were not aligned with the rest of the line. It took a long time for my Kindle to turn on when I was reading this book and the page turns took a long time compared with in all my other Kindle books. I liked the story and did not personally find it too technical, but I tend to enjoy the sciences. My main beef is with the Kindle formatting.

I was very disappointed by this book. I found the writing to be ok but the story was not well structured and this book needed some serious editing it did not receive. I did not find anything about the characters appealing and frankly could not tell the good guys from the bad guys. If you want to read a much better written and interesting book with archaeology as a back drop I would highly recommned Beverly Connor's Airtight Case.