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[OM] Moose's suggested book, A Superior Death, Review

Subject: [OM] Moose's suggested book, A Superior Death, Review
From: Ken Norton <ken@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 31 Jan 2012 16:26:10 -0600
 Just finished "A Superior Death" by Nevada Barr. This was recently
suggested by Moose.

The setting is Isle Royale. I'll say that it her depiction of Isle Royale
is mighty fine. A well researched book in that regard. Of course, our
Zuikofest did manage to avoid a lot of the circus aspect of "Rock Harlem"
by going at the end of the season. I would suggest that you have Google
Earth handy or an on-line map so you can kinda follow along to some of the
location she wrote about. You can take my word for it that her description
and reality are closely related and I have no issues with it.

I will stick with my initial impression that Nevada Barr has a
preoccupation with the male physique, but that's OK.

My one big grouse about the book is that I figured out who the villian was
the moment that character was introduced. It's not that the author did
anything particularily wrong, but I sensed an inadvertant tell-tail which I
don't think was intentional. I doubt it was anything most people would see,
but the obviously guilty individuals were too obviously guilty. Meanwhile
the butler continues to butle in peace.  I can take exception to the
"coincidence" as that seemed a bit Hollywoodish, but I chalk that up to
"early writer syndrome". One final complaint was the wrap-up where she did
the dreaded "what happened to everybody?" ending. The time-line leaps
(chapters that cover a few hours, then a gap of days before the next scene
begins) did get me hung up a time or two. But continuity weaknesses bug me
more than the average bear.

That all said, I will suggest this book. It's a decent read. Definitely not
a slog. It reads well. The vocabulary is easy going and reflects that of
the characters. The author didn't spend a lot of time in the thesaurus
looking for obscure words to try and impress the reader.

Recommended.

ISBN-10: 042519471X
ISBN-13: 978-0425194713

AG Schnozz
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