The Dog Stars

The Dogs Stars by Peter Heller is a dystopian story about humanity post-sickness and what people will do to survive.

Hig and Bangley now live at a small airport near Denver. Hig is a pilot who flies over the wide fields surrounding their home to make sure no other survivors are trying to sneak up on them. Hig thinks of Bangley as a gun-happy survivalist who, for some reason, thinks they work well together. Their uneasy friendship gives them both a better chance of survival. 

It has been nine years since the sickness and then the bloods that killed most people. In the first couple of years after they found the airport, Hig and Bangley had to defend themselves against armed groups a few times. Now Hig sleeps, not in the house with electricity, but being a berm in the field with his dog Jasper. The house with the lights is the easy target that allows them time to react to anyone sneaking in. 

For as long as the fuel lasts, Hig will fly. He figures he has a while left before the rest goes bad, and then there are additives to extend its life. He uses the plane, not only to scout, but to visit the Mennonite families with the blood disease to trade vegetables, and to the highway as a treat to pick up cases of soda from a crashed semi on the highway.

But Hig cannot get out of his head that twice he has heard a radio response from Grand Junction.  

Heller has written an award-winning novel of dystopian fiction. This book will keep readers on edge, worried about what will happen to Hig. And Heller’s writing is so beautiful. Read all of his books. 

Heller, Peter. (2012). The Dog Stars. NY: Alfred A Knopf.

Back of Beyond (Cody Hoyt #1)

Back of Beyond by C.J. Box is the first book in his mystery / suspense series featuring Police Inspector Cody Hoyt. Hoyt is likely in his last chance job as a police officer. He is brilliant at solving crimes when he puts his mind to it, but his mind is often more focused on drinking, or not drinking.

When the Helena dispatcher sends Cody to a remove mountain cabin where hikers found a half-burned building with what looks like a person, Cody is afraid he knows who lives there. It is his AA sponsor and friend. While the scene looks like an accidental fire, he is convinced it was murder.

Once he tries to convince his fellow detective it is a crime scene, the forensic team goes to work. One clue, the website last up on the man’s computer, leads Cody to decide that the killer is using an outdoor, five-day horseback through Yellowstone to evade the investigation. Unfortunately, if he is right, it may be the same trip Hoyt’s son is on with his potential new stepfather.

Box has created a terribly flawed cop for whom readers will still root. And a secondary character who readers will be glad to see again in the next book, fourteen-year-old Gracie Sullivan who is on the adventure with her sister and father. The details can be a bit gruesome, but this is a great mystery for anyone who likes the outdoors. Readers of Nevada Barr’s Anna Pigeon series will enjoy the scenery. 

Box, C.J. (2011). Back of Beyond. NY: Minotaur Books.

Celine: A Novel

Celine by Peter Heller is a lovingly written mystery.

Celine is a private investigator and artist living in Brooklyn. She is a mother and grandmother who only takes cases about missing people. Between cases she creates art with found things and dodges her boyfriend’s attempts to make her eat vegetables.

When a fellow alumna reads an article about Celine in their college magazine, she thinks she has found the women to help her find her missing father. Gabriela’s father was a photojournalist who when missing or was killed by a grizzly bear on the Montana / Wyoming border. Celine and her boyfriend, Pete, fly across the country, borrow a truck with a camper, and try to follow the man’s footsteps.

Interspersed with flashbacks to Celine’s childhood, told sometimes by her and sometimes by an adult son who has great affection for his mother, this mystery is about family, loss and hope. Heller is an adventure writer for outdoor magazines, a nonfiction and fiction author, along with being a poet. The combination leads to wonderful books in which readers sometimes pause to marvel in the beauty of the word choices while still inhaling the story. Celine is especially moving as the main character is based on his own mother. If you only ready one book this year, make it this one. If you read a lot, buy it so you can read it again later!

Heller, Peter. (2017). Celine: A Novel. NY: Knopf.

Long Road to Mercy (Atlee Pine #1)

Long Road to Mercy by David Baldacci is the first book in the Atlee Pine mystery/thriller series. Pine if an FBI agent in the Southwest. She became an agent with the idea that it would help her eventually find out what happened to her twin sister Mercy, who was kidnapped when they were six. Her life has been devoted to getting strong and smart to make up for not being able to save Mercy.

Atlee Pine does not like crowds. In fact, she has gotten herself assigned to a one-agent FBI office at the edge of the Grand Canyon. The only person she works with is her secretary Carol Blum.

When a man disappears from a Canyon mule expedition, Pine is called to investigate. Little does she know that this man is the key to an international conspiracy to usurp the pecking order of global leaders. All she knows at first is someone gut a donkey and the man who is missing is either a sick bastard or was kidnapped.

Baldacci has written a book that crosses many genres: mystery, thriller, suspense and espionage. Atlee Pine is a focused, strong character who is understandably obsessed with finding her sister. His books are always great for a fast, thrilling read.

Baldacci, David. (2019). Long Road to Mercy. New York: Grand Central Publishing.

The New Girl (Gabriel Allon #19)

The New Girl by Daniel Silva is the nineteenth book in his Gabriel Allon espionage series. If you have not started this series yet, start today!

 At an exclusive private school in Switzerland, a girl begins the term late. She is quite and a bit different than the other students. First of all she has her own security even though the school has its own – many children of important people attend this school. Secondly, one teacher thinks the girl is not who she says she is; not even her name seems real. Then the girl is gone.

 Sarah Bancroft manages the Nadia Al-Bacari collection at the Met. When a wealthy collector she has worked with reaches out to her it is not to buy a painting. It is to set up a meeting between him and Gabriel Allon. Somehow Khalid ben Mohammed, crown prince of Saudi Arabia, knows that Sarah is former FBI and has worked with Allon. KBM is desperate to meet a man whom most in Saudia Arabia think is the devil. Because his daughter has been kidnapped.

 Silva is a masterful storyteller. Readers are hooked by the end of the first paragraph. This is on of the best fiction series, hands down.

 Silva, Daniel. (2019). The New Girl. New York: Harper.