Blue Wolf Reviews

Tag: Snowy

  • Crackenback

    Crackenback

    DS Pierce Ryder is back in his second Crime fiction novel from Lee Christine, Crackenback, set in the Snowy Mountains in New South Wales; the perfect setting for crime as the first snow falls of the winter are beginning, making life in the small alpine village of Thredbo far more isolated than usual.

    Five years ago Eva Bell took over the running of the Golden Wattle Lodge and three years have passed since the arrival of her beautiful little girl, Poppy. Over that time she has made many changes to what was a pretty ordinary ski lodge and is getting ready to welcome her first guests of the new season.

    Peirce Ryder, now happily settled in Sydney with Eva’s sister Vanessa, is working on a case that is proving very difficult to solve. The Hutton case has dragged over several years but with a fresh murder and a possible lead, it looks like there could be a chance of finding the man who is a serial killer, a man who has been trained in extreme survival techniques and one who has always been very good at hiding his tracks.

    When an injured man bursts into the Golden Wattle Lodge, terrifying Eva, she is horrified to discover the last time she saw this man was four years ago, looking far from the scruffy, injured man now in her home. His next actions do nothing to reassure her and she becomes terrified he has come to take Poppy away from her.  When Jack Walker explains why he is there and what she needs to do, her terror becomes very real.

    Both he and Peirce Ryder are on the trail of the same killer, Gavin Hutton, a man gone rogue, a man obsessed with settling a score in the biblical style of an eye for an eye. In a direct shot at getting back at Walker for failing to save his brother’s life in a ransom kidnapping gone wrong, Walker believes his next victim is Poppy.

    Fast pace, filled with memorable characters who are set to become favourites, the action unfolds in the midst of an early winter blizzard, adding to the drama of the event. Theoretically it should not be easy for the killer to move about in the blizzard like conditions, but with the Police on high alert, closing in thanks to some excellent leads and Jack Walker doing his best to flush out the killer, while keeping Eva and Poppy safe, surely something is bound to go wrong.

    Lee Christine is certainly making her mark in Crime fiction with memorable characters, involved in cracking good plots, set in the stark beauty of the Snowy Mountains in the heart of winter – the perfect time to commit a seriously good crime!

  • The Snowy: A History, New Edition

    The Snowy: A History, New Edition

    This anniversary edition of the story behind the Snowy Mountain Scheme, has surprisingly been written by an Irish Journalist. She also was surprised to be asked. When Siobhan McHugh arrived in Australia, she instantly embraced the casual nature of the people, the climate, and the large contingent of Irish people who lived here. Some had families had arrived with the First Fleet.

    By recording oral histories and researching as many written accounts of the formal Parliamentary discussions and reports, the author has created a magnificent saga. She has stunningly interwoven the stories of Politicians and labourers. She delights us with a time gone by when a resume, written on the back of an envelope, gave a man one of the top jobs for the multi-million-dollar project. He was indeed the right man for the job.

    There are stories of the many migrants who came to Australia, some with expertise, some with muscle and fortitude. One young German man, when asked why he joined the army section to come to work on the Snowy replied” I hoped the food would be better than at the Orphanage.” The Prime Minister, Robert Menzies stated that, “Australians had been handicapped by parochialism, by a slight distrust of big ideas, big people and big enterprises.” After the completion of the Snowy Scheme, confidence in Australian abilities soared.

    In 1962 the Snowy Mountain Scheme was hailed as one of the engineering wonders of the world. At the time of inception there were few engineers qualifying from Australian universities, and most had little experience. They were insistent that they had the skills to develop this project and made sure that time and accuracy were of paramount importance.

    Reading this Australian story makes one appreciate the community who developed from the early days the incorporation of all who wished to join in, and the attitude of positivity that developed and flourished.