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Showing posts with label suspense. Show all posts

The Prospector's Voyage Review

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(More customer reviews)This is a good, old-fashioned yarn which has a little bit of everything: high adventure, star-crossed lovers, an unexpected friendship, dastardly villains and enough suspense near the end to tie a tight knot in one's stomach. With his knowledge of wilderness survival skills, author Jim Ballou has fashioned an engrossing and entertaining story about a young prospector's journey from unexpected defeat and despair to his discovery of what really matters in life.

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Extraordinary circumstances await a young farm hand from Missouri when he leaves behind all that he's ever known, and sets out for California's Sierra Nevada Mountain with gold fever and little else. Roughly two decades after the California Gold Rush, Nathan Clayburn arrives with his own ambitious vision. But he encounters a whole lot more than he bargained for. A beautiful young lady, vicious outlaws, and a perilous wilderness soon turn his quest for riches into a desperate struggle for survival, and give his incredible journey a completely new purpose.

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A Dance Around the Desert Review

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(More customer reviews)The author sure knows how to put the reader in the setting. I don't own or ride horses, but could feel what these two gals were experiencing---the thirst, dust, worry and sweat as they wandered around in the desert heat, trying to find their way home. Marijuana, adultery, and murder add to the suspense. The book is definitely an exciting read.

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After the Fall Review

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(More customer reviews)"After the Fall" did not live up to the write-ups listed on the book. There was a lot of promise in the story line and the first few pages grabbed your interest of things to come, but the book fell flat. The author started to develop some of the characters and then just stopped. The prologue seemed to be written by someone other than the person who wrote the story. I finished the book on a recent flight and just left it in the seat pocket. I would not purchase another book by this author and I am even disappointed in the publisher!

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The House of Thunder Review

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(More customer reviews)This book to me is a classic. Koontz brilliantly constructs this plot and makes it a joy to see unfold. I read this book a few years back and I still remember the pleasure I got from it. A couple months ago I gave this book to my girlfriend to read I got her hooked on Koontz now I am like her Koontz supplier hehehe. Anyways I dared her to figure out the plot before books end and to tell me. She had quite the imagination but could never come up with the plot. After she finsihed she was astounded by the sheer brilliance of this book. So why did I give this book 5 stars quite simply because it was a hard book to put down. I seen from other reviews some were disappointed with the ending but I bet for that moment of time when they were reading it all were captivated just as I was!!!

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#1 New York Times bestselling author Dean Koontz delivers a chilling novel of a traumatized woman and the terrifying place she'll never escape.

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The Upper Country: French Enterprise in the Colonial Great Lakes (Regional Perspectives on Early America) Review

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(More customer reviews)As stated by the author in the Introduction, there are no ground-breaking revelations from original scholarship within this work. But it is a good, solid introduction to the politics and economics of the subject region. I only found two small historic errors - details that would be obvious to only the most arcane of French colonial historians.
The bibliography reveals that he has consulted virtually every printed source available, and a large part of this book's value lies in the bibliographic resources revealed. Doctor Skinner's collection and collation of facts from widely disparate sources, presented from a highly objective perspective, make this work a valuable introduction for readers who don't have the time or inclination to wallow in the esoterica of the bibliography.

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Drummer in the Dark (Marcus Glenwood Series #2) Review

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(More customer reviews)T. Davis Bunn keeps getting better. Wow! I thought he'd found his niche with "The Great Divide" (his legal thriller), but this book of political and financial intrigue raises the standard even higher. I'm not a big stocks and funds enthusiast, but Bunn manages to create a suspenseful and well-researched plot that hooked me early on. He works in a credible idea of dealing with Third World debt that I particularly found interesting. Beyond his obvious knowledge of the subject, Bunn creates believable characters and writes with a narrative flair that I personally love. His story is complex and maybe too intertwined for some to delve into, but I couldn't get enough.
As the title of this review suggests, I did lose sleep finishing this book. But the title is stolen from Bunn's own writing. "Jackie's eyelids felt coated with shards from the hourglass of lost sleep." It's writing such as this, passionate and imaginative, that make the political and financial arena come alive. Jackie and Wynn, the two protaganists, are complex characters whom I came to care for. Although the spiritual lessons are muted and few, Bunn works in heartfelt and very real spiritual thoughts without seeming preachy.
With a recent batch of superlative novels by Christian authors("When Heaven Weeps" by Ted Dekker and "The List" by Robert Whitlow, to name a few), I must include "Drummer in the Dark" as one of my favorites.

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The Voyageur Review

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(More customer reviews)Grace Lee Nute's The Voyageur depicts significant figures in American and Canadian history who have received little attention. Indeed, Nute has written what many consider the classic exploration of the subject in this book that dates back to 1935. The book is divided into nine specific categories on such subjects as the voyageur's canoe, his journey, his songs, his life as explorer etc. Each section is compact, well-researched and fascinating.
The section on voyaging is especially astounding when we consider these men would carry hundreds of pounds on their back when reaching a portage or place where they had to carry their canoes and accessories overland to the next river or lake for their voyage. It is astonishing for me to think, as a resident of the Lake Superior region, what it would have been like to traverse that great lake 300 years ago, to pass through the rapids at Sault Sainte Marie when there were no locks, to sleep under your canoe, to winter inland above the Great Lakes in the dead of winter when the temperature was forty degrees below zero. Nute's book is a true tale of human courage, endurance, and determination, and she makes it clear the voyageur deserves much of the credit for many of the discoveries and explorations which are credited to other men, who never would have reached those places of discovery without their voyageurs' help.
My only criticism of the book is that most of Nute's research is based in the early eighteen hundreds, and I would have preferred to hear more about voyageurs from the earlier years of the seventeenth and eighteenth century. She does explore how important the voyageurs were even long after the United States was founded, in helping John Jacob Astor's American Fur Trade Company, and their roles in early American events, especially the War of 1812. The book is a must read for anyone who lives in the Great Lakes Region or is interested in the early exploration and settlement of North America.
- Tyler R. Tichelaar, author of Iron Pioneers and The Queen City, available on Amazon

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Many Tender Ties: Women in Fur-Trade Society, 1670-1870 Review

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(More customer reviews)This book had the potential to be great. It contained vast amounts of information, mostly in anecdotal form, but was poorly organized and edited. I'm a bit of a grammar snob, so maybe I'm being too picky, but I was continuously distracted by Van Kirk's usage of the word "which" when "that" would have been correct. It seemed she was self-consciously choosing to use "which" because it sounds more formal, but it was simply wrong in most uses. A sample sentence: "The women which lived in this fort..." No, not correct.
As far as organization, she backtracks frequently and rarely mentions approximate years, which makes it very difficult for a reader to keep track of when the events mentioned took place. In one chapter, events covered will stretch from, say, 1800-1830. Suddenly, the next chapter is referencing events from 1790-1800. There's also no background information provided on the fur trade industry itself or the meaning of the ranks within. She expects the reader to know where bourgeois, voyageur, governor, Chief Factor, and other casually-mentioned positions within the companies. Without these frames of reference, I had a difficult time reconciling all the anecdotal history within the book.
With the help of a ruthless editor, this book could be great. As it stands, its points are often muddled in poor grammar, syntax, and lack of background information.

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Beginning with the founding of the Hudson's Bay Company in 1670, the fur trade dominated the development of the Canadian west.Although detailed accounts of the fur-trade era have appeared, until recently the rich social history has been ignored.In this book, the fur trade is examined not simply as an economic activity but as a social and cultural complex that was to survive for nearly two centuries.

The author traces the development of a mutual dependency between Indian and European traders at the economic level that evolved into a significant cultural exchange as well.Marriages of fur traders to Indian women created bonds that helped advance trade relations.As a result of these "many tender ties," there emerged a unique society derived from both Indian and European culture.

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First Across the Continent: Sir Alexander Mackenzie (Oklahoma Western Biographies) Review

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(More customer reviews)Pretty good book. Gives a rather matter-of-fact account of MacKenzie's life. Not alot of detail or passion in either of his 2 great voyages. Interesting in all the other people brought into the story. Now I want to read about Peter Pond, MacKenzies' predecessor. Short and a quick read.

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Children of the Frost (Penny Books) Review

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(More customer reviews)I really enjoyed this, but in the spirit of full disclosure, I'm a huge Jack London fan. This is not a book like Call of the Wild or Martin Eden. Rather, it consists of short vignettes that are, on their immediate face, about indigenous people in the Pacific Northwest. Really, though, the vignettes describe the human condition in general, from greed and spite to love and loyalty--and everything in between. Loved it.

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A weary journey beyond the last scrub timber and straggling copses, into the heart of the Barrens where the niggard North is supposed to deny the Earth, are to be found great sweeps of forests and stretches of smiling land. But this the world is just beginning to know. The world's explorers have known it, from time to time, but hitherto they have never returned to tell the world.-----------------------------------------------------------------** Check Out More Great Titles From Penny Books **-----------------------------------------------------------------Simply click on "Penny Books (Editor)" under the title to see a full list of all of our great discounted books!!New titles are being added daily, so be sure to check back often to find more great discounted books!!**Check out PennyBooksPublishing.com to get more information about Penny Books, learn how to follow us on Twitter, and look at all of our great titles!!

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French Fur Traders and Voyageurs in the American West Review

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(More customer reviews)I have come to the conclusion that anything written by or edited by Leroy Hafen is a must read. Add to that, a fine introduction by Janet Lecompte. The book itself describes 22 meaningful, condensed biographies of well known and not so well known French fur traders and trappers of the early 1800's. Each chapter conveys the
hardships, lifestyles, pressures and strategies of opposing fur companies and adventures of these early pioneers. The reader will no doubt have a few favorite chapters and from these chapters, one can look at the bibliographies to select further readings. A good book.

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