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Index Interviews: William Dietrich Spam and the Children's Author The Times, They Are A-Changin' Return to This Issue's Index Return to Homepage Subscribe
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Mystery/Thriller Book ReviewsPage Three of ThreeHigh Country by Nevada BarrPutnam, February, 2004Hardcover, 323 pages ISBN: 0399151443 Ordering information: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk 
National Park Service ranger Anna Pigeon takes on the
high snow country of Yosemite in this gripping
12th novel in the series. Sent to work undercover as a waitress
in the famous Ahwahnee Hotel, Anna quickly finds
more troubled than she bargained for. Her job is to find
four young employees who disappeared, so she must
bunk in the employee quarters with a bunch
of very messy 20-somethings. And her waitressing skills
aren't exactly up to par, which leads to some
vicious confrontations with the head waitress and the
borderline psychotic chef. As Anna begins to investigate,
she discovers some very nasty characters camping in the park
and a downed plane in a nearby lake in the mountains.
But when she gets too close, the bad guys decide that
Anna needs to be silenced, which sets off an incredibly violent
sequence of cat and mouse as Anna fights
for her life in the snow-covered mountains.
Nevada Barr sets the story in the beautiful Yosemite park in winter, when the mountains are covered in snow and the hiking is treacherous. Her descriptions of Yosemite are vivid, and Ms. Barr excels at writing action sequences. Anna's confrontation with criminals in the High Sierras is absolutely breathtakingly suspenseful. Anna Pigeon shows no sign of slowing down; this series is just as fresh and entertaining as ever. The Last Juror by John GrishamDoubleday, February, 2004Hardcover, 355 pages ISBN: 0385510438 Ordering information: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk 
Willie Traynor, a college dropout, talks his wealthy
grandmother into loaning him the money to purchase
a bankrupt Mississippi small town newspaper. Traynor
isn't having much luck with the newspaper until a
young mother is brutally raped and murdered by a
a disturbed young member of the Padgitt family. The
Padgitt family has been known for years to be criminals,
thugs and bandits. They isolate themselves on a small
patch of land just outside of town and are rumored to
regularly pay off local government officials and police.
When Traynor provides detailed and accurate coverage
of the murder his newspaper sales explode.
Traynor's coverage of the trial infuriated the Padgitt family and he soon
finds himself and his newspaper business threatened
both by the Padgitts' lawyers and by their hired killers.
The killer is finally convicted, but when he gets out of jail,
the jurors from his trial start dying one by one.
This latest book from Grisham is a fresh, entertaining tale, despite the fact that the main character is a journalist/newspaper owner (not a lawyer) and the enemy is not a giant corporation but a homegrown family that specializes in crime, thievery and murder in a small town in Mississippi. This is Grisham's first return to Mississippi as a setting since his novel, A Time to Kill. The Last Juror focuses on small-town politics and how one corrupt family can control and bully its residents. Grisham captures the interesting nuances of life in Clanton, Mississippi and fully develops Traynor's character. Traynor is likeable, but he's not the heroic, altruistic lawyer typical of most Grisham novels. Some Grisham fans may be disappointed that the author has moved away from corporate politics and large, complicated legal proceedings, but this story of revenge, suspense and justice in a small town makes for compelling reading. Mystery/Thriller Reviews Page One | Page Two | Page Three Click Here to Return to the Book Reviews Index ** To visit the archives of mystery books reviewed in The IWJ, please click here. |