Customer Reviews

The Return of the Spanish Lady

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Nick Scott is back for another round of her favorite airplane archeology (bet you didn't know such a thing existed!) in THE RETURN OF THE SPANISH LADY. Author Val Davis sets up a nicely suspenseful scenario, but the cover blurb gives away everything, so I never had a chance to figure things out with Nick. Don't read the cover blurb!!!

I might have rated the book higher, if the cover hadn't taken away all the suspense. The 1918 characters were well done, and I liked those parts best. And if you haven't read TRACK OF THE SCORPION, the first Nick Scott book, you should do so, as this is a very nicely written and unusual series.

See story summary above.

I enjoyed this mystery thriller. The locations in Alaska and the flashbacks to NYC all helped to bring a little more substance to this story. The characters did come of as a little shallow in my opinion. I also think a little more history could have been wrapped in the story. As with any fiction novel, I rarely read the whole jacket summary, for it gives away far to much information and leaves few surprises. I get the protagonists name and read the first couple sentences and that's usually all.

Recommended.

The E-Group, a powerful pharmaceutical company, offers to fund an expedition to the Aleutians to try to recover a shot down Japanese World War II plane, The Val. The National Air and Space Museum and its patrons would benefit if the Aichi D 3A 1 aircraft has survived weathering and can be recovered. The Smithsonian assigns Assistant Curator archeologist Nicolette Scott, known for her knowledge of airplanes, to represent them on the expedition.

Unbeknownst to Nicolette and her superiors, the E-Group has a more sinister agenda then recovering an old plane. Nick and other individuals on the trek are their expendable ticket to gain entrance to a natural wildlife range with an endangered species population residing there.

THE RETURN OF THE SPANISH LADY is a very good medical thriller with clever twists, but the publisher gives away the key plot on the back cover, ruining much of the suspense. Nick is an intriguing archeologist and much of the support cast such as the WW II vet Wes Erickson, the Smithsonian staff, and a Hammersmith grizzly bear seem genuine. The villains appear too amoral to be real, but move the tale forward. Still, avoid the back cover, wear warm layers of clothing and enjoy a fun thriller filled with excitement

Harriet Klausner

If the "amateurish" comment meant this was not solve-the-whodunit material, I agree -- it's good bedtime, or escapism, reading. I don't think it should be classified under either Mystery or Suspense.

However -- the historical basis combined with modern elements made for an interesting plot. Some good characterization and steady unfolding of the storyline kept my attention until the end, and of course,

"Life is too short to read a badly-written book." ~ T.M.

I have rarely read a more absurdly amateurish book. In the hands of, say, Nevada Barr, the same story would have leapt off the pages. However, we have a book chock full of the inexplicable and the unexplained, cliches, improbabilities, two-dimensional stereotypes, characters acting out of character, ... in fact, to be brief, thoroughly poor and unskilled authorship.

I'll give this book the benefit of the doubt and rate it as 5 stars, as I have not read it. But the plot is interesting: a biopharmaceutical company launches an expedition to retrieve (in secrecy) the viral remnants of the 1918 influenza outbreak. The place: the frozen landscape of Alaska. The target: deceased gold miners from the period.

The plot was so enticing in fact that I used it myself in an earlier book. If you'd like to read a carefully researched, and much longer version of this story (at 662 pages) check out Ninth Day of Creation, ISBN 0967571294.

Most likely Davis just had the same idea as I did, though I seem to have got to print earlier. Personally, I think an outbreak similar to 1918 is just a matter of time, so the information contained in the "Spanish Lady" genome is valuable, and will remain so. I might also point out that between me beginning and finishing my book, the genome was in fact located at the Armed Forces Institute in the wax-preserved autopsy material of 1918 victims. The results of the genetic sequencing of this material should be completed within the decade...

Leonard Crane, author of Ninth Day of Creation

I got about halfway through this book, the third I have read in the series. And it just felt too silly to read the rest. The characters are so cardboard, and the heavy-handed business with the bear. I get tired of large corporations being the enemy, too. Isn't it someone else's turn to be the enemy other than the US government or a large corporation? Davis' dialogue frequently seems dumb. And why is Nick so totally limited? How many believable plots involving finding airplanes can there be?