Friday
means Friday’s Forgotten Books hosted by Patti Abbott. My review of Deadly
Currents by Beth Groundwater originally appeared in November 2011. It seemed
time to blow off the dust, tweak a couple of things, and run it again today.
Make sure you check out the full list over at Patti’s blog as well as her new book, I Bring Sorrow And Other stories Of Transgression.
With rookie River Ranger Mandy Tanner and her boss
Steve Hadley watching, things are about to get very dangerous on the Arkansas
River in Colorado. One of the river rafts has flipped and tossed equipment and
passengers into the swirling river churning towards some deadly rapids. With
odds against them before they start, Tanner and Hadley start trying to rescue
as many they can as fast as they can. That results in Mandy Tanner performing
her first river rescue in increasingly dangerous conditions as she breaks
protocol to save lives.
Rules are in place for a reason and she is lucky to
have survived. Her second week patrol proves that sometimes doing things in an
orthodox way is at times very necessary. She successfully pulls in two passengers,
one female and one male. The woman, Hannah Fowler, is shaken but, all things
considered, okay. The man, a local land developer named Tom King, was dead by
the time she got him out of the water to a river bank.
With a wrongful death lawsuit in the early stages
and her Uncle’s river rafting business at stake, Mandy Tanner decides to investigate
and ask questions of anyone involved with that river trip. Her questions annoy
a long list of suspects especially when it becomes clear Tom King was a victim
of foul play. Still reeling from her guilt over Tom King’s death and a second much
closer to home tragedy, Mandy Tanner does not know when to shut up and enjoy
the river while leaving the case to the law enforcement professionals. If she
isn’t careful and very lucky, her career and her young life might be over
before it really starts.
Reminiscent of early Nevada Barr novels and not just
because of the outdoor setting, this cozy style read is the start of a new
series featuring River Ranger Mandy Tanner. Known for her novels A
Real Basket Case and To
Hell in a Handbasket this novel is far different in style and tone. Along with a detailed and obvious
appreciation of the outdoors, author Beth Groundwater has created an
interesting core group of characters, a complex mystery, and plenty of action
and adventure.
The start of a new series, Deadly Currents is not
only good, but puts down an excellent foundation to build on. In will be very
interesting to see how this develops further with Wicked Eddies slated for
publication next year.
Deadly
Currents: A RM Outdoors Adventures Mystery
Beth
Groundwater
Midnight
Ink (Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd.)
March
2011
ISBN#
978-0-7387-2162-0
Paperback
(also available in the Kindle)
300
Pages
$14.95
Material supplied by the author quite some time ago
in exchange for my objective review.
Kevin R. Tipple © 2011, 2018
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