Blue Deer Thaw

Rating:
Summary: Loveable characters, zany characters & a fun plot
Review: A Montana winter can be so brutal that only the hardiest of individuals survive the sub-freezing temperatures, icy cold winds, and blizzards. For instance, the residents of Blue Deer, a small town near Yellowstone, know how to cope with the adverse climate, though an outsider would classify the pioneer behavior as weird and eccentric.

March and April remain cruel months leading to people behaving like lunatics. A wealthy person places his entire estate up for grabs so he can observe his heirs cheat one another and him. A woman freezes to death within five feet of her home. A stranger drowned and another outsider was knifed to death. Sheriff Jules Clement believes there is more to the double deaths than the coroner's finding. As he struggles to persuade Deputy Caroline Fair into going out with him, Jules decides to conduct an investigation to at least satisfy his hunch.

Fans of the TV series "Northern Exposure" will fully enjoy BLUE DEER THAW, a satirical look at the quirky but charming inhabitants of a modern frontier town. Jamie Harrison renders a unique perspective on justice that concludes that satisfaction is not always attained even though justice is achieved. This tale is not a fast ride down the rapids, but rather a delightful, humorous look at the human condition.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: This series is wonderful!
Review: As the fourth in Ms. Harrison's series set in Blue Deer, I couldn't help but get the impression this was also the last! Please tell me it isn't so! As usual, Blue Deer remains the most dysfunctional town I've ever read about, and the characters all remained true to their personalities. The story moves along quickly, with twists and turns and additions, but sometimes I wonder about the dispatching of so may citizens in one area. I sure wouldn't move to Blue Deer! But if Jules was back and available, I might. What with Jules going off to be an archaeologist again, and taking Caroline with him; Edie and Patrick Ankeny neatly wed; Mom has a sleep-over; and Peter and Alice wed with child, what else can happen? While I don't wish Jules another decapitated lover, I sure want him (and Caroline) back in Blue Deer. If you read one of these stories, you'll want to read them all!

Rating:
Summary: Not her best but still very fun
Review: I always look forward to Harrison's stories, and this one, like all her others, was quite entertaining. She has a way of creating all-too-realistic characters, with all-too-realistic foibles. Her tales have more twists and turns in them than one usually finds in 3 such tales, all interwoven in a very clever fashion. Yes, this was another of her books that I had a lot of trouble putting down, so I could get some sleep. It was not her best, but it was still darn good.

Rating:
Summary: Don't bother
Review: I am not entirely sure why Harrison went through the effort of writing this book. There is not much of a plot, the characters are not well developed nor remotely interesting. I'd never want to visit this town. I was past page 100 wondering when the book was really going to get going. It never did. Why I finished it, I'll never know.

Rating:
Summary: Yuck
Review: I am one of those people who generally think you have to finish a book once you start it. In this case, I gave up halfway through. Uninteresting characters and no plot.

Rating:
Summary: out of sync -- I'm missing something
Review: I was pretty much out of sync with this one, and all the way though, it bothered me quite a bit. This is the fourth in the series of Montana-based mystery novels featuring Absaroka County's sheriff, Jules Clement. Blue Deer, is the county seat, and the surrounding countryside it is mostly inhabited by (it seems) slightly eccentric, off-beat and otherwise bewildered denizens of the Northwest wilderness. That needs some clarification. Some of them are outdoorsy people, but for the most part, not the ones Jules hangs out with. As a sideline to his regular job, he also acts as an art appraiser for a many-times married millionaire. Much of the first half of the people is taken up by the upcoming wedding of two of his friends, Alice and Peter, who are boring, and once they're wed, they essentially disappear, making all of the preparations essentially pointless, as far as the story is concerned. Indoorsy types, all of them. When a woman is found frozen to death in a snowbank, halfway between the bar she left and her home, where her husband was sleeping, it doesn't seem to make any alarms go off, as far as the story is concerned. It was accidental and barely seems worth investigating. Slowly momentum begins to build, however, and I mean slowly. Around page 120, Jules starts to make some notes concerning the accident. I thought he'd forgotten about it. Compared with Twin Peaks, a television series you may be thinking of, there is a direction that all of these semi-cutesy digressions finally head off into. (I thought Twin Peaks was a total waste of time, just to give you a gauge.) The last half of the book makes up for most of the first half, but for me, it was heck of job getting there. I think what the problem is, is that sometimes authors get so fond of their characters and their private lives that they think everyone else simply adores them too, and by the time the fourth book comes around, it's one huge love-fest, or so they think -- except for the poor guy who wanders in for the first time and wonders just exactly is it that's going on?

Rating:
Summary: I love Jules!
Review: Jamie Harrison's Blue Deer Thaw exemplifies what can be done when a major talent works to combine the elements of traditional literature and mystery. The characters in this novel are living and breathing - real people living real lives - entrancing us with their needs and desires. And yet we have a mystery. And beside the mystery, we have humor, love and romance. In addition, the quality of the writing is absolutely dazzling, with example after example of fresh, funny usage of the language. I found this book completely fascinating for ALL of the characters, for the tremendous writing, and the subtle, subtle plot. This book, and her last book (An Unfortunate Prairie Occurrence), remind me of John LeCarre at his best (with Smiley), but with humor added. This is a tremendously interesting and wonderfully talented novel. Simply Outstanding fiction! It does, though, help to have read at least her most recent earlier work - An Unfortunate Prairie Occurrence.

Rating:
Summary: Ho-Humm, another masterpiece from Jamie Harrison
Review: Jamie Harrison's Blue Deer Thaw exemplifies what can be done when a major talent works to combine the elements of traditional literature and mystery. The characters in this novel are living and breathing - real people living real lives - entrancing us with their needs and desires. And yet we have a mystery. And beside the mystery, we have humor, love and romance. In addition, the quality of the writing is absolutely dazzling, with example after example of fresh, funny usage of the language. I found this book completely fascinating for ALL of the characters, for the tremendous writing, and the subtle, subtle plot. This book, and her last book (An Unfortunate Prairie Occurrence), remind me of John LeCarre at his best (with Smiley), but with humor added. This is a tremendously interesting and wonderfully talented novel. Simply Outstanding fiction! It does, though, help to have read at least her most recent earlier work - An Unfortunate Prairie Occurrence.

Rating:
Summary: For fans first
Review: Like the books of John Straley, Tony Hillerman and Peter Bowen, I have enjoyed reading most of Jamie Harrison's books two or three times. This is not one of them. Some people will love this book. I was a little befuddled by all the art and food talk and I just don't think that the series should be judged by this one alone. If you're a Harrison fan, definitely read it. If you are new to her, get one of her others first.

Rating:
Summary: For fans first
Review: Like the books of John Straley, Tony Hillerman and Peter Bowen, I have enjoyed reading most of Jamie Harrison's books two or three times. This is not one of them. Some people will love this book. I was a little befuddled by all the art and food talk and I just don't think that the series should be judged by this one alone. If you're a Harrison fan, definitely read it. If you are new to her, get one of her others first.