Missoula Books

Braeking the state up into sections, the author does an excellent job of describing and presenting the various highlights of each. Equal treatment is given to popular and off-the-beaten-path areas, with sufficient detail for each. It made my recent visit more enjoyable!

This book was a wonderful guide to the areas of Montana we traveled through. There were several things we would not have seen if it hadn't been for the suggestions in the book and some excellent restaurants we wouldn't have stopped at if they had not been recommended by the book. We plan to get another "hidden" book for our next trip.

Hidden Montana appears in its third edition to cover inns, tours, drives, and outdoors explorations throughout the state. From Glacier Park to Yellowstone, this is packed with lesser-known byways. Recommended.

for the armchair scientist and/or the knowledgable tourist.

A couple of years ago I basically followed the same route covered on this 1989 field trip and was greatly rewarded by having the book at the ready.

The ISBN number (0881071781) is for a book called The History of Lawrence County Kentucky, as told by those who lived it, and others who heard their stories ; [compiled] by Regina Tackett, Patricia Jackson, and Janice Thompson, project coordinators in cooperation with the Lawrence County Public Library.
Printed by Curtis Media Corp ©1991 - not Missoula Valley history
by Jo Rainbolt as Amazon has it listed.

Good book about the history of Lawrence County Kentucky, includes brief family trees of people who submitted information, lots of photographs, and military info as well as local lore and history. Only useful to those interested in Eastern Kentucky history/genealogy.

This book is an extremely interesting study of the gigantic cataclysms caused when the ice dam holding back impounded glacier-melt waters in western Montana's Lake Missoula would periodically burst. The consequent outrushes repeatedly resculpted lands in northern Idaho, and eastern and central Washington, resulting in the curious, almost eerie, landforms covering much of that area today. Excellent photography amply demonstrates these effects.

Dr. Alt is a good writer, whose text carves a continuous, easily-followed thread that brings to life the events surrounding these floods, and their effects. His enthusiasm is contagious.

This book should not be read alone, but in conjuction with the book, "Cataclysms on the Columbia", written earlier. Any tourist going to the Northwest, and certainly natives of that wonderful region, will enjoy both books, and gain a valuable, lasting impression of this most peculiar part of the Earth. Each book will give directions to the most spectacular phenomena as well. I highly recommend each, but again suggest both should be read in conjunction.

I picked up this book while touring the visitor's center at the Grand Coulee Dam in Washington State, on the way home from camping in the Canadian Rockies. In spite of having grown up in Washington State, I'd never seen the Grand Coulee before, and thought it was about time. Besides, the kids thought it would be a treat.

The Grand Coulee dam sits in a wide, deep channel, or coulee, in the Eastern Washington basalt. David Alt's book is relevant because it explains (among lots of other things) where the coulee (and others like it) originated. The story begins with early settlers, who wondered at the scab lands in the area, and their contrast with the rich soils of the Palouse Hills. Some of these scab lands show stream beds much too wide to support current flows, and scouring as much as several hundred feet above the current channels. There are also potholes in the coulees, very numerous, and some of gigantic proportions. Further north, in Montana, there are the unmistakable horizontal lines of ancient lake shores, high on the hills and mountains of river valleys.

These and other clues led early geologists to wonder and speculate about ancient glacial lakes during the last ice age. T. C. Chamberlain was one of these, as was Joseph Pardee, who actually calculated the volume of water in what is now called Glacial Lake Missoula. The numbers are impressive. The lake held roughly 500 cubic miles of water, was nearly 2000 feet deep, and covered an area of roughly 2,900 square miles.

The problem was, it was all held back by an ice dam, an ice finger, actually, from one of the glaciers that moved down from Canada during the last ice age. And when the water in the lake became deep enough to float the ice dam, it gave way, resulting in a tremendous rush of water out of the lake that sloshed its way, making temporary lakes as it went, all the way to the Pacific ocean.

Along the way, this great flood formed many of the features we see in Montana, the Idaho panhandle, Easter Washington, the Columbia Gorge, and the lower Columbia. Alt has structured his book so that he takes the reader on a voyage from the lake's beginnings in Montana through the river valleys the flood scoured. Along the way he explains how the floods resulted in landmarks easily visible from interstate highways, including such features as Coeur d'Alane Lake in Idaho, the scablands and coulees of Eastern Washington, the Columbia River Gorge, and Lake Oswego in Oregon.

The book is nicely illustrated, with lots of black-and-white photographs of geological features as well as useful maps. The story, for the most part, is sequential, and follows the events of the flood from the moment the ice dam broke. An important point, though, is that there were many such floods. Perhaps three dozen or more. This cyclic behavior resulted from the creeping ice: as soon as the ice dam washed out, the glacial ice, continuing it's plodding movement, would begin damming the river again, and the process would repeat.

Alt's purpose in writing the book is to both tell the story of geological events, as well as to illustrate how scientists grapple "with an emerging scientific controversy." As he points out, "[S]ome handle it well, others miserably as personalities, pride, and outright prejudice supercede scientific evidence. While I found some of these stories interesting, for me they were a little distracting, particularly when Alt takes the apparent point of view that earlier scientists who did not readily accept the "monster-flood theory" were somehow bad scientists.

For example, Alt states on page 21:

"When J. Harlen Bretz first proposed his great flood, he could not say where the water had come from. He pointed to the enormous expanse of glaciated country to the north and vaguely suggested that the water had come from somewhere up there, somehow. Perhaps a brief interlude of much warmer weather melted an enormous amount of ice. Maybe a volcano erupted beneath the ice. It was a puzzle. People need not understand everything they know. It is perfectly proper in scientific discussions to recognize that a phenomenon exists without being able to explain it."

In hind site it's easy to criticize people for not "believing." But Alt does a disservice, I think, with his implications that such criticisms were somehow unfair. No doubt there were personal conflicts and bad manners, but overall, my perception is that the scientific community was pretty prompt about accepting the new theory once the evidence was presented. And, certainly, the cause of science is not advanced by accepting uncritically ideas for which only ad hoc explanations about "where all the water came from" are advanced. One need only review the circumstances surrounding the fiasco of "cold fusion" to understand the value in the scientific method of "believing" after the facts are established, and not before.

Philosophical issues aside, I really enjoyed this book. It's part of a class of books aimed at the intelligent arm-chair scientist (but of interest, I believe, to "real" scientists, as well) in which a particular geological micro-history is traced through thousands of years. For me, personally, this was a fun book. I enjoy geology, and I especially enjoy such books that take a particular historical event in geology and explain it in detail. It's the sort of book I can easily read while camping, or in the evening, at home. I highly recommend it.

. . . but don't even think of reading this book without ready access to a large-scale map. A road map is fine for the job.

If the idea of catastrophic glacial floods and their still-visible effects on vast reaches of Eastern Washington's geology and topography fascinates you, I haven't found a better book for building a perspective of the whole process.

This is particularly true if you are not a trained geologist: Mr. Alt lays a foundation that illustrates the conditions that led to the mega-floods, then follows the evidence that the floodwaters left upon various watercourses on their way to the ocean.

Mr. Alt presents it all in terms a layperson can understand and use in exploring a series of disasters writ large upon the land.

My knowledge of geology is so incomplete that I don't even qualify as an amateur. However, I live in Missoula, Montana, and from my window can see beach lines left by the several fillings of Lake Missoula. I have listened to David Alt, the author of this book, describe the geologic events of ten to fifteen thousand years ago. In geologic time, that is very recent. Possibly the lake and floods were seen by humans. What a sight that would have been!

My wife and I have carried this book, and the roadside geology books written or coauthored by David Alt, as we drove through Montana, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon. These are the four states involved in the lake and floods. We have compared the many photos and sketches of the book with the actual physical features. Until recently, these books were the only sources of information written in layman's language.

In a nutshell, a huge lake formed behind a dam of glacial ice at the border of Idaho and Montana. It was 2000 feet deep at the dam, 900 feet deep at Missoula, and stretched more than a hundred miles up several valleys. The dam washed out and in less than a week, there were huge floods across Washington and out the Columbia River Gorge to the Pacific. Flood waters backed far up river valleys such as the Yakima and the Willamette. The dam reformed and the event was repeated forty times or more. The floods left behind physical features that match the scope of the event. There are huge silt deposits, giant ripple marks, enormous erratic boulders moved hundreds of miles, and immense rock surfaces scoured by the flooding waters. The great valleys and waterfalls left behind now stand dry. This book tells all; or at least as much as geologists understood in 2001 when the book was published.

A fascinating side story found in the book is about J. Harlen Bretz, the redoubtable geologist who correctly interpreted the evidence of the flood and fought the geologic world to a standstill. He was booed when presenting his theories in national geologic meetings. However, he lived to see most of his detractors either change their viewpoints or go to their graves unconvinced. Today, there is an organization that has gotten Congressional approval to establish an informative "trail" through the four states. It would inform travelers about the geology. There are already signs along the roads and displays in museums. Much of the success is attributable to David Alt and his book "Glacial Lake Missoula and Its Humongous Floods."

Nice book.REMINDS me of the under ground rail road.

The subtitle, "Story of the 1890s Fort Missoula Buffalo Soldiers Bicycle Corps" is a good general description of the book's contents. I had never heard of Ft. Missoula, much less known that they had a bicycle corps, before stumbling across this book in the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial's bookstore. It's not a long book, but it covers its topic well. Of course I was interested in the horrendous ride from Missoula, Montana to St. Louis, but the account of the Ninth and Tenth Cavalry saving the Rough Riders at San Juan Hill was enlightening. Also (all too) informative was the account of the "discharge without honor" by order of President Theodore Roosevelt of 167 soldiers, many of them formerly of the bicycle corps. The book also includes numerous photos, a number of which are wonderful shots (and very well-printed) of the soldiers in Yellowstone National Park. I highly recommend this book as an entertaining account of a dedicated group of American soldiers who happened to have been of African descent. (Incidently, having read this book I was able to feel incredibly smug with recognition when the Bicycle Corps turned up as an integral part of Peter Heck's "Tom's Lawyer", the most recent installment of his Mark Twain mystery series.)

This is a very interesting and neglected subject for a book. I'm interested in anything about bicycling and a bit about the turn of the century, so this was a must-read. Because this is the only book of it's kind I've found, I would recommend reading it.

However, be aware of a few annoyances. The book is poorly edited and proof-read. There are many hyphens separating words that are not at the ends of lines, and a few paragraphs end mid-sentence. There are quite a few repeated passages and it tends to wander a bit from the main subject. One gets the feeling it would not have filled a book of more normal format and was padded a bit. It would be nice to see this one re-published and improved.

Again, I don't mean to disparage it too much - just pointing out some personal annoyances.

Hope it helps...

What a great book! It really has something for everybody; military bike history, Black history, the American frontier at the turn of the century and more. Great pictures and illustrations also. Military cycling books are rare and this one fills a much needed niche. You will not be disappointed.

In 1897 a contingent of twenty black soldiers, a white West Point officer, a military surgeon and a young newspaper reporter rode bicycles from Fort Missoula, Montana to St. Louis, Missouri, following the Burlington Northern railroad. The groups' leader, Lt. Moss, was trying to prove to the army that bicycles could be a valuable asset. I first became acquainted with this little known gem of history through the children's magazine Highlights in the early 90s. I have been fascinated with it ever since. George Niels Sorenson's Iron Riders presents this story and the broader context of those "Buffalo Soldiers-on-wheels". He tells us of the practice trip the bicycle corp made to Yellowstone Park before their epic St. Louis run and the lives of the riders after their trip. This 8 x 10 book has many primary source pictures, documents and maps which illuminate the text. It's the only informational book I know of devoted to a story which deserves a wider audience. If you are a middle school history teacher, like me, do yourself a favor and pick up this book. It would make a fantastic unit. But I agree with the other reviewer: anybody who likes black history, social history, military history, bicycle touring, the west and/or unsung heroes will find a lot to enjoy in this book. And, if you like this book you'll want to check out the PBS video The Bicycle Corps: America's Black Army on Wheels and the children's book Black Wheels.

This is NOT a book about the construction skills that are required to build a house. It IS a book about the philosophy that is required for such an undertaking.
I've been 2 feet away from the edge of building my own for a while, and this book made me feel like I had to take one step closer.
Even if you are not near that edge, it's a good entertaining read that will get you thinking about the way most of the "civilized" world looks at shelter.

The approach is honest as the author wrestles with his desire to do what his conscience tells him is right for the land v.s. the market signals that make those decisions much more expensive. As a complete novice to homebuilding, it gave me a basic understanding of what is involved in building my own home, and made it seem less intimidating.

.. Or buying. Everyone who lives in modern America should read this, to understand the complexity of living in a household with on-demand conveniences. Where does water come from? Where do our feces go? Where does electricity come from? Manning considers the source of all of these, plus the material- lumber, chemicals, etc.- that go into building and living in a house. He has actually worked with his own hands to build his own house, and so he understands the craft and care necessary to build a good house. He has worked for too long as an environmental journalist to overlook the consequences of building and living in a new house. This book and his craft-activism are anathema to the cookie-cutter profit-fueled home building that has generated sprawl and leaves dull houses standing empty in the suburbs, where the greatest asset to a home is its resale value.
Manning's poetics get a bit trying sometimes, when he philosophizes overly much on some task or detail of homebuilding, but overall the information and story are instructive and enlightening.

Richard Manning is an environmentalist writer who can write. He has a voice—an open, honest and emotionally engaging one—one that makes this book a pleasure to read. Manning puts his cards right out on the table, addressing the contradiction of trying to act in an environmentally sensitive way while embarking on a building project that from the start appears less than environmentally sound (building where there was no building before in “ranchette” fashion). Like most of life the resolution is in gray rather than black or white. But Manning succeeds in getting the reader to intimately understand the environmental impact of all facets of modern housing. Whether you build a new home like his or not this is worthwhile information. In my case it prompted me to give my 100 year-old home an “eco-overhaul,” a process which has to date reduced its energy consumption over 60%. And now my family, friends and students occasionally get an uninvited lecture on the virtues of compact fluorescent lighting, on-demand water heating, shutting off “ghost loads” and the like… And you can’t avoid Manning’s contagious love of the art of building and tools. There are all sorts of small gems hiding within this relatively straightforward work, and all of them are worth digging out and mulling over for a moment. ....

A thoughtful couple, knowing that we were planning to build our own house gave this book; it was a pleasure to read because the question "What is a good house?" leads to the question "What is a good life?" For the author this led to more searching questions - a house takes forests from mountains, coal from hills, life from the planet. As these are all major contradictions for those who value nature, the author set out to build his house in such a way as to ensure his happiness with minimum damage to the earth. Building a house is an environmentally destructive act which, multiplied millions of times, is responsible for the degradation of some of our best land. The threat is that unless we are careful we may live our lives in an unsustainable manner. On a fairly superficial level Manning set out to build an environmentally sensitive, energy efficient house but at a deeper level he wanted a house that would rebuild his life from a failed marriage. He did not want frugality to preclude beauty nor asceticism to preclude art. This meant that the land and the author had to cut a deal which is really what this book is all about - the factors that we have to consider, the trade-offs that we have to make and the process of reaching our decisions.

The first lesson that we can learn from Manning is that the land is our first teacher, something that really came home to him in his search for water. The second lesson we learn is about money and how the house loan business works. Because he and the owner of the adjacent property needed a bank loan to build, they planned only basic environmental goals such as a 30% reduction in water consumption compared with national averages, superefficient lights and appliances, recycling of gray water, joint ownership of some facilities, and granting open-space easements for wildlife. With a loan secured he was ready for the third lesson - locating the house. In his case "feel" played a major consideration, once he had settled on a south facing slope and the house footprint. He established a rule that the house would be no bigger than his city apartment, although it was small by national standards, so that he could do without an architect. His golden rule was "If I don't understand it, I don't do it."

Manning tells us how he started digging and his plans for earth sheltering - burying the lower part of the house to reduce heat loss and take advantage of the earth's insulation - a special advantage on a south facing slope with the house buried on three sides. This is another way of saying you live in the basement and take advantage of a large area of the house. He decided on concrete rather than wood because of the concept of thermal mass. But concrete is a gamble; when it's done its either right for all time or its wrong. There's no middle ground. When it goes wrong, it goes dreadfully, terribly wrong and all hell breaks loose.

If you have ever toyed with the idea of building a house in the country and starting the good life, read this book with its template for defining the good life, defining the good house, proceeding with minimal resources and all its lessons for the unwary.

I lived in Missoula MT at the time this guy was on his murder spree. My sister went to school with him. I was in school at the time and not even aware of any of this going on. This book is very interesting and certainly would make any reader sharpen their radar for wierdos. Keep your head on a swival and maintain awareness. I could not put the book down, it is very good and very creepy.

When I was 5 years old in Missoula, Wayne Nance murdered my best friend. I will never, even all these years later, shake what he did - this book helped me come to grips with a small part of what happened as I was too young then to understand. I'm glad for that, but on the other hand, I'm torn. The victims of his horrific crimes deserve far more attention than he got in the end. My friend deserved better. *ALL* his victims deserved better.

Definitly a book for adults only, this is the tale of a furniture delivery man named John Wayne Nance who is confirmed as having killed four and possibly eight people in a twelve year period up until his death in 1986. He attacked a couple in their home who fought back and killed him. My heart went out to the victims and their families, in particular three orphaned children. John Nance must have been SICK to do the revolting crimes he did and to hell he can go!! The book is a moving account of what happened and also very graphic. Two of the victims remain unidentified to this day. May those who died rest in peace.

This book was pretty good. Definently worth buying if you like Serial Killers.

Praetorian

I worked at Conlins in 1982-83, and became good friends with Sheila Claxton and Wayne Nance. She was another sales person and Wayne was one of the delivery guys. We spent many hours at work and after together as friends. He was very mysterious to say the least. When he did weird things we just agreed it was just Wayne. After he tried to kill our friends and Manager of the Conlins Store, we knew he had done it and all the other killings, but it was not until I finished the book that it became real to me... and I was truly afraid....

I had moved to Missoula just as the Ministers wife was killed, and then the children found along the highway, later women, and former clients dying under mysterious circumstances. Then having it all placed in front of you and finding out it is a friend who has done it was almost too much to believe.

This was a wonderful, suspence filled, truthful book and I thank him for telling the story. Our lives will never be the same. I am sure you will share it with others after you have read it.

I read his other book (Mobile Home Living or something) and this was no better. Boring at best.

Set predominantly in the Big Sky country, my state of birth, "Plain Heathen Mischief" is a most interesting morality play. Are there shades of grey? Or is anything beyond the straight and narrow path just plain heathen mischief, as the protagonist's old professor (who he used to call Dr. Brimstone) used to say? Often quite unlikeable, Joel King nonetheless does what he does with a consistent desire to do whatever it is he is doing for the greater good. With often misplaced loyalty - and with the burden of being seen as a child molester by the law enforcement community, even if the young woman who he is accused of having sex with was 17 and even if she was the aggressor - he fumbles along, straying farther and farther away from his beginning point as a Baptist preacher. With his sister Sophie - who is often earthy to the point of vulgarity - to act as a foil to his prudery, I found myself liking this book despite myself. Not knowing Missoula very well, I can't tell if the landscape was described very well or not - maybe a native Missoulan can step up and tell us? But Montana winters were definitely described to a "T" - Brrrrr! Recommend from me for anyone looking for something a little different to pass the time.

This is definitely the story of Job. I couldn't put the book down once I started it, but I kept thinking "how can this guy be so gulible?" As usual, I got into the characters and Joel (Job?) was someone I felt for. When I hear myself saying to a character, "don't do it!", I know I'm into the book. His sister, Sophie, was remarkably believable in her no-nonsense, out-of-patience take on life. Of course, if I had a brother like Joel, I'd be the same way. What a fun read. This would a good book for discussion in a book club.

I will try to be as fair as possible in this review because I really like Martin Clark's writing, and I know he reads these reviews. First the good: Clark has matured exponentially in his grasp of the English language since his first book, "The Many Aspects of Mobile Home Living." This is a beautifully written book. His phrases are just right and often startling in their artistry. I'm rather envious that a judge has attained such a high literary level. However, the main weakness of this novel is the protagonist, Joel King. He's simply a flat, dull character. I found myself never really caring about him or his moral dilemmas. And his passivity was nettlesome. This was disappointing to me because the characters in "Mobile Home" are very rich, complex, real, and downright funny. While there are spiritual themes in "Mobile Home," there are more religious ones in "Plain Heathen Mischief." Christians should respond well to this novel. "Heathens" may find it overbearing. I'm still a fan of Mr. Clark, and I will read his third novel. I hope he returns to the characterization that made him a star.

I'm willing to suspend a fair amount of disbelief when reading a novel: I know that few authors can accurately reflect human speech in their narratives, and often we wouldn't enjoy novels that did. In Plain Heathen Mischief, though, I couldn't do it. Main character Joel King is interesting, and his attitudinal shifts only seem slightly pat, but basically all of his dialogue (and others) is a series of competing monologues. More people speak seven sentences at once, without interruption, full of clever metaphors and snappiness, than I've ever met.

This is a significant negative in what otherwise is a fine caper novel, with some great turns and fun character development.

I'll certainly read another Clark novel - I enjoyed reading most of this - but I was exasperated by the end. Talk like a normal person!

Iced is a murder mystery that I highly recommend. This story is a fairly easy read and it is not too complicated. Even though the plot is very simple it also has a very interesting story line. I liked this book because it had a very good mystery plot with a modern day spin. I do not really like old books because they do not have a good sense of humor.

Meg Gardner was a girl with a life of crime. It probably all started out with the bad relationship she had with her parents. She was thrown into a New Mexico State penitentiary and had to stay there for 18 months. When she got out of jail she was offered a great job that was only offered to ex-cons. The job was to be a repo-woman. The job was to go out and to repossess cars from people that did not keep up with payments. Everything was going fine for her until she had to repossess Clay Bennett's Jeep Cherokee because the person who was paying for the car died. Inside of the vehicle was a locked briefcase. When she was about to take the suitcase out Ivan, a well known murderer but the police never had evidence to lock him up, and his thugs order that Meg has to give over the briefcase. So Meg ended up giving it up. A few minutes later a police chief came by and interrogated Meg. She found out that the payer of the Jeep died in a plain crash a few years back. After a few weeks passed, somebody threatened to kill Meg's boyfriend and also Clay Bennett's friend turned up dead. Meg figures if she wants to stay alive, then she will have to figure out what is going on.

The author uses a lot of sensory details to explain what is going on and you can almost imagine you in Meg's position.

BY MICHAEL M.

This is a great satirical mystery of the cynical hard-boiled chick-detective subgenre. The plot starts with a dead guy's briefcase in the back of a repoed Jeep Grand Cherokee and soon enough we find that the Belarussian branch of the Russian mafia, a corrupt Senate candidate and assorted other bad guys are interested in the contents of the briefcase. The hard-boiled action incongruously takes place in the rather peaceful college town of Missoula, Montana. Like all other towns, there is a lot of nasty business going on here, however, almost but not quite out of sight. As the heroine Meg Gardner says, "there's enough sleaze under Missoula's veneer to make the place tolerable." This is an even greater story of love and loss and forgiveness...

Jenny Siler is a lyrical writer and her first book Easy Money was an intriguing blend of tough/bad girl protagonist with beautiful writing coupled with an intriguing plot.

This second novel, Iced, is not nearly as strong. Another heroine who has taken a few too many walks on the wild side, but the plot elements don't tie together. The supporting characters aren't adequately developed and the "bad guys" don't give you the appropriate goose bumps.

It feels like this book was written in a hurry and not given enough time to rewrite and expand the story. This is a book that just doesn't have enough depth. If the writer had just digged a little deeper it could have been a much better book. As it is, wait until it comes out in paperback.

Meg Gardner, the product of dysfunctional family, got her start in life on the wrong side of the law and she's just out of eighteen months in prison. Now she has her first real job, reposing cars in Missoula, Montana.

When she tries to repossess Clay Bennett's Jeep, she finds the police at his house, pulling his body out of the ditch. Murder, it seems, and the suspect is Tina Red Deer and she remembers her father had once known someone in the Red Deer family who lived on the reservation.

Meg takes the Jeep, finds a locked briefcase in the car and takes it. Someone bursts into her house and seizes it. A second villain comes for it, but he's too let. Meg recognizes the thieves as members of a gangster family from Ukraine and all of a sudden she's too deep into whatever-it-is, so she goes investigating.

Jenny Siller writes great stories about women in trouble and how they get out of it and this five star novel is no exception. I couldn't put it down.

Reviewed by Vesta Irene

Meg Gardener, ex-con, tough and resilient repossesses cars for a living in Missoula Montana. If you have read either of Jenny Silers other two novels, EASY MONEY and SHOT, you know that Siler's novels feature women protagonists who know how to take care of themselves. They are not perfect specimens like the women you see on TV ads. These tough gritty women do not mind a little dirt under their fingernails. Featuring characters that most of us know a little (if not a lot) about, you can almost smell the mountains in Montana and feel the crunch of snow under your feet: that is how realistic a story Siler writes.

Meg has just repossessed a jeep defaulted on by local eccentric Clay Bennett. That same evening the jeep is broken into outside of her house by a trio of Russian thugs who then get up close and personal with Meg about the jeep's contents. Meg realizes that she just might have walked into the middle of some dangerous business. Bennett's body had been pulled from an unfrozen channel earlier by the local constabulary: an apparent victim of foul play. The timing of Bennett's death and Meg's search for the jeep had allowed Meg to repossess the jeep with relative ease ...and no complications or so she thought. Bennett had been considered a kind of hero-celebrity in the community. He had crashed a plane in Montana's tough mountains during a blizzard many years earlier; and had walked out of those same mountains two months later to tell about it. Apparently, Bennett had been trying to find the location of that plane from the day he walked out of the mountains until the day of his death. Thus the basic ingredients for a real potboiler. The basic plot revolves around the plane crash (the subplot involves some unanswered questions about Meg's family history). The characters range from, among others, Russian thugs, a smart cop, a bewildered suitor, a suspicious relationship between a woman and her stepson and another gun toting gal tougher than our Meg. The character development is superb: all of the actors are well fleshed out and are more than just interesting caricatures. The novel moves at a good pace and keeps you going. It is as good as Siler's first and last novels. Buy it; and you will not be disappointed.

Just finished re-reading "Maybe In Missoula". What a good read! I'm enjoying it even more the second time. I absolutely love all the characters and the way they think. Ms. Volk is so good at picking quirky little stories that each character is thinking about that tell so much more about the character than any direct information ever could. I'm just so impressed with her writing! Volk has this subtle sense of humor and wisdom that pervades everything she writes. It's as though she sees the truth about human nature in its occasional bumbling fallibility but nevertheless essential goodness, and she just has to smile about it. You will too, I'm sure! Also, when you've finished this one, check out "Montana Women". It's a winner, too.

This novel, Maybe In Missoula, is beautiful, and its rich landscape and lovable, eccentric characters irresistible. Introspective Annie addresses many of the questions and dilemmas I, as a women, have grappled with myself, sex equality and its possible consequences, for example. Though the author speaks openly about women's issues, her treatment of the male characters shows a great compassion and understanding of the male point of view. In fact, it is Annie's ex-husband Morton who evolves the most of the three main characters. Definitely a must read.

Maybe Toni Volk only has one good novel in her, because Maybe in Missoula isn't just inferior to her first novel, it's downright bad. The characters are flat and empty and the plot is dull. Annie is a woman with no direction--she takes a big step leaving her husband and then just seems to drift along in life, making very little decisions about her own life. The only positive thing I can say, is that the reader does get a nice feel for life in Montana. Volk obviously knows and loves the area.