The Divide

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The discovery of a frozen body in a remote mountain creek opens one police file but seems to close several others. At the time of her demise, young Abbie Cooper was a wanted woman, notorious as a murderer and eco-terrorist. But how did she die? And how did the golden child of a loving family become a hunted killer? A gripping novel by the author of The Smoke Jumper and The Horse Whisperer.

Publishers Weekly

This fourth novel lacks the power and intensity of Evans's third, The Horse Whisperer (1995), and it's not nearly as carefully written. A pretty, upper-middle-class girl is discovered frozen in Montana ice and is soon identified as Abbie Cooper, wanted for murder by the FBI. After a promising beginning that introduces a colorful cast of Montana locals, Evans breaks off and flashes back to Abbie's upbringing in suburban New York, and centers the book on Abbie's now-divorced parents, Ben and Sarah. Evans follows the Coopers' high-end careers and estrangement from their domestic lives in meticulous, mind-numbing detail; their separation propels the already idealistic Abbie into the arms of Rolf, a shadowy eco-terrorist. As Abbie's Patty Hearst-like adventures in the eco-underworld slowly unfold, Ben takes up with Sante Fe-based artist Eve, and Sarah is left alone with son Josh, who emerges late in the novel as an improbable principal. Compelling minor characters like Sheriff Charlie Riggs and besieged ranchers Ray and Martha Hawkins are largely wasted. All winds down to a sadder, wiser, relatively reconciled ending that conforms to the norms of family drama, and of romance. The most vivid thing in the book is the wrangling early on over Abbie's remains. 500,000 first printing. Author tour. (Sept. 27) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Evans sets up a pretty good yarn early in this thriller, before his story turns to marshmallow. Skiers find Abbie Cooper's body frozen in a stream. A pretty, middle-class girl, she's wanted by the FBI for an ecoterrorism murder. The tale quickly devolves into domestic tragedy, an extended (really extended) flashback to Ben and Sara Cooper's divorce and its effect on their children, Josh and Abbie. These characters are not strongly drawn, all seemingly described by a trait or two. Abbie, demonstrating against the World Trade Organization in Seattle, gets tear-gassed and rescued by the shadowy Rolf, whose activism is far more sinister. The eponymous divide refers not only to a ranch where the Coopers vacationed but to generational, gender, and emotional chasms as well. Prolific narrator Scott Brick tries too hard, wringing every last teardrop out of an already overwrought text. Evans writes well about the West and the outdoors, but while he may have some audience left from his huge hit The Horse Whisperer, this is apt to disappoint his fans. Buy where he remains popular.-John Hiett, Iowa City P.L. Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

The bestselling author of The Horse Whisperer (1995) returns to the rugged American West for this story of a damaged family's eventual redemption. The surface of Evans's latest is shaped as a mystery. Two skiers on the back trails in Montana find a body encased in ice, and it doesn't take long for the authorities to identify her as Abbie Cooper, wanted for eco-terrorism and murder. Her parents come to claim her body: Ben from Santa Fe, where he lives with his lover Eve, Sarah from the now-empty family home in Long Island. Sarah's cruel accusation that Ben is responsible for Abbie's death spins the story back to when they were a happy family . . . or at least had the appearance of one. Ben was studying architecture and Sarah was in college when they met. They romanced in the usual way, married, had Abbie and Josh and moved to the 'burbs. But the facade of marital harmony shatters on Ben's 46th birthday at the Divide, a Montana dude ranch, where he meets Eve. Everything that's wrong with Ben and Sarah (a lot) finally becomes too much to bear. Abbie takes her parents' split badly, and her youthful enthusiasm for saving the planet at the University of Montana turns dangerous after she meets Rolf, a cell leader for the Earth Liberation Front. When one of their fire-bombings goes wrong, Abbie and Rolf go underground to lead a quasi-criminal existence, despite her parents' televised appeals to turn herself in. Part thriller, part family drama, the novel is at its best in the analysis of Ben and Sarah's failed marriage. Evans examines in excruciating detail the intentional injury and petty selfishness that accompany their break-up. Abbie's disappearance lasts for years, with the FBI stillwatching the Coopers. It's up to Josh, shy and usually stoned, to bring the family some closure. An effective, if melancholy portrait. First printing of 500,000.