Killer View (Hardcover)

by Ridley Pearson (Author)
Key Phrases: missing skier, dart rifle, snowmobile track, Mark Aker, Lon Bernie, Kira Tulivich (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Pearson returns to his favorite protagonist as Sun Valley Sheriff Walt Fleming must race against the clock to uncover a volatile biohazard operation and head the search for his best friend who's disappeared. Christopher Lane reads with a firm, unwavering voice that captures the heightened tension in Pearson's prose without sounding too urgent or manufactured. Lane's slightly underplayed tone is fairly straightforward, but his characters are steeped in reality and, more importantly in a commercial thriller such as this, believability. Lane's reading does the story justice, managing to draw listeners into the mystery and set their pulses racing with every twist and turn. A Putnam hardcover (Reviews, May 19). (July)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

From Booklist
*Starred Review* The rich and famous may regard Sun Valley, Idaho, as a retreat from reality, but for Sheriff Walt Fleming, there is no such escape. In Killer Weekend (2007), the first installment in Pearson’s latest series, Sheriff Fleming earned respect and a certain amount of celebrity when he saved the U.S. attorney general’s life. This time around, trouble hits much closer to home, when the brother of Fleming’s best friend, Mark, is killed during the search for a missing skier. Mark disappears soon after, and it quickly becomes clear these were not random acts. But Walt is at a loss as to what could have befallen Mark, a highly regarded local veterinarian. A series of clues, including the smell of burning wool, leads Fleming to ranches in the remote Pahsimeroi Valley, where he finds pits filled with dead livestock. Then there’s news of contamination at a local water-bottling plant. Fleming has long had his eye on a radical group called the Samakinn. Could they be behind this? Or, fears Walt, is this trouble on a much larger scale? Fans of Pearson’s numerous thrillers (including the best-selling Lou Boldt/Daphne Matthews series) will welcome this newest entry, which sparkles with the writer’s crisp prose and unrelenting suspense. In Sheriff Fleming, Pearson has created a likable, sympathetic protagonist, forever challenged by ferocious weather, a feisty citizenry, and feral criminal minds. --Allison Block

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Putnam Adult; First Edition edition (July 15, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0399155058
• ISBN-13: 978-0399155055
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #46,910 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Formulaic; an unsuspenseful "thriller", July 21, 2008

By	Brian Baker (Santa Clarita, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

In a sequel to last year's "Killer Weekend", Sun Valley Sheriff Walt Fleming is back, again juggling the mess of his personal life with his duties as a lawman.

Trying to solve the mystery of the disappearance of one of his best friends while also trying to solve the murder of that friend's brother, Fleming stumbles into a possible conspiracy with much broader implications and possible national ramifications.

It sounds better than it plays, unfortunately.

First, and most tediously, Fleming seems to be a very annoyingly passive-aggressive character who can't seem to get off the dime and make a decision about ANYTHING!

His wife's run off to shack up with his best deputy, abandoning him and their two young twin daughters. Fleming can't seem to decide how to deal with this in any way: fire the deputy? Fulfill his parental duties? File for divorce? Nada. Nothing happens, other than endless and boring angst and self-recriminations. He won't do or say anything much to the deputy; abandons his kids, essentially, to a caretaker; is afraid of his ex-wife; is too wussy to date anyone else.

We should care why?

As to the actual "mystery" itself, it's almost totally lost in the soap opera about Fleming's personal life and travel brochure descriptions of the Sun Valley area.

Yes, it's a beautiful place; I get it.

The characterizations of the secondary players range from thin and two-dimensional to virtually non-existent. Kira, the victim of a brutal rape in the opening segment, is a completely cartoonish character, for example; yet her rape is one of the driving events of the plot.

The "action" segments are strung together almost haphazardly. There's seldom a coherent flow to events, and some are completely skipped, only referred to in later dialogue in which you learn the outcome.

My three stars are generous, and are earned by Pearson's earlier works and the resultant goodwill from them.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars THE ULTIMATE SNOW JOB, July 23, 2008

By	Gail Cooke (TX, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

This review is from: Killer View (Sun Valley) (Audio CD)

Topnotch author Ridley Pearson has lived in the Sun Valley area for some twenty years, so he knows the setting for his story well. Perhaps that's one reason why his scenes are so vivid, seeming to appear before our eyes in full color. Of course, setting is not all this writer knows well as the number of his books on bestseller lists clearly show. He knows how to spin a thriller from opening line to often shocking finish, which he surely does with Killer View.

Sun Valley Sheriff Walt Fleming doesn't hesitate for a nano second when he receives a nighttime call saying that a skier is missing. He assembles his top men as a search and rescue team and goes out into the bone chilling blackness. With him are his best friend, veterinarian Mark Aker, Mark's brother, Randy, and deputy Tommy Brandon. Walt feels little friendship for Tommy due to the deputy's history with Walt's former wife. But Walt is a professional and a job needs to be done.

That job immediately takes a surprising twist when Randy is fatally shot and Mark disappears. It isn't long before a young girl who works at the veterinarians' office is cruelly assaulted. She arrives at a local hospital with no memory of her attacker. Now, Walt is faced with a murder, a missing man, and an assault victim. As he proceeds with his investigation he becomes aware that sheep in the area are falling ill. How does all or any of this tie together and why would a prominent congressman call Walt of all possible sheriffs and tell him to come to Washington to fill in for a conference drop out?

Following Pearson's finely, logically constructed story is both exciting and absorbing. A narration by Audie Award winner Christopher Lane lends additional pleasure, leaving this listener hoping to hear much more from him in the future.

- Gail Cooke

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Just OK, July 20, 2008

A Kid's Review

Ridley Pearson is one of my favorite authors; however, his last few attempts have been lukewarm. He really needs to get back to basics and write another in the Lou Boldt series. They were wonderful.