Customer Reviews

Tainted Trail (Ukiah Oregon, Book 2)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Tainted Trail is the sequel to Alien Taste and continues the adventures of Ukiah Oregon. When Alicia, a close friend, goes missing in Oregon, Max and Ukiah fly out to try and find her. They quickly discover that Alicia's disappearance is a kidnapping and begin a race against the clock. In their search for her, Ukiah finds out that he may be the legendary Wolf Boy that was lost in 1933. He tries to contact the Kicking Deers, who wrote the original newspaper article and offered a reward for information on Magic Boy, but they think he is another fraud and refuse to speak with him. Meanwhile, Max begins to fall in love with Sam, a private investigator whose ex-husband refuses to believe the marriage is over, and discovers that there have been many unexplained deaths in the area. Is there a link between Alicia and the other deaths? How are the Kicking Deers involved? What is Ukiah going to do with his "father" Rennie when he comes out to protect him? Another great mystery featuring Ukiah Oregon.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I got very attached to Spencer's characters in Alien Taste and was excited to see them again in this book. Ukiah is a fascinating combination of innocence and deadly skills. Readers will enjoy learning more about Ukiah as he slowly discovers who and what he is. It was also great to learn more about Rennie, Ukiah's main Pack contact, and his past. Max Bennett finds a love interest this time and starts to come alive again after his first wife's death. Sam is the object of his affections and I look forward to learning more about her because she is one tough lady. I did miss Indigo and Kittaning in this book, though, as they were back in Pittsburgh.

Wen Spencer has a nice, smooth writing style that reads very quickly and easily. She has a great plot that keeps you glued to this book and many subplots that add to, rather than detract from, this book as a whole. For those of you who haven't read Alien Taste, I highly recommend that you do (because I like to read series in order), but, if you haven't, you can read this book and understand everything because Spencer gives nice synopses throughout. However, it does not detract or bore those readers who already know what she is talking about. Tainted Trail has lovely characterization, nice descriptive details, an exciting plot line - in short, this book has it all!

In this sequel to _Alien Taste_, Ukiah Oregon, his friends and assorted "family" are involved in tracing another disappearance. This time, the missing, possibly kidnapped person is a close friend. The action takes place in Oregon, a place where as a young boy Ukiah was found by his adopted parents. The search is not only for the missing woman, but also for the missing memories of Ukiah's youth.

As in the previous book, the author creates a combination of appealing characters and involving plot. The beginning of the book is rather slow, but is effective in building anxiety for the missing woman. The adventure accelerates, and sustains a high level of suspense to the end. There are elements of humor, wonder and romance sprinkled throughout. While a little of the humor is a bit forced, many lines are so well integrated that one breaks out into laughter involuntarily.

This is science fiction, and inventive one at that. But the main attraction of the novel are the interesting characters and their interaction.

Ukiah Oregon and his PI investigative partner Max are back, picking up the action a couple of months after 'Alien Taste' finished. Although the events of Alien Taste are synopsised at various points in Tainted Trail, I highly recommend that you read Alien Taste first, both for the background to this the second book, and because it is such an original, well conceived and executed tale in itself.

Spencer continues this excellence in Tainted Trail. Ukiah and Max have come to Oregon to investigate the disappearance of the niece of colleague Kraynak, who is also known to them as she used to work for the agency. Ukiah, with his tracking abilities down to the cellular level, is quickly on the trail. As usual, that's where things start getting interesting. FBI, sheriff, family, Ontongard, Pack, and the recovery of a few more memories. It's great. Twists, turns, unanticipated events - as before, the reader learns with Ukiah as he finds out as much about himself as he does the case he is working on.

Ukiah maturing - he's still somewhat of an innocent, but he is becoming more aware of light and dark, and shades of grey. Even Max, always heroic to Ukiah, causes him moments of disquiet here. But the essence of Ukiah is the same - someone who loves fiercely and loyally, and must protect those he loves at all costs. And even those that are Pack come to respect that element in him. I missed some of the characters in Alien Taste, especially Indigo who had to 'stay at home and mind the child' (urgh! Considering Indigo's steely strength I have to say I didn't like this passive role for her, but this is a very mild niggle). But meeting Magic Boy's family more than made up for it, and Max's own secondary story was excellent. Once again, in an author that clearly knows the seedy side of life, I really enjoyed that although bad things happened to good people, for those I really cared about Ukiah was eventually able to make it right - this time with help from Jared. Ukiah really is a true hero, overcoming the odds and fighting for what he sees as right. I enjoyed this book every bit as much as the first one, and am looking forward with great anticipation to reading the next (Bitter Waters).

This book is second in a series and is a much better read if you pick up Alien Taste before reading this book. Other than that its a great book with a lot of back ground on the main character being explained. My biggest complaints about this book are I wish some of my favorite characters from the first book had been included(there are only references to Ukiah Oregon's mothers)and even though it was over 300 pages in length I wish it had been longer because it raised more questions than it answered.

If your looking for something different I'd try this alien detective meld, its not too cheezy.

Ukiah Oregon's prospective mother-in-law recently described him as a "long-haired, teenage, Native American, Unitarian, Wolf Boy raised by lesbians, with an infant son obviously from a previously failed relationship." If she only knew. Tainted Trail, set in a near-present-day United States, is Wen Spencer's second novel. Like her first, Alien Taste, it features Ukiah, a young man who was indeed raised by a lesbian couple near Pittsburgh, after being found as a feral child in the Oregon wilderness. Back in Alien Taste, however, Ukiah learned enough about his true origins to make the "wolf boy" business look downright tame.

Tainted Trail includes enough back story to let it stand alone. The first two chapters are particularly background-heavy, which makes the current plot a bit slow on the start-up. It would be a mistake, though, to skip Alien Taste if it's available. While Spencer has managed to avoid the second-book-itis that often plagues new writers, the current story is more mundane than her first outing. Tainted Trail is a solid effort, and raises several plot points for future books, but Alien Taste is a better indication of why both books are marketed as science fiction.

In Tainted Trail, Ukiah is off to Oregon with friend, mentor, and fellow private investigator Max Bennett; plus another friend, homicide detective Raymond Kraynak. Kraynak's niece, Alicia, has disappeared while hiking in Umatillo National Forest. That's the same area where Ukiah spent his feral childhood, so he hopes to pick up on a previous-fruitless-search for more of his personal history. The trio also hook up with Sam Killington, an Oregon PI working a set of insurance cases, part of a localized spike in accidental deaths and disappearances involving 35 people, including Alicia. These three plot threads intertwine to form the overall story. At first there's nothing tying them together except vague coincidences, but a good PI never puts much trust in coincidence.

Spencer has chosen to make her protagonist-and virtually every other key character in the book-a man. Far fewer writers are successful at opposite sex point-of-view than the number who attempt it. Luckily, science fiction is more flexible than other writing genres. If Ukiah doesn't always ring entirely authentic as a young, contemporary American male, well, there are obvious reasons on which to pin any false notes. Still, it would be interesting to see Spencer focus on more characters she could fully inhabit from the inside out.

She seems to have done her homework on the new locale and other story aspects. Her writing is lean and generally well-constructed. The grammar police note that it should be "someone who," never "someone that," does or says something. There are also occasional missing or incorrect parts of speech that cause momentary stumbles in the smooth flow of sentences. Finally, cells would propagate through a body, not "profligate." Never mind; the story is worth reading and Spencer is worth another look whenever her next Ukiah Oregon book comes out.

There is nobody in the world quite like Ukiah Oregon. His genetic make-up is that of an alien sire and an Earth woman. He has heightened senses, which make him an excellent tracker, is almost impossible to kill and is more than two centuries old. Ukiah's earliest memories were that of growing up and being raised by wolves until he was caught in a trap and adopted by two women who set the non-lethal snare.

He works with private detective Max Bennett who is one of the few humans privileged to know about Ukiah's background. Their latest case takes them to Oregon where a hiker has gone missing. Her uncle has hired them to locate her but when Ukiah picks up the trail, he discovers that she is the victim of a kidnapping. While trying to locate her despite the attempts of the kidnappers to stop him, Ukiah also tries to follow a promising link to his mother's family which, in turn, leads him to his father's enemies.

Containing elements from the mystery and science fiction genres, TAINTED TRAIL is a unique and highly entertaining reading experience. It is easy to believe that the hero is a lovable half-breed alien, which makes the underlying premise for this work easy to accept. The mystery is a tightly woven cerebral puzzle that is almost impossible to figure out until the author reveals the final clues. Hopefully Wen Spencer will continue to write about Ukiah Oregon (the person, not the place).

Harriet Klausner

This is the second book in Spencer's series about Ukiah Oregon, and like the first it's a fun scifi/mystery/adventure. Overall the pacing's good, but the ending seemed a little rushed to me. It was still a very good read though, and if you liked the first book you'll like this one too I think.

This is a vital story in the Ukiah Oregon series. I completely agree with the advertisements that say you cannot put down a Wen Spencer novel. Without the information in this book on Ukiah's history the series would be a lot duller.

What a terrific follow-on to ALIEN TASTE! Ms Spencer is a true talent, mixing mystery, thriller, and Scifi into an enticing hue of action. One thing you must learn with TAINTED TRAIL is never take Ms. Spencer's plot direction for granted -- you may or may not get what you expect! A really gripping read -- even better than ALIEN TASTE.

A bit out there, I enjoy fantasy more then SF and the basis of this series is a bit difficult for me to believe, but the writer is so good, that I have read the entire series and found I could not put any of these books down... A Great Read..!