Customer Reviews

Track of the Scorpion

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

 

 

_Track of the Scorpion_ is a book I tried hard to like. I saved the book for a rainy day and came to it wanting to savor every word. Unfortunately, this is about as bad a book as I've read. The situations are very unrealistic, straight out of cliffhanger, pulp fiction. The characters never seem like real people, but more stock stereotypes. I kept wondering why I was reading it, but I determined to follow through to the very end. It never got any better. Definitely not recommended.

I bought this "first novel in a series" because of the intriguing "Clive Cussler-esque" plot-- dedicated lady archaeologist uncovers a fifty year old B-17 in the New Mexico desert, only to find the dead crew still aboard and the plane full of bullet holes..and because of its setting-- the American Southwest. What followed, though, was a tepid mystery at best. Author Davis tries to breath too much life into her (his?) characters, resulting in caricatures. The suggestion that the villian "owns" numerous generals in the Pentagon was a stretch-- I used to be a staff officer at the Pentagon and just don't buy the notion that one industrialist could have so much clout in that building. Actually, the opposite would be more true. The end scene was also a stretch, as the "smart" villian suddenly turned dumb allowing the heroine to outfox him. Often little things in a novel become distracting. In this one, there is a lot of emphasis on drinking water. Now I'm sure that's important while doing archaeological work in the desert, but I found the obssession with drinking water to be distracting. Let's assume the characters properly hydrate and get on with the story. This author shows promise (Block's first Scudder novel wasn't all that great), and I'll definitely pick up the next one in the series. Though I may pick it up at the library.

It starts promising ! A very, very hot desert, a plane full of bulletholes to be uncovered, a sharp lady archeologist. But within twenty pages things start to shift the wrong way. The crooks stay vague shadows, obtaining names but no lives. The father of the heroine is taking useless pages babbling about an ancient indian tribe which might have cannibalised on each other. The characters stay very dull and never come to live. Even the climax is disappointing. It is a pity about a nice idea !

...

Track of The scorpion Val Davis
(pg 307 mystery New Mexico)

If you like Nevada Barr, archeology or forensic this book is a must read. Nick is a recent college graduate
working on her tenure for a professor's job. Her father is a famous archeologist looking for the lost Anazi
empire in the hot dry desert of New Mexico. Nick's job is to catalog the artifacts as they are unearthed and
ready them for shipment. She does this job as a dutiful daughter and to fulfill her obligations for tenure.
Her real love is aircraft especially from W.W.II and when an old codger claims he found a buried plane in
the sand she is skeptical but excited. Upon arriving at the site she discovers it is in fact a W.W.II plane but
the mystery of its crash is one the government wants kept secret. This could of been just another novel
about government corruption and cover up but Davis gives us delightful characters that we can root for and
a plot with substance. Even Nick is not the normal dumb female bimbo we see in so many novels. She
actually asks for assistance and listens to others for advice. She doesn't run around helter skelter but comes
up with a plan to figure out the identity of the plane. There are many in positions of power who want her to
keep her mouth shut and close friends along the way are hurt when she continues the pursuit of identity of
the occupants of the plane. As we reach the dramatic ending, Nick keeps her wits about herself, delivers
justice and lives to tell another tale of the West. Rating 8

I listened to the audio version of this book on a trip from Vail to Farmington. It was a good way to keep awake if only because I spent the time marveling at the major flaws in the authors setting. As a resident of the 4 corners, not far from Chaco Canyon and other cliff dwellings I can state for a fact that the temp rarely reaches 100 (let alone exceed it!). The area is not sand and desolation either. This story might have been more plausible if set on the white sands missile range much farther south.

On the bad side: Val Davis' first work surrounds itself with a military cover-up scenario. It's painfully obvious she has never served in the military nor does she have a working knowledge of military procedures. She has "corporals" answering phones on Air Force bases, a retired person going to the PX when he's on an Air Force base (it's a BX), and repeatedly writes of the "military mentality" for cover-ups being the norm. However, she did her homework in regard to the crew size of B-17s.

On the good side: Her writing is crisp and to the point. Just the type of book you can read on a two hour airplane flight.

Respectfully: Mark Fannin, Master Sergeant, United States Air Force

What an interesting idea!-an archaeologist of "recent history." Aside from the basic plot of a mystery novel, I really appreciate the inclusion of "local color"-in this case an archaeological dig in the wretched heat of a New Mexico summer searching for clues to mysterious Anasazi. As for the main plot, I found the bad guys to be really bad and sufficiently scary to keep me worried, and the heroine sufficiently human and heroic to keep me involved. I have to admit that I used a recent bout of coughing-following-a-virus as an excuse to keep me out of bed until 2 am on a work night just to finish this story in one sitting. Is is great literature? Not really, but it is a good read.

I enjoyed the first 1/2 of the book. Then it just got silier and sillier as she killed EVERYBODY off. It got more and more unbelievable, and finally, it just tanked.

The story line is incredibly weak. Bouncing back and forth from goofy to just plain dumb, I couldn't even finish the entire thing. The audiobook is worse. They used a male and female reader, which had great potential, but they recorded them separately and did a poor job splicing them together. Don't read this at mealtime; you'll end up with indigestion.