Customer Reviews

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Alaska is considered by many people to be the last frontier on the North American continent. The land appears to be pristine and clean, but like the rest of the United States, evil walks the land. Dog musher and trainer Jessie Arnold is internationally renowned for her canine breeding program and her participation in races like the Iditarard. Although she can not fathom who would hate her enough to hurt her, she has recently been under siege from an unknown antagonist.

Her assailant's campaign of terror is frightening Jessie. The culprit has placed traps in her kennels, leading to severe injuries to her dogs. Jessie herself barely escapes from the teeth of one of the traps. She receives threatening calls and letters. Her brake line has been cut, leading to Jessie and her friends being hospitalized from the subsequent car crash. Jessie's significant other, state trooper Alex Jensen, devotes his full attention to capturing the maniac stalking his beloved before the cat and mouse game turns fatal.

Sue Henry brings out the feral isolation of the sparsely populated part of Alaska that provides the reader insight into a region where the law exists only as far as an individual can personally enforce it. DEADFALL imbues the audience with the primal fear that a person feels when a stalker makes them his prey. The imaginative story line with its solid mystery, in which the assailant's motives are as important as uncovering his identity, compels readers to want more novels from this talented author.

Harriet Klausner

I am a great fan of Sue Henry and could't wait to read her 5th book. All her other books kept getting better and better. This one just does not have the mystery and smooth writing of her other books. In fact, I found this one rather boring and felt Ms. Henry was reaching for something that was not there. I can only hope her next book gets back into the beautiful discription of Alaska and has a better believable mystery.

I have to disagree with some of the other reviewers here. I thought this was a very well plotted story. The action was reminiscent of Murder On The Iditarod Trail which I thought was exceptional. Even the everyday chores Jesse performs are made interesting. I'm glad that the relationship between Jesse and Alex is continuing unchanged. If they were to marry, I think a lot of the spark would be lost. The only trouble with Ms. Henry's books is that they are finished too soon.

This was my first book by Sue Henry and I loved it! When I read the description, I feared that the plot would be predictable, and it was a bit; however, Ms. Henry's writing kept me engaged.

I have to say that the quality of writing, the setting, action and details in this book were excellent, and the story well put together. I guess I would give it 3 and a half stars really. I haven't read the other books in the series, and this book is prompting me to find the others to read. Dispite the problems with the book, the richly described setting and conflict pulled me in.

The book does something of a "time jump" in which every other chapter is devoted to charachters in seperate places, and are also seperated by a day. I think this was a clumsy, and somewhat confusing way to let readers in on some facts.

Like other readers, I found the motive too far fetched to involve the people it did. Why didn't the perp just go directly to the problem he had?? I would say more but I don't want to give it away. Jessie took some actions which I keept thinking "No! Don't do that!" at her in the final conflict. Also, Jessie's conflict of independance vs. commitment to Alex, was, I felt, an afterthought to the story which soured an otherwise good ending.

In this 5th. book of the series, Alex's girlfriend Jessie is being harrassed and threatened. Alex decides that Jessie needs to go to a remote island where she can be safe and he can find the culprit. There is a lot of suspense in this book, and the usual wonderful descriptions, but there are some flaws which are not evident in Henry's other books. The reason for the harrassment is hard to believe and is too convoluted to ring true. Also, author Henry seems to be changing her mind as to who is the main character in her books. The earlier books in the series are labelled at the Alex Jensen Mystery Series, but now that Jessie is emerging as the main character, they are called the Alaska Mysteries. There also seems to be a lot of ambivalence on Jessie's part as to what is more important--her relationship with Alex or her independence. If you can swallow the improbable ending, the book is still a good read.

I love Alaska and was very excited to discover Sue Henry's mystery series. She does a wonderful job describing the land, the people, and of course, sled dogs. I really enjoyed the prior books in the series, but this one was a disappointment. The plot just didn't make sense - it was very farfetched that a villain would go after Jessie according to this book's scenario. I was also very disappointed in this book's depiction of Jessie and Alex's relationship. He is a great guy. Yet, in this book, Jessie behaves stupidly, ungratefully, and cannot make up her mind about Alex. Her reasons for ambivalence simply don't make sense and I was very disappointed in her. Up to this point, I had really admired Jessie and also, her relationship with Alex. As I know from personal experience, a good man is hard to find - when you find one, you shouldn't gratuitously botch the relationship! It had been refreshing to read about a healthy, positive, loving relationship - until this book in the series.

I really enjoyed Murder on the Iditerod Trail and have read all of Henry's books since then. I was immensely pleased to find this one featuring Jessie again,rather than her boyfriend Alex. Jessie is a terrific character set in her element of Alaskan mushers and I would love to see more of her. The book starts out very well and then crashes badly when the motivation of the villain is exposed. I don't want to spoil the plot for anyone,but the reason for the entire plot sequence becomes highly unlikely and emotionally unsatisfactory. The independent female lead ends up incompetent. The reader is left yelling "don't go in the cellar with the light off" like in a B horror movie. It was very disappointing and a betrayal of the character to have her mouth words of female independence at the end when she flubbed it in traditional dumb heroine fashion in the previous chapter. I might have forgiven Jessie's actions ( we all have dumb moments) if I had been able t! o accept the plot device that drove the action. When the explanation for the stalking was made I found it totally unlikely. Much like hitting your toe with a hammer and blaming Bob Vila! Sorry Ms. Henry I'll give you one more try but that's it.

I enjoyed this book for the suspense - it had plenty. Jessie shines in this one. I was puzzled by the convoluted motives of the bad guy.I guess Sue Henry wanted to make the book as mysterious as possible. I felt the frustration that the main characters had, but went along with the story anyway. I felt strongly agitated when the bad guy went after the dogs. I would give a lot to have a friend like Tank.:) The ending was really a reach but all's well that ends well. Altogether it was a competent and enjoyable read. On to the next.

I found the Alaskan scenery and way of life to be very interesting, however, as a mystery this book didn't cut it. Jessie was about as dumb as any main character I have ever read about. She carried a 44, was supposedly competent with firearms, never took a shot at a stalker who was shooting at her, and eventually gave her gun up to the stalker while cooking his breakfast. What drivel. Who in their right mind when someone is trying to kill them, would be furious at anyone for sending help because their independence was threatened. The story is inprobable and needed a good proofreading.