ILL WIND - Nevada Barr

Murder at Cliff Palace

Nevada Barr is a mystery writer in the manner of C.J. Box who writes stories set in national parks. This one is set in Mesa Verde and Katherine read it while we were there a few weeks ago. I picked it up after she finished it and managed to devour it in a couple of days. Reading things, even mediocre things like Ill Wind, that are set in familiar places is one of my favorite things to do. C.J. Box's book about Yellowstone with the climactic encounter at The Old Faithful Inn was terrific. I knew that place and could picture every moment. The same is true about Ill Wind. The central incident in the novel takes place in Cliff Palace and that is precisely the place we toured when we were there.

This is not great literature. It isn't even great pulp fiction. It is just a fun, mindless read to fill the time on vacations you end up spending between meals, operas, and sightseeing. This has everything: a bizarre murder, unrequited love, money grubbing bad guys, and innocent victims. It also offers a lot of information about Mesa Verde that the guides don't necessarily fill you in on. Unfortunately, it also has a lot of sentences that make you cringe: "Consciousness dawned like a foggy day" is one such example. That ranks right up there with "It was a dark and stormy night."

But it is well plotted and you can put it down for days if you are of a mind to and pick it up again without missing a beat. Not much else to say, except I doubt I will be reading many more of her novels in the future.