From Publishers Weekly
MWA Grand Master Muller delivers a relatively routine stand-alone, a murder mystery with an environmental veneer, which falls short of the quality of her acclaimed Sharon McCone series (
The Dangerous Hour, etc.). When a greedy North Carolina corporation seeks to harvest water from a quiet California lumber town—the Cape Perdido of the title—Jessie Domingo, a public and community relations consultant, and Fitch Collier, an arrogant and difficult attorney who specializes in water rights, team up to help the community fight the interloper. The conflict between the townspeople and the company rapidly escalates after a sniper takes a shot at one of the huge bags to be used to transport the water. The lingering shadow from a decades-old unsolved murder connected to many of the local players in the dispute complicates Domingo's work and leads to even more violence. Less than compelling characters and a pat ending mark this as an uncharacteristic lapse for Muller, who hopefully will return to form with her next book.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
When plans to pump the Perdido River in Soledad County, California, through an aqueduct system to North Carolina are revealed, the residents protest. It's not long before discussion turns deadly. Dick Hill and Joyce Bean narrate Muller's ecological thriller, rife with old secrets and new violence. Bean's performance is calm and soothing. Her characterizations are quietly drawn and believable. Hill embodies an assortment of provincial personalities with well-defined accents that range from gruff, grizzly locals to citified corporate raiders, although Hill is sometimes overly loud and jarring in his exchanges with Bean. However, both readers do especially well with Muller's descriptions of the pristine beauty of the Northern California coast. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine--
Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine
--This text refers to an alternate
Audio CD
edition.
