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Showing posts from February, 2021

Force of Nature by Jane Harper *** (of 4)

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At the unavoidable "request" of their company to attend a bonding retreat, five women with limited experience are sent into the Australian rainforest to build camaraderie. Wearing brand new hiking boots, backpacks that are too heavy, and insufficient clothing for the cold and wind they are sent out on a track with directions that are not quite clear enough as paths diverge in front of them. Three days later and six hours after scheduled arrival time only four emerge from the forest. The returnees are lacerated, bruised, shivering from exposure, one has been bitten by a poisonous snake, and very hungry. They do not know the whereabouts of the fifth in their party. Part mystery, but mostly Lord of the Flies , Force of Nature  describes what happens when a series of small decisions cascade into disaster and five women carrying workplace drama into the woods have to face strong wind, driving rain, falling temperatures, impenetrable darkness, and the less pretty side of human natu

The Daughters of Foxcote Manor by Eve Chase ** (of 4)

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Meh. Billed as a mystery, a body turns up on page one. Unlike most mysteries, the overarching question is not who did the killing, but in the scary forest outside the decaying Foxcote Manor hidden amongst encroaching British woodland, but to whom does the body belong. The books male characters are reduced to three trite stereotypes. There is an overbearing, controlling husband who takes unknown, important business trips abroad. (Any wagers on whether he is having an affair?) While husband is away, man number two is Businessman's best friend, a Lothario with a drink on the rocks always at hand and a wolfish leer aimed at anything female within striking distance. Man number three possesses all the characteristics to be the opposite: silent strength, the ability to fix or make anything, compassion, a limitless capacity to listen, and even just the right amount of musky, almost sweating, aromatic charisma. The real mystery of Foxcote Manor is how it persuaded reviewers to call it a sus

Owls of the Eastern Ice by Jonathan Slaght *** (of 4)

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  A fish owl stands as tall as your chest. It plucks salmon with its talons from roaring rivers in the Russian province of Primorye, in the far east of the country. And before Jonathan Slaght started his PhD and wrote this book, not much more was known about the owls. The book is one-third scientific investigation, one-third description of a climate of winter blizzards that rage with such intensity and duration that transportation by any means is impossible, and one-third conversations with the people of the forest: hermits, indigenous, old Soviet castaways, and vodka-fueled nutcases. While I suspect Slaght's interests run in order from bird conservation to the weather that gets in his way, and finally the people with whom he must work to observe his birds, far and away the most interesting descriptions are of people living so very far from globalization. The book probably is more engaging for readers who know little about how ecologists work. For me, the long efforts to build succ