Customer Reviews

Wind River

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Tom Morrisey enticed me with beautiful prose that opened a window into an unknown-to-me wilderness. With wordsmithing magic, Morrisey teased my mind -- flicking facts, thoughts and tension onto the periphery, then slipping out of sight until I was poised, waiting, tensing for the next cast. I was hooked early, but instead of fighting like the cutthroats, I surrendered to this novel.

I knew, from the first scene, the foreboding shadows of finality and frailty and perfect snapshot moments dissolving into tarnished reality, that something awful would befall the characters that I had already begun to love. Anything else will spoil the story web that Morrisey weaves, except to say that though there is a sense of foreboding, there is a stronger, underlying hope.

It is a rare gift Mr. Morrisey possesses -- the ability to weave a tense plot, the clarity to write a scene that can be devoured with all five senses, and the heart to create characters that clutch at the reader's soul.

If you are not reading Tom Morrisey and you love literary novels, you need to get Wind River regardless of your stance on Christian Fiction. Book lovers need to investigate Morrisey's novels. Those looking for a man's man read need to look no further. Fans of Lief Enger, W. Dale Cramer and Charles Martin should find much to like in Wind River.

I purchased this book because I enjoy fly-fishing and love the Wind River range. I would have been happy with this novel had it just been able to project me back to a place where I can't spend as much time as I would like. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it also had a great plot with interesting developmental turns that increased my enjoyment of this story by increasing my curiosity in the motivations of the two key characters in the story and where it would all lead.

Anyone familiar with the history of this area should recognize the author's fictionalizing, one would assume, the real life of Finis Mitchell, a mountaineer, environmentalist, ranger and publisher of the seminal "Wind River Trails" guidebook in the 70's. His real life in many ways paralleled if not surpassed that of the fictional hero Morrisey creates for his story. I think I might even have guessed the name of the real camp the author builds his story around as the launching point for the adventure.

In any case, this was a can't put it down read that had me sitting up half the night to finish it. I highly recommend this story.

Tyler Perkins has been married five years but with his wife less than a year total, fought in both Afghanistan and Iraq, and returned home with a survivor's guilt that is eating away at both his marriage and his life. Now a postcard from an old friend beckons him to return to his roots in Wyoming at a place called Wind River. Encouraged by his desperate wife, Tyler drives across country to fulfill a promise he made as a boy to the old man who taught him about fly fishing, the mountains, and life.

At first glance, Wind River is a gentle buddy story. It is the story of one man (Soren) who at 86 knows this is his last chance to visit the high country he has photographed and mapped for years and a boy become a man (Tyler) who in some ways wishes he had never left. If you don't care for the rugged back country, tales of rogue grizzlies, and laying on your back with nothing but the stars for a nightlight some of the chapters may grow a bit tedious. Or perhaps it would do you well to slow down for a moment and see things through Soren's and Tyler's eyes. If you take the time you will discover two men whose secrets and wounds run deeper than the clear lake about to be named after the old man.

Don't let the pace or setting fool you though. Tyler has returned from war with guilt not only for what he has done but for what others have done for him. And just when you think this story is all about Tyler finding some kind of resolution you discover it is the old man who has ulterior motives for returning to the mountains he so loves. Tom Morrisey's life as a world class rock climber, cave diver, and all-around adventurer shines through in this gentle yet powerful story of self-discovery and forgiveness. So set the world aside for a few hours and join Tyler and Soren at a place called Wind River.

His time in combat in Iraq still haunts Tyler Perkins; just ask his beleaguered wife Angela. Thus he has a second reason to take his octogenarian friend Soren Andeman fly fishing; the first being he promised to do so. The pair travels to WIND RIVER, Idaho for some getaway time.

However, the R&R that Tyler expected is nuked when Soren reveals the real reason he wanted to come to Wind River, a place he has been to before. His dark secret frightens Tyler and if revealed could hurt those nearby including someone special to the eighty-six years old man. However, before he can come to grips with what Soren told him, the weather turns ugly making this respite into a battle of survival.

This is an excellent buddy tale as an elderly honorable man with a troubling secret, a just as honorable vet with post traumatic stress disorder and the weather make for a deep character driven thriller. The story line is driven by the duel fuels of doing the right thing and surviving. Readers will relish this compelling tale as two men decades apart in age seek forgiveness and redemption in the wilderness, but as they battle to survive realize where they must truly go to achieve atonement. WIND RIVER is an excellent inspirational thriller.

Harriet Klausner