Customer Reviews

A Fall in Denver: An Em Hansen Mystery

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Em Hansen, the protagonist of A Fall in Denver, is a likeable, real person. She has given up life as a field geologist in Wyoming to take on an office job in Denver. On her first day, a body falls past her window to its death. With no real work to do for the company, she undertakes solving the crime. Em is a believable character with anxieties about her prep school friends and cold coworkers, attractions to a suave colleague, inspite of longing feelings for the man she left behind, and hostility to her Boston pureblood grandmother. The mystery thickens when another body falls from the same window. The conclusion is satisfying, leaving me interested in reading more Em Hansen mysteries..

Andrews' second Em Hansen novel involves her geologist heroine in an oil industry plot fueled by a series of apparent suicides.

Hansen has exchanged her wide Wyoming skies for the grit of Denver and higher pay. But her first geologist's job doesn't seem to involve much work and her colleagues are decidedly hostile. Except for one - very sexy but somewhat married.

With little else to do, Hansen finds herself investigating suicide and all but stumbling into a minefield of oil intrigue and greed. Hansen is a likable, if somewhat too self-effacing heroine, and Andrews steeps her plot in plenty of oil lore and corporate machinations.

A well-written and absorbing mystery .

I ordered this book because someone told me the first line, which was something like this: If I had seen the body falling past the window, I would not have accepted the job. It is the only good line in the book. The author's style is unpolished. One annoying thing which comes to mind is her character from a southern state. There are repeated grammatical errors put in that character's mouth. I read maybe a fourth of the book before I decided I could not endure reading further. The one thing I am glad about is that I bought a second hand copy.