Product Description
Sun Valley sheriff Walt Fleming returns in a stunning new thriller from the #1 New York Times–bestselling author.
When a skier goes missing at Sun Valley’s Galena Summit, Sheriff Walt Fleming quickly a… More >>
Killer View
Written by admin on September 2nd, 2010 in Mystery & Thrillers.
Tags: Killer, View
In a sequel to last year’s “Killer Weekend”, Sun Valley Sheriff Walt Fleming is back, again juggling the mess of his personal life with his duties as a lawman.
Trying to solve the mystery of the disappearance of one of his best friends while also trying to solve the murder of that friend’s brother, Fleming stumbles into a possible conspiracy with much broader implications and possible national ramifications.
It sounds better than it plays, unfortunately.
First, and most tediously, Fleming seems to be a very annoyingly passive-aggressive character who can’t seem to get off the dime and make a decision about ANYTHING!
His wife’s run off to shack up with his best deputy, abandoning him and their two young twin daughters. Fleming can’t seem to decide how to deal with this in any way: fire the deputy? Fulfill his parental duties? File for divorce? Nada. Nothing happens, other than endless and boring angst and self-recriminations. He won’t do or say anything much to the deputy; abandons his kids, essentially, to a caretaker; is afraid of his ex-wife; is too wussy to date anyone else.
We should care why?
As to the actual “mystery” itself, it’s almost totally lost in the soap opera about Fleming’s personal life and travel brochure descriptions of the Sun Valley area.
Yes, it’s a beautiful place; I get it.
The characterizations of the secondary players range from thin and two-dimensional to virtually non-existent. Kira, the victim of a brutal rape in the opening segment, is a completely cartoonish character, for example; yet her rape is one of the driving events of the plot.
The “action” segments are strung together almost haphazardly. There’s seldom a coherent flow to events, and some are completely skipped, only referred to in later dialogue in which you learn the outcome.
My three stars are generous, and are earned by Pearson’s earlier works and the resultant goodwill from them.
Rating: 3 / 5
Topnotch author Ridley Pearson has lived in the Sun Valley area for some twenty years, so he knows the setting for his story well. Perhaps that’s one reason why his scenes are so vivid, seeming to appear before our eyes in full color. Of course, setting is not all this writer knows well as the number of his books on bestseller lists clearly show. He knows how to spin a thriller from opening line to often shocking finish, which he surely does with Killer View.
Sun Valley Sheriff Walt Fleming doesn’t hesitate for a nano second when he receives a nighttime call saying that a skier is missing. He assembles his top men as a search and rescue team and goes out into the bone chilling blackness. With him are his best friend, veterinarian Mark Aker, Mark’s brother, Randy, and deputy Tommy Brandon. Walt feels little friendship for Tommy due to the deputy’s history with Walt’s former wife. But Walt is a professional and a job needs to be done.
That job immediately takes a surprising twist when Randy is fatally shot and Mark disappears. It isn’t long before a young girl who works at the veterinarians’ office is cruelly assaulted. She arrives at a local hospital with no memory of her attacker. Now, Walt is faced with a murder, a missing man, and an assault victim. As he proceeds with his investigation he becomes aware that sheep in the area are falling ill. How does all or any of this tie together and why would a prominent congressman call Walt of all possible sheriffs and tell him to come to Washington to fill in for a conference drop out?
Following Pearson’s finely, logically constructed story is both exciting and absorbing. A narration by Audie Award winner Christopher Lane lends additional pleasure, leaving this listener hoping to hear much more from him in the future.
– Gail Cooke
Rating: 4 / 5
Ridley Pearson is one of my favorite authors; however, his last few attempts have been lukewarm. He really needs to get back to basics and write another in the Lou Boldt series. They were wonderful.
Rating: 3 / 5
The snows of Sun Valley run red when murder and nefarious conspiracy are abroad. I couldn’t tell if the character’s in this fairly standard thriller were so sketchily drawn because they’d been introduced in a prior book, or if the writing was a little thin. Our stalwart hero with his troubled home life is a little dull. There are however, a couple good set pieces, namely an avalanche and a hibernating bear.
It’s not clear if the environmental subtext was right-or-left wing or conveniently anxious to avoid offense.
Rating: 3 / 5
I liked the first installment in Ridley Pearson’s new series, following Idaho sheriff Walt Fleming. This second entry shows that the first wasn’t exactly a fluke, but it’s also not quite the book it should be.
This time around, Walt’s involved in a complex case involving two different incidents, that happened pretty much at the same time. First a local was killed, followed quickly by the disappearance of his brother. The brother is a veterinarian, and immediately after his disappearance his assistant, an attractive woman, wanders into a hospital emergency room with date rape drugs wearing off, obviously a victim of sexual assault, but she can’t remember anything. It becomes obvious pretty quickly that the incidents are connected, and Walt sort of investigates, but his wife, her infidelity, and the rest of his life get in the way from time to time.
I enjoyed the book for the most part, but I will say one thing: it should have been about 50 pages shorter. At times the story drags in the middle. I think Pearson needs an editor, one with a hard head who will tell him to tighten things up a bit.
Rating: 3 / 5