Synopsis
"Ned Carr is a miner, an irascible old coot who has held on to acres of prime real estate in the middle of Aspen's ski slopes. Carr feuds with everyone, including the ski company and eco-warriors who want to shut down his mines. Sheriff Kurt Muller is the only person with a soft spot for Carr. Following up a suspicious call, Muller rushes to Carr's mine—in time to witness the shaft explosion that kills him. Drawn into a dangerous covert war between militant greens and corporate forces grappling for control of the New West, Muller uncovers a conspiracy that could destroy his most cherished loves—the two children under his protection and the snowcapped wilderness he calls home."
Publishers Weekly
Into Thin Air, Zigal's first book about Kurt Muller, was good; his second takes a quantum leap up to terrific. Muller is a complex, believable character, an ex-hippie who, 11 years ago, decided on a lark to run for sheriff of the Colorado county that includes Aspen. His marriage has already fallen apart; now he's wondering if the strain of the job on his six-year-old son, Lennon, is worth it. Another six-year-old boyLennon's friend Hunter Carris at the center of a story that begins when Hunter's grandfather, an old miner named Ned Carr, is blown up in his apparently worthless silver mine. A dedicated troublemaker, Ned has irritated everyone in the area, from the violent environmental activists called the Green Briars to an even more dangerous (and better funded) right-wing group known as the Free West Rebellion. But as gripping as the many action scenes are, what really lifts this novel to excellence is the way Zigal writes about fathers and children, the legacies the former leave the latter and the difficulties of negotiating between loyalty and independence. Throughout this strong, sad, constantly involving story, Zigal renders the deep bond between people and the land with a blend of complexity and conflict that enriches the genre. (Dec.)