Happy Reading

Toni's bookshelf: read

The Godfather of Kathmandu (Sonchai Jitpleecheep, #4)
Ape House
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest
Operation Napoleon
Walking Dead
The Sentimentalists
The Heretic Queen
The Midnight House
Cross Fire
Peony in Love
Absurdistan
Nefertiti
Finding Nouf: A Novel
City of Veils: A Novel
First Daughter
A Place of Hiding
Amagansett
Peter Pan


Toni Osborne's favorite books »
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Monday, August 3, 2015

"One Mile Under", by Andrew Gross

Book 4, in the Ty Hauck series

This long-awaited who done it mystery takes us on a journey were farmers are pit against an energy company supporting fracking exploration in Colorado. In spite of the story there is a great deal about the process for extracting gas and oil from shale rock by injecting water, sand and chemicals into the rock. Although a fiction, this story surely made me wonder about this type of process. This latest thriller is one that includes a great deal of useful information.

I missed those 5 years between installments, reading this latest was getting back with an old friend although this time in a whole different setting. This is a straightforward mystery that tells what desperate people would do for water and the bargain they are ready to make. In hush-hush fashion the dealings with the instigators are kept out of the limelight.

I wondered in the few opening chapters where was Ty everything was about Dani Whalen , a white-water guide and a friend found dead of an apparent kayaking accident, then another accident involving another of her friend. It took for ever before TY showed up to save the day. Honestly I really didn’t miss him. Dani was an excellent player, a feisty and smart girl that entertained and captivated me throughout, at least for the first part of the novel. Then the superhero showed up but what did we have: a lesson on fracking…..and harping on the process. There is limited action, yes a few thrilling moments but suspense is rarely felt and the whole experience lack the luster of a real mystery. There is way too much turning in circle, coming back to the same old points. It seemed the pages needed to be filled. Frankly by then it was time to reach the end I was losing so much interest. Not my preferred novel and this by a long shot.

Whether we are for or against fracking this story will at least make you think of its consequences.

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