Customer Reviews

As the Wolf Loves Winter

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

 

 

Wow. I just finished reading this book during a subzero Midwestern winter, and I believe that was the best time to read it. The cold leaps off the pages and gets into your bones, just like it does to the characters in the book. You're reading along very nicely, understanding the plot and the players in it, when WHAM! A startling announcement at a community meeting throws you a curve. An old man and a little girl are lost in the woods. And suddenly you're on a literary roller coaster, flying toward the conclusion of the novel, unable to do anything but finish the darn book. It's great! Now I have to go read the other two episodes in the series.

I have reviewed only a few books, and a "10" to me is equal to "Silence of the Lambs" in quality. So I find it hard to believe that I am the first one to review this book! It is exquisitely written, and the various threads will keep you fascinated trying to figure out how they'll fit together at the end. It's a weird premise for a popular novel, granted - "...an explosive novel of wolves, ecopolitics, oil, and murder" says the cover - but it doesn't require an ecological bent to appreciate this masterful work. Well, I'm off to find MORE David Poyer!

"Racks" Halvorsen, the old man of the woods in Hemlock County returns to take on corruption in the remnants of the oil business in the home area of the origins of oil production. Masterful writing by a great story teller with a true gift in use of the English language. If you like well developed characters, Pennsylvania, the oil industry, ecology, and a fast paced read; you can not go wrong with this book. If you haven't read the two previous novels in this series, reading this one will send you scrambling to find them. They are entitled: "Winter in the Heart" and "The Dead of Winter". You will find yourself in "Racks" Halvorsen's shoes and almost feel the frostbite.

I found this to be an enjoyable, well-written thriller with unusually strong characterization. Poyer achieves an unusual feat, creating a junior high age girl character who's only annoying some of the time.

As people die mysteriously in the wintry Pennsylvania hills, a mining corporation faces a hostile takeover, and some begin to blame the killings on recently introduced wolves.

The corporate parts of the story are frankly rather boring until you reach the culmination, the reason for them. Poyer must have dealt with corporate vampire types before. The takeover and proposed restructuring ring true.

Believability isn't necessarily this novel's strong point. The twist, the criminal behavior of a character, comes with no foreshadowing whatsoever. Secret mines where trespassers are savaged by attack dogs? Wolves saving children from frozen lakes? (The wolves are described well and mostly accurately, but that bit lost me). Nevertheless, I enjoyed the book. The descriptions of the winter mountains are especially strong. I recommend it.