Blue Wolf: an Alix Thorssen mystery

By Lise McClendon

Book Overview

As haunting as the landscape it occupies
As Jackson Hole gallery owner Alix Thorssen plans an art auction to promote wolf conservation, she is plunged into a bitter feud between ranchers and environmentalists -- and an old mystery involving the strange death of a teenage boy.

A reclusive artist delivers a stunning painting of a blue wolf at the auction, and asks Alix a favor: investigate the accidental shooting of Derek Wylie twenty-five years earlier. Alix finds disturbing clues to a murder and a cover-up, one that leads by tangled threads to the heated animosity right now in Jackson Hole, as the artist and her painting become the catalyst in a brewing storm of rage, guilt and dark secrets left behind in a trail of old blood.

This is the fourth Alix Thorssen mystery, following Nordic Nights, Painted Truth, and The Bluejay Shaman

."A few writers are gifted with a feel for place that transforms locale from mere background into a vital element of the story itself, as important as the human characters who inhabit it. Among today's fortunate few are Tony Hillerman with his mystical view of Navajo country and James Lee Burke, whose evocation of the Louisiana bayous verges on the poetic. To their number add Lise McClendon, who has taken the small resort town of Jackson Hole and the Wyoming wilderness that surrounds it, and made her own., Picturesque Jackson Hole, placid on the surface, is not without its controversies and conflicts. When a rancher, claiming self-defense, kills a wolf, the community is divided among those who view the wolf, recently reintroduced into the wild, as a threat to their livestock and those who seek to protect and preserve the greatly endangered species.

McClendon weaves a persuasive story, as haunting as the landscape it occupies and blessedly free of manufactured melodrama. In Alix, she gives us a heroine both captivating and credible. And when you add that feel for place mentioned earlier..."-- The San Diego Union-Tribune

"Blue Wolf is a mystery that stars an engaging amateur sleuth, but it is also a novel about human frailties and fears that dog a person their whole life. Lise McClendon captures the essences of the human spirit to perfection, which is why her novels are so realistic."-- Midwest Book Review

"Thematically, this work is the strongest of the four Alix Thorssen novels, plus the sense of something magical occurring in the area is powerful. Its use of the fall season in Wyoming for a setting is expressive, and the well-developed characters that people this work are also a highlight... Recommended to any traditional mystery reader, especially those who enjoy works set in the contemporary West."-- Mystery News

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0615593836
• ISBN13: 9780615593838
• Release Date: February 2012
• Publisher: Thalia Press
• Length: 218 Pages
• Weight: 0.66 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Excellent tension in this complex story

Alix Thorssen views the wolf as a beautiful creature, but her rancher neighbors disagree. A dead wolf divides the community and art gallery owner Alix finds her sleuthing skills at maximum strength when one of her best clients requests her help in researching an old death. Excellent tension in this complex story of environmentalism and murder.

Powerful, moving, compelling novel

This is just an exquisite novel, the best McClendon has produced to date. We?re backwith Alix Thorssen, artist and gallery owner in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, which lies in theshadow of the Teton Mountains, not far from Yellowstone National Park. It?s a placewhere not long ago, and over the angry protests of ranchers, and hunters, the gray wolfwas re-introduced, using Canadian imports.One older alpha male was nicknamed Old Blue. He survived two years and had aprofound effect on the park rangers and ecologists who favored reentry of the wolf intothe ecological mix of the Yellowstone-Teton ranges of the Rocky Mountains. Mostpeople, encountering a wolf in the wild, are profoundly affected. McClendon has takenthe spare facts and interwoven complexities of human existence in and around JacksonHole, with the powerful presence of the Blue Wolf. As the characters in this novel rub upagainst Thorssen, Queen, the reclusive painter, Derek, the dead boy, Terry and PercyVargas, ranchers and important personages in the area, and Sonny Garrett, attorney,mover and shaker, their lives are significantly changed by the Blue Wolf.Queen wants Alix, who?s having personal relationship problems at the moment, to try tofind out what really happened when Derek Wylie was killed. The problem is that Derek?sdeath occurred over twenty years ago. The more a reluctant Alix probes, the more shecomes to realize that there is more to the tragedy than first supposed. Her persistencepays off in startling and dangerous ways as she discovers that several people in town havevital information and there appears to be an informal agreement to keep that informationsecret. Moreover, important people want the entire episode erased from the publicconsciousness.And there is a dead wolf. Somebody shot a killed a young female wolf which may frombe one of the Yellowstone packs. As tempers get out of control Alix sees prejudicialaction taken against herself and against Queen. This is a tension-filled novel whichshows McClendon?s keen sense of people and their emotions and their conflicts. Andalways, watching from the mountains, as Alix and the others caught up in this surprisingand twisting tale, is the avatar and the catalyst, the blue wolf. This is a powerful, movingnovel.

GREAT!

This is the best Aliz Thorssen book yet. I loved it so much I bought it for my father and my brother. McClendon really captures the heart of her characters, and I cannot wait for the next one. Please write more!!!