Wounded Earth [Kindle Edition]

Mary Anna Evans (Author)

Book Description

An environmental thriller from a recipient of Red Adept's Red Adept's Annual Indie Award--

Larabeth McLeod has beauty, money, several patents, a Ph.D., a successful environmental firm, and some very old secrets. When a man with the uncomfortable name of Babykiller begins stalking her, terrorizing her with stories of her darkest days in Vietnam, stories no one else knows, she feels compelled to fight back...until he exposes her most tender secret of all by threatening the daughter she has never met.

She turns to private detective J.D. Hatten for help, breaking five years of separation and silence between quarreling friends. And then Babykiller shows his true capabilities. He is the head of an illicit business offering but one service--moving cargo worldwide for criminals who need their drugs or cash or smuggled goods shipped safely and anonymously--so he is capable of putting anything anywhere. He quietly explains to Larabeth, a well-known environmental executive, that he can even put defective gauges in nuclear power plants, and he will, just to get her attention. If she goes to the police for protection, people will die. Lots and lots of people will die. And one of them will be her daughter.

Larabeth and J.D. are just a normal man and woman, up against a babykiller. But then, Babykiller doesn't know who he's dealing with...

WOUNDED EARTH is the first thriller by Mary Anna Evans, winner of the Benjamin Franklin Award, the Florida Literature Award, and a Florida Book Awards Bronze medal Her Faye Longchamp archaeological mysteries, ARTIFACTS, RELICS, EFFIGIES, FINDINGS, and FLOODGATES, are available on Amazon in print, large-print, and audio editions.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Wounded Earth delivers on plot. Its nail-biting intensity will keep you up late in your eagerness to find out how it ends." -Books and Pals

"Wounded Earth is a wonderfully entertaining read from beginning to end, recommendable to those who relish suspense and feast on antagonists with delusions of grandeur." -Stimulated Outlet Book Reviews

About the Author

Mary Anna Evans has degrees in physics and engineering, but loves storytelling best. Her fictional characters, Faye Longchamp and Larabeth McLeod, live the exciting lives of an archaeologist and a globetrotting CEO, and Mary Anna envies them a little. Her published novels include the Faye Longchamp mysteries--ARTIFACTS, RELICS, EFFIGIES, FINDINGS, FLOODGATES, and STRANGERS--and environmental thriller WOUNDED EARTH. They have received recognitions including a spot on Voice of Young America's (VOYA) list of "Adult Mysteries with Young Adult Appeal." They have been on the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association's (IMBA) bestseller list and have been designated Notable Books by Booksense and Indiebound. Mary Anna has won the Florida Historical Society's Patrick D. Smith Florida Literature Award, the Benjamin Franklin Award, and a Florida Book Awards Bronze Medal. Her books have been nominated for ForeWord Magazine's Book of the Year and for the SIBA Book Award. While Mary Anna's novels are written with adults in mind, they have found an audience in schools, where they're being used to teach non-literature subjects such as social studies, math, and science. The social studies link was no surprise to the books' author, since her protagonist is an archaeologist, but she swears that she never once purposely included math or science in her stories. (And her readers have never once complained that the laws of physics operate properly in her books). Learning that she's done this unconsciously has been an inarguable example of the axiom that writers write about who they are. They can't help it. She is using her engineering education in an interesting way these days. Her book MATHEMATICAL LITERACY IN THE MIDDLE AND SECONDARY GRADES, co-written with Dr. Faith Wallace, will be published by Pearson in 2012. Math and science explain the world, so they're indispensable to any story set in that world. And they're very handy tools for an amateur detective to have. Her next Faye Longchamp mystery, PLUNDER, will also be published in 2012. For more information on Mary Anna and her work, see http://www.maryannaevans.com.

Product Details

• File Size: 487 KB
• Print Length: 300 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1456530704
• Publisher: Joyeuse Press (March 23, 2010)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B003DXAAKG
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #80,020 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome character driven thriller! July 4, 2011

By Just Jen

Format:Kindle Edition

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a review. It is hard to find a story with a strong female protagonist who is intelligent, relatable, and likable. Larabeth is all of the above. I was immediately intrigued by her character and her past. Wounded Earth is a wonderful character driven thriller. The tension builds right from the start, there is so much more at stake than you think. From Larabeth's first strange phone call to the very end I was drawn in to Larabeth's life and the deviousness of Babykiller. The plot is well thought out and gets richer as the story develops, made stronger and more interesting as Larabeth's past is slowly revealed to the reader. I truly enjoyed reading this book, it was so much more than I expected.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars So Many Good Things to Say about Wounded Earth July 11, 2011

By Libby Fischer Hellmann

Format:Kindle Edition

There are so many good things to say about Maryanna Evans' WOUNDED EARTH, it's hard to know where to start. Is it the velvety smooth prose that is rich and textured, but never interferes with the story? Is it the depth of characterization of Larabeth and Cynthia, who would make a formidable duo going forward (hint)? Or is it the author's obvious intelligence and knowledge of nuclear and other environmental disasters, which (because it was written several years ago) proved to be prescient, given what's happened in Japan? Whatever the reasons, WOUNDED EARTH captured me from the start and held my interest till the end. I heartily recommend this thriller.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Wounded Earth July 7, 2011

By Lora

Format:Kindle Edition

I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for a review. I'm glad I chose this book to read and review. This is the first book I've read of this author so I know nothing about her previous books or their genres. I like how this book immediately drew me in and started building the story right away. I liked the continuity and how the past was clearly woven into the story without confusing the writing. The female main character was strong and believable . The only thing I didn't like was the name "Babykiller" used for the male antagonist. I know it was a reference to Vietnam but it was just difficult for me to keep reading that name over and over in the book. I also didn't like the very graphic description of the mutilation of the endangered species animals as part of the story. I don't think such vivid descriptions was necessary to contribute to the book. Other than that, I liked the book and it held my interest throughout as it built to the climax.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Better and better February 15, 2011

By BillD

Format:Kindle Edition

I've read many of Mary Anna Evans' work and it just gets better and better as she writes. As previously noted this is her first attempt in the thriller genre and it succeeds. Her heroine is smart and likable (not all smart people are likable) and the action builds as the book progresses. As a fan of her mystery work, I think that with this book she takes her characters and storytelling into a new direction. If you liked her previous work, be sure to pick this one up. I don't believe you will regret it.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars From Red Adept Reviews: Wounded Earth May 11, 2011

By Michelle R

Format:Kindle Edition

I obtained Wounded Earth, by Mary Anna Evans, from a copy sent to Red Adept Reviews.

Overall: 3 3/4 stars

Plot/Storyline: 4 Stars

I liked the idea here. It tapped into a lot of my personal fears as Babykiller's technique involved eco-terrorism and harming endangered animals. Perhaps the saddest scene for me was when a pilot had to contemplate the fact that without his knowledge he'd been made to do harm while crop dusting. That the deer drinking from the river, the herons eating fish, might be ingesting toxins. Even though the book takes place in 1995, it called up memories of the Gulf Coast Spill, and how many innocent animals would die simply because humans keep screwing up. For the people less tree huggy than myself, there was also the threat of things not working out to well for people either.

Characters: 4 stars

Larabeth was a terrific character. Smart. Strong. From the second she even suspected there might be a threat, she sought out help. Now, by Literary Law, local police are useless, but J.D. - a private detective she knew - was her first call. I love that we're told she's smart and logical and then she goes ahead and does smart and logical things. Early on, after Babykiller calls her for perhaps the second time she said to him, "If you're threatening me, it won't work," ... "I may have been careless in the past, but no more. If you know so much about me, you know I can afford a security system, a gun, even a personal body guard, if that's what it takes."

I love that. She does make mistakes, but she makes reasonable mistakes. Even some of her actions that backfired were logical given what she knew.... When she was careless, she was careless in a way that most people could understand - in defense of people she cared about.

Babykiller didn't work for me at quite the same level. He was so powerful and the cards were so stacked in his favor, even with Larabeth's advantages, that it seemed too much. He wasn't clever as much as well-connected. It was simply too much like he was waving a magic wand and never breaking a sweat rather than a Hannibal Lecter level villain. I felt he needed to be charismatic or really creepy in his conversations with Larabeth, but while his words were vile they were never clever. Some of his actions and threats interested me, but he did not.

Another character, Cynthia, was quite interesting and could carry her own book easily. J.D, the private detective, never gelled as a complete character for me, but I can't say why. I guess it's enough that Larabeth liked him.

Writing Style: 3 1/2 Stars

I'm a fan of the author. I'd read a mini anthology by her called Offerings that pretty much knocked me on my derriere. I have to say that Wounded Earth did not quite meet my expectations based on that previous effort, but much of what I'd enjoyed before was present. I think of Mary Anna as a very smart writer and this book didn't disappoint in that respect, but I kept thinking Wounded Earth should have been tighter. The story has a lot of things happening, and at least one major subplot, and yet it still felt like the pace of the first 50% or so was slow and that there was a little too much repetition. The nature of the story made me want a roller coaster ride, but things unfolding too leisurely for those thrills and chills to kick in until the book was over half over. This slower pace, however, worked beautifully for her in Offerings.

However, individual scenes were excellent, particularly the scenes in which Babykiller arranges for something truly vile to happen.

There was also a moment when the author really stepped into the narrative. The book took place in 1995 and the narrative voice sounded like the story was concurrent with that time. At about the 67% mark and at a crucial point, the tone changed for a couple paragraphs for, there's no other way to say it, the author to step in and remind us specifically that it's 1995 and explain why the thing that was about to happen (a tech snafu) would not occur today. I suppose it felt important to do this, but it was momentarily jarring and not necessary if the reader had been paying any attention.

Editing: 3 1/2 Stars

There was a sporadic formatting glitch that involved a couple paragraphs in a row to have a right justification. Beyond that, Glinda from The Wizard of Oz got called Glenda. There was sprinkling of typos and combined words. A minor character's last name changed. A store's name changed from The Spy Stop to The Spy Place within a couple paragraphs. The errors, while not completely over the top, were enough to alter the reading experience. Read more ›

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars good action April 16, 2011

By R. Laney

Format:Paperback

Its more scary of a book when you think about what is happening in Japan right now. The story is good and suspenseful. Larabeth who is ceo of her own company who gave up her daughter when she was teenager. J.D. PI who owns his business used to track down and reports on Cynthia even prom pictures. Babykiller is the bad guy behind everything. killings, kidnapping, nuclear plant problems harassing and stalking. FBI agent the new recruit and a tratior. you dont want to put the book down till you are done with it. I enjoyed it.

More About the Author

I'm the author of the award-winning Faye Longchamp archaeological mysteries: ARTIFACTS, RELICS, EFFIGIES, FINDINGS, FLOODGATES, STRANGERS, and PLUNDER. RITUALS will be coming in 2013. My other fiction includes several short stories, available separately as ebooks, and as a collection in both ebook and print form, called JEWEL BOX: SHORT WORKS BY MARY ANNA EVANS. My most recent publications are nonfiction, a departure for me. YOUR NOVEL, DAY BY DAY: A FICTION WRITER'S COMPANION is available for novelists in both ebook and print form. I am also the co-author, with Dr. Faith Wallace, of MATHEMATICAL LITERACY IN THE MIDDLE AND HIGH SCHOOL GRADES: A MODERN APPROACH TO SPARKING STUDENT INTEREST, available in print from Pearson.

I'm a a chemical engineer by training and license, with a degree in engineering physics thrown in for spice, but I love reading about history and writing about an archaeologist. Truth be told, I'm a little jealous of Faye and her archaeological adventures.

I enjoy reading, writing, gardening, spending time with my family, cooking, and playing my 7-and-a-half-foot-long monster of a grand piano. My cat helps me write, so I should probably put his name on my books.