Sleeping Lady

Rating:
Summary: GREAT book with VERY unusual ending!
Review: Anyone who likes mysteries with a twist will go nuts over this one! I sent it to my daughter with a note on the last page to call me when she finished it. I thought maybe I wasn't reading it right, but she agreed with me. I won't say more, I don't want to spoil it for others. A must read! Sue Henry needs to get busy and write faster! Like a trip to Alaska, plus a super story!

Rating:
Summary: An Alaskan reader's view
Review: As a mystery this book is exceptionally good, plot twist upon plot twist. As an Alaskan, I enjoyed the way the author skillfully captured the flavor of Alaska and Alaskan living. I couldn't put it down and read it all in one sitting.

Rating:
Summary: Okay, but not the best
Review: First, let me admit to being biased. I recently appeared in Alaska as an author at the Left Coast Crime mystery convention that Sue Henry had a major part in arranging. I also had a room at the Anchorage Hilton with a spectacluar view of the genuine Sleeping Lady. My view of that mountain was nada compared to Sue Henry's Alex Jensen novel SLEEPING LADY. Ms. Henry's scenic descriptions are unequaled in contemporary fiction. She also knows her territory--Alaska--well. By reading these Alex Jensen books, one learns what our last frontier is all about and what one needs to do to survive in that rugged land. The plot twisted and turned to the last page, and I felt the mystery was handled excellently. I am enjoying how Ms. Henry's characters are growing with each book. All in all, SLEEPING LADY is a terrific novel. If you've been to Alaska, as I have, you will love it. If you haven't been to Alaska, you will love it even more (and also add that great state to your travel plans). I encourage everyone to read Sue Henry's SLEEPING LADY.

Rating:
Summary: Sleeping Lady Soars!
Review: First, let me admit to being biased. I recently appeared in Alaska as an author at the Left Coast Crime mystery convention that Sue Henry had a major part in arranging. I also had a room at the Anchorage Hilton with a spectacluar view of the genuine Sleeping Lady. My view of that mountain was nada compared to Sue Henry's Alex Jensen novel SLEEPING LADY. Ms. Henry's scenic descriptions are unequaled in contemporary fiction. She also knows her territory--Alaska--well. By reading these Alex Jensen books, one learns what our last frontier is all about and what one needs to do to survive in that rugged land. The plot twisted and turned to the last page, and I felt the mystery was handled excellently. I am enjoying how Ms. Henry's characters are growing with each book. All in all, SLEEPING LADY is a terrific novel. If you've been to Alaska, as I have, you will love it. If you haven't been to Alaska, you will love it even more (and also add that great state to your travel plans). I encourage everyone to read Sue Henry's SLEEPING LADY.

Rating:
Summary: Good setting and characters but the plot cheats!
Review: Having lived in Anchorage, I love much about Sue Henry's Alaska mysteries, which evoke the land and its people with obvious affection. But this is the weakest link in the series.

First of all, Henry is at her best when dealing with dogsledding, but here, dogs play little role. More importantly, though, this story lies to the reader. In an attempt to set a red herring, Henry allows a viewpoint character to see and do things the character (who has knowledge not yet available to the reader) wouldn't actually see and do. Sorry to be vague, but I don't want to disclose the secret. I went back and reread the vital section, though, and the book does indeed cheat.

I'm tempted to penalize this book by giving it a single star, but the setting, characters, and 99 percent of the story are at least 3 1/2-star material-and at least Henry tried to do something different, even if it doesn't work. Fans of the series will want to read this book; first-timers would do better to start with "Murder on the Ididerod."

Rating:
Summary: Hard to take up!
Review: I found it difficult going, reading this book, due to its redundancy (she says the same thing in different ways more than once in most paragraphs it seems) and its plethora of details rather than getting on with the plot and the characterization. The characters have hackneyed thoughts and feelings and little dialogue. It is billed as 'another Alex Jensen mystery' but the secondary character, Jesse, is predominant. This is my first Henry mystery. Maybe I am missing something that happened in the previous books. I was bored. And felt irritated and patronized.

Rating:
Summary: Good but confusing
Review: I have just read this book-- long after most of the other reviews. It was very good, kept me guessing-- strong characters. But that ending!!! Hello and help!! I took it to mean she shot the plane down but not her husband? If he was shot twice but one shot went into the woman on the plane that is too many bullets. I was guessing that she shot it down but the poachers finished the job-- especially with their trick of pushing the bear at the helpless Norm with a plane. I am reading the series in order so really enjoyed the first 2 books. This one as well, right up to the ending and then? too many unanswered questions.

Rating:
Summary: Great Promise, Big Flaws
Review: I mostly agree with other reviewers - great scenery, adding the bear's point of view was clever, the characters are well-drawn and engaging, the women characters specially are strong and believable, the plot developments interesting, sometimes gripping. But I am extremely surprised nobody mentioned the enormous flaws and inconsistencies. Sue Henry outsmarted herself in trying that last-minute and literally last-page final twist that does not hold water for a second.

Inconsistency Number One: the missing pilot filed a deliberately misleading flight plan, yet everybody looks for him where he actually went. They're all psychic or something? The only reason they don't find him is that his plane is submerged, and a bear got him (I'm not giving anything away, Ms. Henry tells us that in the very first chapter).

Inconsistency Number Two (a big one). We're asked to believe that the bad guys, who are poachers, blow the cover of a federal agent who's infiltrated them, right there in the middle of nowhere, beat her up badly, then when her pilot shows up, just let the two of them leave the camp and fly away, obviously to call the cops on them! They just stand there and watch them leave? Come on, folks, be realistic!! (Even if they're supposed to have shot the plane down, why let them leave at all? Specially as the author makes plain how difficult it actually is to hit a plane in flight with a rifle. Why take the unnecessary risk?)

Inconsistency Number Three: we could have done without that last-minute twist in the plot (apart from the Inconsistency Number Two, it was a pretty good story) because we're asked to believe that the real murderer, knowing exactly where and when to go in the immensity of the Alaskan wilderness, flies in unnoticed and undetected near the poachers' camp, lands, gets out of the plane, takes position to ambush said plane, knowing in advance what the line of flight will be, shoots it down with two rifle shots, reboards the plane and leaves, once again with nobody seeing or hearing anything? When we know the poachers are constantly on their guard? I just don't buy it, and I'm very surprised everybody else seems to have done, and is gushing enthusiastically about the book.

Those glaring flaws are really a pity. Before I got to them, I was very much enjoying the book, and thought I'd buy more of the series. Now I think I'll spend my time and money elsewhere, which is a pity because Alex Jensen and his girlfriend Jessie are very engaging characters. I give the book three stars because of the characters and scenery. On plot alone, I'd have given it 4 stars before I came across the flaws. With those flaws, I'd downgrade the mark to 2 stars, with one added because of the promise (though unfulfilled) of the book.

Rating:
Summary: Great alaskan read!
Review: I really enjoyed this book.You feel as if you were there in Alaska with the characters in the story. The story reads fast and is well written. Not at all boring!And I plan to read all of her other books very soon.

Rating:
Summary: Mere comments and observations.
Review: I was absolutely captivated with the descriptive writing Sue Henry did in this book and reading it is the closest possible thing to actually being on the scenes she describes. Few writers even begin to compare with Sue Henry in this regard. Having said this, there are aspects to this story that bother me. Why would Norm Lewis file a flight-plan and instead of following it, ignore it completely? Why would Rochelle, (six inches shorter than her brother Ed,) burden her "otherwise slim frame" with a 9 pound Weatherby .375 rifle that has approximately 50 pounds of recoil? How could a bullet from such an extremely powerful rifle simply bury itself (and stay put) in an upper leg bone (femur) when fired across a short distance? Why no ballistics follow-up on that bullet in the bone? And really....did Rochelle just keep those two brass shell casings as mementos or perhaps to reinforce those warm, precious moments of reminiscence about Norm? They would most likely never have been considered evidence, so why drop them in the lake? End of story about Norm Lewis, I guess. Oh well, he lived a good life and he apparently was a good man. His widow really does feel sorry for how he met his end and that is nice. Makes me feel good all over again. I like happy endings in books like this. By the way, what ever happened to those notes Norm left beneath the floor of the shack on Lake Hood? Is there another story coming with this in it? Does Alex finally figure it all out? (Does Chelle finally get herself a smaller, less powerful rifle? One she can more easily manage?) Come on! Don't keep us all waiting!