Book Review: Blue Wolf

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Blue Wolf     Amazon US PB Amazon US HC Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada HC
Lise McClendon
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Amateur Sleuth
Series: Alix Thorssen # 4
Walker, Aug 2001, $23.95, 220 pp.

Alix Thorssen, owner of the Northern Sun Art Gallery in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, is heavily involved in the Auction For Wildlife. This event supports Teton Land Trust, a coalition of conservationists, hunters, and ranchers. The Federal Government does not completely control Teton Nature Park. Individual ranchers live in the park, trying to make a go at a life that is rapidly fading into the past.

Wolves, an endangered species, are let loose in Yellowstone Natural Park. However, the ranchers know the wolves are visiting Teton, killing their livestock and depriving the ranchers of food and income. Alix becomes involved when artist Queen Johns asks her to look into the identity of a boy shot and killed twenty-five years ago. Alix is very good at asking the right people the correct questions and figures out that Queenie’s son was the one that was killed a quarter of a century ago. Some of the players involved in that deadly event are now prominent and want to stop any investigations. Alix intends to do her best to expose them and give Queenie the closure she desperately needs.

BLUE WOLF is a mystery that stars an engaging amateur sleuth, but it is also a novel about human frailties and fears that dog a person their whole life. Lise McClendon captures the essences of the human spirit to perfection, which is why her novels are so realistic. It is been a long time (too long) since an Alix Thorssen mystery was published, but this tale make the wait worth it.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner