As The Wolf Loves Winter

Wow. I just finished reading this book during a subzero Midwestern winter, and I believe that was the best time to read it. The cold leaps off the pages and gets into your bones, just like it does to the characters in the book. You're reading along very nicely, understanding the plot and the players in it, when WHAM! A startling announcement at a community meeting throws you a curve. An old man and a little girl are lost in the woods. And suddenly you're on a literary roller coaster, flying toward the conclusion of the novel, unable to do anything but finish the darn book. It's great! Now I have to go read the other two episodes in the series.

"Racks" Halvorsen, the old man of the woods in Hemlock County returns to take on corruption in the remnants of the oil business in the home area of the origins of oil production. Masterful writing by a great story teller with a true gift in use of the English language. If you like well developed characters, Pennsylvania, the oil industry, ecology, and a fast paced read; you can not go wrong with this book. If you haven't read the two previous novels in this series, reading this one will send you scrambling to find them. They are entitled: "Winter in the Heart" and "The Dead of Winter". You will find yourself in "Racks" Halvorsen's shoes and almost feel the frostbite.

I have reviewed only a few books, and a "10" to me is equal to "Silence of the Lambs" in quality. So I find it hard to believe that I am the first one to review this book! It is exquisitely written, and the various threads will keep you fascinated trying to figure out how they'll fit together at the end. It's a weird premise for a popular novel, granted - "...an explosive novel of wolves, ecopolitics, oil, and murder" says the cover - but it doesn't require an ecological bent to appreciate this masterful work. Well, I'm off to find MORE David Poyer!