Review: Ill Wind

Ill Wind by Nevada Barr
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

New book, new park. Anna's at my old location, Mesa Verde, so I loved reading this one. I sold a ton of this book in my stores when I worked there. It's interesting to be able to visualize each location while you are in the park. Minus the dead bodies, of course.

Shoved into seasonal housing, prickly Anna is winning friends and influencing people, as usual. But she starts to settle in, and quickly gets embroiled in sabotage for the pipeline threatening to ruin one of my favorite parks, and then murder. I have to admit I thought I had it figured out a couple of times, but was wrong. And then our old Fed Stanton comes, and Anna is off to the sparring races. I'm interested to see where they take this quasi-partnership in book 4.

I love this series because Nevada Barr allows us to armchair travel to our National Parks. They are my among my favorite places. Take care of them, visit them, and leave no trace.

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Play Dead (Allie Babcock Mystery #1)

Play Dead by Leslie O'Kane

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


I really wanted to like this book because the idea of a mystery series with a dog psychologist / amateur sleuth sounded fun, but it just didn't deliver for me.

A couple of things: The mystery was way over complicated and a bit ridiculous. I felt the main character was annoying, yet she had men tripping over themselves to get to her. Her office partner was in all kinds of insta-love for her, her blind date was crazy about her after 5 minutes, etc. I think she was supposed to be smart and plucky, but it did not come across in the writing. And her roommate was written to be a sniveling, needy psycho--basically the world's worst person who no one in their right mind would tolerate. Pretty much every male character was written to be a total jerk. I would never talk to any of these people in real life, ever, except the mom and the cooking class instructor (but only if she promised not to make me eat vegan food).

The depiction of Boulder was pretty spot on, though. Well done, author, for capturing the hippie-uniqueness that is Boulder.



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