Oregon Books

Like all his books, it is very hard to put down once you start to read it.
There is nothing like a good fast past book full of adventure for reading.
I an now just starting to reread his Dirk Pitt novels again and they are great this time as they were the first time I read them.

The plot moves quickly, keeping interest from beginning to end. I've been a Cussler reader for a very long time now and I wasn't disappointed.

Skelton Coast was an excellent book. This is the type of writting that made Clive Cussler one of my favorite authors.

I have read all of the Oregon Files and this is by far the best one yet. Although they explain plenty in the first three novels the main character is truly brought to life in this latest adventure. The authors get into gritty details as to why Jaun Cabrillo is the way he is and make him as close to home as his counter part, Dirk Pitt. If you are a Clive Cussler fan or just want a good read I reccomend this book!

Skeleton Coast is the second of Cussler's Oregon Files novels I've read, and while not as strong as Golden Buddha, it still delivers.

Skeleton Coast brings the reader back to Africa (setting for Sahara) and a rich background against which Cussler paints his tale of greed, hatred, and eco-terrorism.

Like his other Oregon Files novels, Skeleton Coast doesn't wallow in long, man-against-nature episodes, but instead moves the action from one setting to another across a huge variety of settings, plots, and characters. Cussler generally keeps the juggling act in tact, but it is clear that he's cutting corners and starts to drop a few plates by the end.

Not to worry, the finale wraps everything up in a neat tidy bundle with a devastating finish to the villains that you won't soon forget.

The Third Victim
The story starts out interestingly enough and then it all falls apart as the story unfolds. The Sheriff's son is involved in multiple murders at his school. The Sheriff is actively interfering with the investigation. The lead investigating officer is Rainey Conner. She works under the Sheriff. Conner has a long personal friendship with the Sheriff and enough personal baggage that normally would prevent her from ever being a cop in the first place. Holy comflict of interest Batman! State and Federal agents are called in but who is in charge, the admittedly unqualified, conflicted, unstable, Rainey Conner! Oh Please!!! If you removed the unqualified cop, had a realistic chain of command with the investagors,and put the Sheriff in jail for interfering this might be a good read.
My suspension of disbelief button was pushed too many times on this one.

I didn't like this book for several reasons. The school shooting theme is very disturbing to me and I honestly don't think that the author did a good job exploring or explaining that issue. Another reason I didn't like the book was because the Rainie character was severely irritating. I'm so sick of the "macho" woman in these suspense thrillers. Rainie needs to grow up and get over herself. Lastly, the villain in this book didn't make any sense. His motives and reasoning were stupid. This book had potential, but fell flat.

If the Amazon Star System allowed the possibility, I'd give this one four and a half stars, rather than four. But it doesn't. So, rounding off, I've given it four.

Let's get my very minor quibbles out of the way first: (1) There's no way a town small enough to need a law enforcement staff of only three people plus a volunteer is going to have a 'Dairy Queen.' They'd be 'lucky' to have a 'MacDonald's.' (2) The inhabitants of such a town would have to be insane to think they could hope to land a Wal-Mart. (3) There are no 'towering mountains' in the Oregon Coastal Range. I suppose an author from the east coast, which this one is, might be tricked into thinking that rolling foothills qualify as mountains, but they don't. (4) There is one small paragraph which violates the Point of View style set up in the rest of the book, and the exception is jarring, as it intrudes the book's 'omniscient' author into the mix-- always a big problem when editors don't catch it, which in this case they didn't.

But that is the sum extent of my quibbles. Other than that, this is a very good example of the type of book it is: the formulaic thriller slash mystery. Great Literature it isn't, but it makes no pretense to be, so there's no need to mark it down any for failing to be so. It's even character-based as opposed to plot-driven, which automatically elevates it several notches above the mid-ranks of the genre.

Lorraine Connor, a young deputy sheriff in a small coastal Oregon town who is tough but unsure of herself, and both vulnerable and quite capable of taking care of herself, is asked to be 'primary officer' at a bloody crime scene-- a school shooting in which two students and one teacher have been killed. The teacher-- the 3rd Victim of the title-- has been 'taken out' with a small caliber shot directly to the forhead, while the two students have been 'shot up' at much longer range. This discrepancy in methodology eventually causes the investigators to believe that there is more than one shooter involved. (A fact which the reader, but no one else, has been apprised of early on.)

The suspense comes in the form of delays and dead-ends in the process of finding out who the 'other' shooter is. One perpetrator, a kid, has already been caught, and has confessed, but refuses to talk about the crime, and for good reason: the other criminal is a serial killer with the ethics of a boa constrictor who knows how to scare kids into refusing to talk, sometimes permanently.

There are subplots galore: (1) Lorraine herself has something to hide concerning another shooting many years ago. Will she end up having to 'tell all' or won't she? (2) There's a nasty big-city investigator on scene, who is trying to undercut Lorraine and steal her case from her. Will he succeed? (3) An troubled FBI agent from Quantico finds Lorraine fascinating. Will they end up in bed? (4) One of the victims comes from a family with nasty secrets to hide. What lengths will other members of that family go to to 'protect' their past?

One of the most refreshing things about this book is that nothing is predictable. Not one of these subplots ends up being resolved in the way you think it's going to be. I can't begin to tell you how relieved I was by that!

I've avoided till now dealing with the true heart of the book, though, so the time has now come. On one level this books is 'mere' thriller, but on a deepler plane it's a fascinating glimpse into the world of disturbed psychology, particularly that of children. I'm not about to give anything away here, but just rest assured that this author has done tons of homework and has created characters who behave exactly the way that real people do. So much so that there is an air of realism to this fictional story that lifts it far beyond the bounds of most examples of its kind.

I highly recommend The 3rd Victim.

This is an entertaining thriller that kept me turning the pages. I have read a number of books by this author, and I have yet to be disappointed. Her characters are reasonably interesting, and the plot is well-thought out. Those who like easy reading suspense will definitely enjoy this author's books.

The plot centers around a school shooting that divides the small town of Bakersfield, Oregon. Three people were killed, two of them children. The townspeople are demanding justice. After all, a young boy has confessed to the shooting. It seems, however, that the evidence indicates that he may not have acted alone.

Officer Rainie Conner is the lead investigator in the shooting, but there are those in the town that feel that her past is impacting on her investigation, as controversy is brewing over her involvement. FBI profiler, Pierce Quincy, assists Officer Conner with the investigation, as he, too, is convinced that there is more to the shooting that meets the eye. They both want to see justice done and begin a deadly cat and mouse game with a shadowy character that lurks in the background and may, in fact, be the mastermind of all that has happened.

Those who enjoy the works of Mary Higgins Clark, Carlene Thompson, and Tami Hoag will be sure to enjoy this book, as will all those who enjoy suspense thrillers with a lot of twists and turns.

Lisa Gardner does it again. One of the few authors out there that can consistently turn out grab-you-by-the-throat thrillers.

In a small town of Oregan, a horrific school shooting takes place, leaving several dead, including a well loved teacher and 2 young girls. When the smoke settles, the mass murderer left holding the smoking gun is 13 year old Danny. Danny is the son of Sheriff O'Grady. Witnesses reported seeing a man dressed in black, roaming the halls of the school shortly before the shooting began. Did Danny have an accomplice? Is he just a pawn in a much larger game? Was it a random act of violence or were the victims hand picked?

Ms. Gardner answers these questions and much more in this taut thriller. What I enjoyed the most about this book was there were so many things taking place at the same time. The author keeps the storytelling tight and close to her chest, revealing bits and pieces at a pace that has the reader scrambling to turn the pages in a hope to discover what is truly going on.

The only complaint I have is the ending. The author seemed to want to wrap things up and have a great ending, but I felt it didn't make sense. The herione, in the end, is handled in a way that shouldn't have happened. If I explain it in any more detail, I will ruin the story for you, so I will just stop with that. The book is overall a great read and is well worth your time.

As THE SUNRISE LANDS opens it is twenty two years after the Change, the events described in DIES THE FIRE, when the whole world changed in a literal flash. Gunpowder does not fire, electricity and internal combustion engines do not work, throwing the post industrial world back to the pre industrial. The events described in A MEETING AT CORVALLIS have brought peace to the Willamette Valley and the Changelings, those born after the Change, are beginning to reach adulthood.

A stranger, has arrived, one who has traveled from the deep woods of Wisconsin, across the country to Nantucket Island, where perhaps the Change began and back across the country to Oregon. His traveler's tales, and those few others that have managed to filter in, that those who had survived were slowly beginning to rebuild this new world. The US has become fragmented into various factions and border wars were beginning to break out making travel extremely dangerous. So just what had driven this stranger, Ingolf Voegler to make this journey? He has been driven by a vision that he received in Nantucket, a vision about a young man in the far West who must be brought to Nantucket. Unknown to Voegler, twenty years earlier a young man had been born in Oregon amid prophecy about his fate to travel east, to the Sunrise Lands.

This is the fourth volume of the series that began with DIES THE FIRE and that occupies the same universe as ISLAND IN THE SEA OF TIME. Those who have read and enjoyed the earlier books will definitely want to read this one to find out what has happened to the characters and storylines from the earlier books. Also it is hinted that some answers about the Change itself will finally be revealed. Those who are new to these works or only familiar with THE ISLAND IN THE SEA OF TIME will want to begin with DIES THE FIRE. I recommend this to fans of alternate history stories, one that will give the reader much to think about long after the last page has been read.

I've read all four books in this series (so far). This is the least enjoyable. For me, it just dragged on. I found I had to force myself to finish it. That's an unusual experience for an S. M. Stirling book.

The fourth novel in the Change series is surprisingly refreshing. I just began reading the series last year and read most of it straight through. I was dismayed at the anti-climactic ending of the original Change series. But the Sunrise Lands breathes new life into the land by aging characters and introducing new protagnosits and antagonists that fit, and an actual quest that makes sense. Stirling did what many authors fail to do in a series, he was able to start again and create a new generation by building on, and not losing, what has already happened before. I cannot wait for The Surge of God to find out what happens next.

I began reading this series with Dies the Fire and was hooked from the first novel. However, I have found that as the series goes on that Stirling gets wrapped up more and more with details of some bogus Wiccan religion which I think the story can do without. In Sunrise Lands I feel as if there's going to be a test later.

Still, lots of alternate universe/sci-fi type action in this novel and the adventure tale it portrays is well worth reading. Fortunately this book also provides a map, which gives the reader a better idea of what is going on where.

I've read the print version and listened via Audible to this book. I thoroughly enjoyed both versions. If you have trouble getting into Stirling's long passages of exposition, detailed setting descriptions, and diversity of accents/languages among the many characters, I suggest you try the Audible version. The narrator nails the many accents of the characters and I felt myself immersed in Stirling's alternate history as I drifted across the verbal landscapes he creates. I will purchase the next chapter of this saga in Audible format, if they use the same narrator.

This is one of the best books I have ever read. We passed this book where I work and everyone loved it. The Characters become your friends and some like family. Can't wait to read "The Last Time I Was Me". I have it on order. I highly recommend this one.

Julia's Chocolates is the one book I have recommended to many of my friends and the one book I have given as a present to people over and over again. In return I have had nothing but great comments about it. Whether it was about the unique characters , the plot, the setting, or the humor, I have only heard good things. This book is so well written, so beautiful, it is the one book that really cheers me up with its humor. Don't get me wrong it is not all fun and games, it does contain some serious parts with abused children and an abusive fiance, but what caught my interest was definitly its comedic parts. This book has made me laugh aloud and that's what stood out to me. This book was wonderful, beautiful, hilarious, amazing, only great things can be said about this novel. Well done Cathy Lamb, beautiful.

A bit vulgar in places for me, but nonetheless an interesting book. I laughed out loud in places, cringed in others. The author described terrible abuse of many different kinds that had been inflicted on most of the main characters. Although those sections were so difficult to read, the characters' personal triumphs were uplifting.

I really wanted to like this book. I just could not get past the silliness. I cannot imagine a bunch of women sitting around looking at each others breasts and "other" areas. I did like some of the characters, but the silliness ruined it for me.

Julia Bennett is the central character in this book. She has lived with abuse all of her life with her alcoholic mother and her many boyfriends, and she is reliving it all over again with her fiancé Robert. Finally, one day after being abused she sees the light and decides to leave before her wedding and go to look for refuge with her Aunt Lydia, a woman who has tried to help her in the past.

In living with Lydia, Julia also gets to know a group of women who will help her find herself and heal her soul and her body in the process. Unfortunately, for me, a lot of these characters were just too out there in regards to the psychic nights and the ability to find strength in their private body parts! I mean, who does that?! It's fun to be quirky but this was just a little too bizarre and kind of killed the story for me.

Julia, of course manages to find love and her talent in the midst of some serious situations.

While this book is indeed filled with warmth and love, I just could not get into the characters lives, thankfully so I guess since most of them are dealing with some very serious issues. I wanted to like this book but in the end, I was just glad that it was over.

Pain Management is touching and inspirational. Out of one of the grimmest parts of society, goodness blossoms in an effort to save people from deadly pain. Burke is his endearing self, as always. I recommend the novel as heartily as Andrew Vachss' other books which are also excellent.

I think that _Blue Belle_ was the first Vachss novel that I tried, and after reading that I ripped through his subsequent novels with a sense of discovery and pleasure. To be honest, I lost that interest and amazement a number of books ago. While the first book set in Oregon gave me a glimmer of new hope, this book really isn't there either.

A lot of the problem is that what made Burke so interesting in the first few books was the very real tension between light and dark in the character. He was constantly in balance, and the nastiness made for a really refreshing read after all the weaker characters that you find in detective novels today. Unfortunately, Burke has been around too long, and he's just too much a defender to really believe in the Dark Knight anymore. He's taken on too many good causes and acted too much as protector of the helpless. Good thing in a person, less good if you want to keep the tension of someone strung between good and evil. I'm sure that the continuing novels serve Vachss' not-so-hidden agenda of educating his audience, but they just aren't as interesting to read at this point.

I'm a little troubled with myself for writing this kind of review, as I recognize that there are larger issues with these books than a good escapist read. I applaud Vacchs' determination in the work he does for children and I think he's chosen a nearly ideal vehicle for getting his messages out.

I just wish that I had the same compulsion to read Burke novels as I did with the first.

Anyways, this book (Burke tries to ignore his problematic relationship with Gem, while taking on the case of a 16-year old runaway) is well-written and will probably appeal. Still worth a read, in any case.

Let me tell you - when Burke first lit out for Oregon, I was kind of disappointed. NYC has become such a character in the previous novels, I incorrectly assumed Portland would be a snoozer (I know, I'm such an East Coast-er). Boy was I wrong!

In "Pain Management" Burke is hired to track down a missing 16-year-old. His always on-target instinct tells him that there is something not quite right with the girl's family, and things just go to town from there. Burke manages to come across all types of underbelly characters, and Vachss is able to portray his experiences without making them sound too spy-novel.

Add to the mix a pharmaceutical drug plotline, lots of violence, sex, and a healthy serving of blues and doo-wop, and you've got yet another Vachss masterpiece.

As good as this book is - I really miss Burke's family back in NYC. I've got the next book sitting right here waiting for me, and I can't get to it fast enough.

Andrew Vachss has to be an interesting individual. You get the idea that Burke, the main character in his novels, is a somewhat nastier version of himself. Burke is a shadowy figure, with only one name (only one was given when he was an orphan) and a mysterious, cloudy, bitter view of the world. He works around the edges of things, making money on the black market, specializing in being untraceable and invisible, or almost. He is almost completely uninterested in the fate of people he doesn't know, and for the most part he's pretty cold. He has a real hatred for criminals who exploit children.

In this outing, he's gone to ground in Portland Oregon. This is a departure for Vachss, who's set almost all of his books in New York City. He bounces around town, establishing a "rep" so that someone can hire him to do something. Eventually a troubled father contacts him, looking for his daughter. Burke agrees to look, and does so with his usual disregard for rules, animosity towards authority figures, and dark, mysterious methods. When he finds the girl, the answers are not at all what you were expecting, satisfying though they are. There's a whole interlude where Burke helps a woman who steals drugs for the chronically ill, and it's from this side-plot that the book gets its title.

I liked the story, about as much as I usually do with Vachss. Everything's very dark (I don't think I could read two of these in a row without contemplating suicide) and murky, and the structure of the book is strange, too. For those who aren't familiar, Vachss has veered between numbering his chapters and not bothering. They're anywhere between a couple of lines and a page or two of text, very short, very choppy. The author seems to just only write part of the story, several lines of dialog, and expect the reader to fill in the rest.

Given that, this is a good book.

Burke is laying low in Oregon. He's not in his element (New York), and this affects "Pain Management" as it affected "Down in The Zero." For me, a Burke story works best when the villain inspires a gut-deep flash of pure HATRED. I didn't get that fix this time. Also, just the words "New York" carry a seediness integral to the mood of Vachss' work.

Under an alias, Burke agrees to locate a well-heeled hippie's daughter. Things about her disappearance don't add up, and Burke encounters some locals who may or may not help him. They also may or may not be milking him for their own cause - getting pain meds to those in greatest need despite America's short-sighted treatment policies. These two plotlines never really merge. The daughter's family bears a secret that caused her to take off, but it's...well, a more "esoteric" reason than molestation. On the plus side, Vachss offers some intelligent, sympathetic young characters. He reminds us that everyone has the potential to be both Cain AND Abel.

Burke's usual anger and vigilance fall short of his melancholy. Things with Gem are decaying, and this almost becomes a distraction from the plot. His woman troubles don't end there; Ann O. Dyne is the most annoying girl Burke has dealt with since Fancy ("Down in The Zero") or Nadine ("Choice of Evil"). She's not stupid, just annoying. Flood, Blossom and Belle are still the top-tier Burkettes.

Vachss' effort to broaden the scope of issues in Burke novels is commendable. However, it doesn't play to Burke's strengths. Baby Boy Burke is a conman first and a killer first-and-a-half. "Pain Management," while thought-provoking, didn't hit me as hard as earlier works. Burke has the blues six feet deep, and the only effective remedy is to get back to New York and take it out on the lowest of the low. With "Only Child," I hope to see How Burke Got His Groove Back.

Okay, so it doesn't start off with a story about some kind of crazy sextravaganza out in middle America like his other nonfiction, "Stranger Than Fiction," but Chuck Palahniuk's "Fugitives and Refugees" still contains its share of interesting and absurd bedtime stories. For instance, there's the tunnel tour where woman throws a simulated aborted fetus at you, there's the elephants who bully each other, and there's even a potential suitor who left "DNA samples" on the couch during a first date. So, I guess what I'm saying is, it's still a pretty good book.

Nonetheless, it is a bit disjointed. The basic idea is you're going along on a walking tour of Portland, Oregon with one of the local residents (Palahniuk), and he's telling you all the weird, funny and gruesome stories of Portland's undocumented past. In that respect it can be a lot of fun, but like any tour, there were definitely parts that dragged and were kind of boring. For instance, while some of the museums he describes might be interesting to see in real life, it'd be difficult for even Shakespeare to describe them in any way that's remotely interesting.

Palahniuk's simplistically scant writing style shines through and keeps the pace going throughout, and there are plenty of bizarre occurrences he documents that make the tedious descriptions of things I didn't care about go by much more quickly. A showdown between a row of riot police and a row of Santas, for example, will definitely make you forget you just read 10 pages of recipes.

And that's all we can really hope for from life, isn't it? That something fascinating like a scholarship fund created by drag queens will overshadow any boring parts of "real life" that you don't need to remember. So thanks for the help with that, Chuck.

I was given this book as a gift and did not know what to expect. Though it was not a novel like other Palahniuk books I have read, I found that the quirky and humorous writing style made this voyeuristic romp through underground Portland highly entertaining. Though some of the highlighted attractions have closed their doors or are not open to the public, this is an interesting view into a side of the city that you will not find in the Frommer's guide.

I live in Eugene, OR... and LOVE this book! We take "trips" to our fave town all the time and love the people and places...Chuck does a great job of describing them like a native Oregonian (even though he technically isn't).

This collection is an idiosyncratic and appealing mix of off-the-beaten-path sights for the visitor to Portland, personal anecdotes of the author, and brief essays about the history of Portland and its defining vibes. Entertaining and enjoyable.

As he writes in his epilogue, "This is not Portland, Oregon." Just scads of non-site-specific deegradation written in clipped New Yorker prose. Elliptical descriptions of perversion after perversion, spilling over the pages to become one big bore. And on top of all this, there's no index to the places he touches on, so even if you wanted to go there, you'd be hardput. Self-indulgent yet simultaneously unrevealing, as uninteresting a discovery of spirit of place as one can get.

This book reminded me in some ways to Bridget Jones. The nice, clumsy heroine goes after the detached aloof stunner.
If your looking for some easy-to-read romance with laughs and hot hot sex-scenes, your right with this.

I love a book when the main characters both want each bad, but keep it hidden. Houston is a an established Dr. and Josie is his resident. He wants her but thinks he shouldn't because she is his resident and Josie wants him but feels very self conscience about her weight. All of us girls have had our self doubts about our body at times, so I felt a connection with the character. Finally one day he goes for it and she accepts an invitation which lead to some good ol hot steamy sex.
Then they have to face a tradegy together and learn to lean on each other which is very hard for him, but they finally learn how to trust and love each other. I loved this book. I thought it was funny, sexy, and all around just a good book.

This was my first book by Erin McCarthy and I really liked it. I loved the fact that both characters were doctors and they lived in Florida (vs. NYC or London). Very sweet and realistic. Definitely recommended!

I just loved this book! You know how some books just seem "disjointed"...or you can't quite picture how in "the hell" the characters have any chemistry? Well that is so NOT the case w/this book!! Josie was so real & cute to me. I found myself cheering her on throughout the book. And Houston, well...he was just the "alpha male" that I Looove to read about! Hot sex scenes!! Yummy!! The chemistry was so real...and the story that backed that up was just a darn good read too!! This is another "keeper shelf" book and I'm looking forward to reading more Erin McCarthy.

This was another good book by Erin McCarthy. I liked the idea that these were two doctors instead of most books where the man is rich and the woman is poor. I also liked that she makes Josie a little frumpy. I hate when the women in books are stick thin with no chest. I can't have a good fantasy going about these characters when the woman could be blown over by a gust of wind. How is that attractive? There were some laugh out loud moments, which I'm finding are the norm for this author's books.
All in all, a good book. It was a bit heavy on the sexual innuendos(which I normally love), but at times got to be a bit much. I like to have a good balance of sexual tension and the characters actually getting to know one another, but this book seemed to teeter a bit more on the sexual side.

I read this book when it was first released and it still sticks with me. The best aspect of the book is the interweaving of the author's personal story and that of the man who supposedly killed his family then fled the country. When he was caught, he was using Michael Finkel's name and identity at a Mexico resort area living the good life.

Imagine getting a call to find out someone was using your identity -- and that person was suspected of murdering his family. Wouldn't you be compelled to find out why?

The author is looking for redemption from his own journalistic mistakes by finding and writing the truth of a news-worthy event. Other reviewers found Finkel to be self-serving but I'd have to disagree with that. He was PART of the story itself because the suspected murderer identified with him enough to use his identity. Gradually, that identification allowed him to open up to Finkel through the taped conversations. If they had not shared that link, there would be no story.

Maybe readers of murder mystery are accustomed to having an "aha moment" when the crime is solved and all the pieces of the puzzle are revealed. This book reveals more of the main characters' inner selves without having a tidy ending. I love ambiguous endings.

Well worth a few intense nights of reading.

There were times throughout this CD when I wanted to just turn it off, but somehow I made it through. The events depicted are well worth knowing about, and Mr. Finkel can ply the skills of his trade when he wants to. The research and facts are all done quite well.

But long before the story was finished, I had complete understanding of why the author had gotten in trouble at the NY Times. He can't see past his own shiny self-image. The same ego that caused a talented young reporter to throw his career away while attempting to make a name for himself is the driver of the hubris that bloats this book. We know he's being taken in by a lifelong con artist ages before he can admit it to himself.

The author tried to build up suspense that would lead to a moment of truth at the climax of the story, but just like his fabricated articles for the newspaper, there was no truth to be told. We know not to trust a habitual liar, but apparently another habitual liar doesn't. I would get so frustrated with his naiveté while driving in my car listening that I'd yell at Finkel as if he was a pedestrian stopped in the middle of the street before me, trying to decide whether to continue crossing the road or head back to the curb he just came from!

Despite the unique nature of this bizarre tale I can't recommend the book. I'm all for author involvement ala Ira Glass' "The New Kings of Nonfiction", but in this case you'd be better off reading someone else's coverage of the same material.

A thoughtful, well written description of a horrendous crime that explores the psyche of the killer; the author's growing understanding of the killer's psyche as he gets to know him; and the author's own travails while all this is going on.

Back in December 2001, a heinous act occured along the Oregon coast that would forever alter the lives of the people involved with it. Christian Longo, newly relocated to the area a few months back, savagely took the lives of the people closest to him, and then fled the country. The shock and horror of the crimes reverberated strongly through the community and the state. While in Mexico, Longo assumed the identity of disgraced NY Times reporter Michael Finkel. Thus, this unusual pairing of these two men was born, and the end result, this quite unusual recounting of the Longo murders in "True Story: Murder, Memoir, Mea Culpa".

Michael Finkel was once top of his game, reporting on serious stories with serious implications. However, due to frabrications made in an "child slavery" story, he quickly fell from grace, retreating to his life in Montana. No sooner than that happened, his phone rang, and a reporter calling from the Oregonian fills him in on the Longo story. Having nothing better to do with his time, Finkel contacts the now-captured Longo, who responds, creating a very strange, symbiotic relationship during the time Longo was awaiting trial for the murders.

This whole book is quite amazing. From Finkel's complete, honest confession to his fabrications, to the letters that Longo writes to him, the story is quite the page turner. Finkel's writing style is uncluttered and easy to read. He builds his story well, from the introduction to the final, horrifying conclusion. Finkel's honesty is compelling; he cuts himself no slack for his fabrication. You must forgive him for his mistakes, and hopefully, he'll find himself back to writing.

This story is chilling, in so many aspects. Longo, a merciless killer, sits on Oregon's death row, living with his crimes. You wonder how he does, but after reading Finkel's book, which provides an unusual insight into the distorted mind of a killer, more light is shed on this subject. In short, it's a great read.

This book is about a murderer's theft of the author's identity to help him escape police apprehension. The author makes much of this fact,seeing himself as a victim, but an account I read of the actual murders has no mention of the author, nor does it need any for the purpose of telling its story.

Nor is the author a very sympathetic character, having announced at the beginning of the book that he has been fired for fictionalizing a news story for the New York Times. (a practice becoming more and more popular, it seems)

My main complaint, however, is that the book is just not that interesting unless you're fascinated by the inner workings of a journalist's mind.

I was interested in the setting but the telling was a bit pedantic and did not fire my imagination.

This is prose at its most exquisite. It is a first-hand look at the American wilderness over 150 years ago, no easy thing to attempt. Yet Karen Fisher does it brilliantly. I am awed at the language, not only its poetry, but its historic accuracy. People didn't use the same speech patterns then as they do today, so yes, at times you have to slow down and think about a passage. But that should not be mistaken for bad style. It is not. The romantic attraction between the two characters pulls the narrative forward, and couldn't be more subtle or honestly rendered. Indeed, I found myself continuously flipping back to the dust jacket to gawk in awe at the author's photo. Who is this person? Where did she get such wisdom and insight? The only problem with this staggeringly impressive book is that it eventually comes to an end.

A friend gave me a copy of A SUDDEN COUNTRY, thinking I'd like it because Karen Fisher and her characters are rough and tumble wilderness types, much like the modern women in my recent anthology, A MILE IN HER BOOTS. But as it turns out, I am writing my first ever book review because I found many more acres of common ground in this novel than I imagined. With brazen honesty, Fisher explores raw, gut-level intricacies of humanity--and of my own experience as mother, wife, wanderer--with such skillfully terse poetry that I was reminded why good fiction is worth reading. She takes hold of words and reins them in, wielding them with unsentimental precision, molding them with a sculptor's hand, so that you see, smell, and taste them, rubbing the grit of the story between your fingers as you read it.

The rangy, rugged backdrop of untamed America lured me from the cushions of my couch back to wilder times, when the savage beauty of mere survival was a person's daily toil. I suspect, on some level, many of us hunger for that kind of crude simplicity. I know I do. And, as I read, I got to thinking that although the landscapes on which our lives play out may differ, our condition is pretty much the same in any era. Fleeting moments of intense emotion roar, flicker, and inevitably wash cool in the current of time. Events so significant, so all-consuming, in the present moment are rendered memory across miles of unsympathetic terrain. Passions blur, tears run dry. And yet, throughout the journey, we find ourselves evolving the way Fisher's characters do, pushing onward, accumulating dark and delicate scars that remind us of who we have become.

History, wilderness, romance, drama, fiber - A SUDDEN COUNTRY has it all. I highly recommend it.

A close friend recommended "A Sudden Country" to me. Otherwise, I doubt that I'd have stuck to it, with its frustrating plot lines and irritating written style. I get tired of authors using sentence fragments as a way of creating immediacy or flow. At times it seemed that half of the sentences began with "Then," followed by no subject: "Then searched her mind for him," or something similar. It makes for choppy reading.
Most interesting were the passages describing the immigrants' travails and travels. Less so were the romantic passages. The conclusion jumps back and forth from Lucy Mitchell to James McLaren even more than the rest of the novel does and forced me, a very experienced reader, to reread passages to understand the events being described. At that point, though, what I wanted was to find out what was going to happen, not spend time excavating my way through fragmented prose and a convoluted story line.
I do, however, have to give credit to Fisher for not taking the easy way out with the conclusion. It's not easy to read so long, only to have an unhappy ending, but it is a satisfactory one.

Growing up where the Oregon Trail ruts cut through western Nebraska, its story was familiar in a vague, serene way. Through Lucy, James MacLaren and the other characters of "A Sudden Country," my heart is now forever gripped with the pathos of that trail. Karen Fischer weaves the broken strands of native people, mountain men,and the Anglo families leaving their known world, so that the fabric of our country's culture today is revealed. All the characters in A Sudden Country are our ancestors..they are part of what makes us all Americans today.

Catherine Anderson rarely disappoints. I have read most, but not all of her books, and Seventh Heaven is a winner. Anderson is skilled in delivering strong, well fleshed out characters and romance in spades without dropping the ball. I love the unshakeable bond between Joe and Marilee. Their friendship, dedication and devotion to one another is heartwarming. One other thing I adore about Anderson is that she paints realistic characters on her canvases. Particularly the women. Women who don't forever fall into the delicate, helpless, perfect little cookie cutter mold. Her women are often strong and physically and emotionally flawed, which the average woman WANTS in their story. At least I do. Who wants to read about someone who makes THEM feel frumpy and undesirable? lol As a woman who suffers from panic attacks, I understood the character of Marilee all too well. I applaud Catherine Anderson for tackling REAL issues such as date rape, anxiety, paralysis and blindness. Issues that are so much more realistic and relevant than simply putting two obscure characters together where they bicker..they clash..they have hot, meaningless sex and they live happily ever after. Puh-leeze!!

When Joe Lakota returns to his hometown, he returns much wiser than he was in high school. Can he rekindle his relationship with Marilee Nelson? Not if Marilee has anything to say about it.

Can Marilee get over a painful past with the healing love of her high school love? Or does healing come in the form of a little boy who desperately needs love?

A tear jerker that will keep you turning the pages.

I absolutely loved this book. The relationship between Joe and Marilee was so amazing. There is a good message in this book for all women. Joe Lakota is the kind of man we should aspire to have love us and we should not settle for anything less. Thank you Catharine Anderson for always writing the leading men in your books who are standup guys who love and respect women!!!! and others!!!!!!

Though I would consider this book a "light read," it is however a compelling story. Anderson is good with character development and telling a story. She's pretty good at giving her main women characters some backbone.... they aren't swooning all over the pages as in some examples of this genre. A nice story about the bonds of family, love and the challenge of renewal.

I read this book about five years ago. I've never forgotten this unforgettable Avon romance. Every contemporary romance I read is compared to this memorable book. Catherine Anderson always writes memorable romance novels, but this one is truly five stars. All her books are filled with characters that you'll remember for ever. The characters in this book have stuck with me because the relationship between Joe Lakota and Marilee Nelson happens to be very similar to my relationship with my significant other.

Marilee Nelson is haunted by a deadly, grotesque event in her life that threatens her relationship with her ex-boyfriend, Joe Lakota, who has just returned to his hometown. Ms. Nelson doesn't feel the need to rekindle her relationship with a man who left her after their graduation from high school. She wants to continue on with life as it is with no man in her bed.

Joe Lakota doesn't understand why Marilee doesn't want to rekindle their magic love for each other. He is offering not only himself, but his son, Zachary. Joe can't figure out why Marilee can't trust or be around him by herself. Has something truly unbearable happened to the love of his life? Or does she just want to let go of the past and move on? Only through Zachary can they become a family.

This novel will leave you stunned as to what has happened in the past and what will happen in the here and now. You'll feel for all three captivating characters. You'll be left with a stunned feeling once you've read the entire book. Don't miss reading this wonderful heartwarming romance.