Reviewed by: BigAl
Genre: Action-Adventure
Approximate word count: 60-65,000 words
Availability
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on a YES above to go to appropriate page in Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or
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Author:
Raised on
the east coast of England, Mark Chisnell left home to travel the world where he
raced sailboats (participating in the America’s Cup) and other adventures.
Before turning to fiction he wrote numerous books and magazine articles on
sailing as well as working in television. He now has several novels available. Powder Burn kicks off a new series
starring Samantha “Sam” Blackett.
For more,
visit Chisnell’s website.
Description:
“Sam had
given up her Manhattan job, and her cute apartment in Brooklyn. She’d abandoned
her astonished boyfriend to the charms of ESPN, and flown off into a new dawn
to chase her dream of becoming an investigative journalist.
Three
months later, alone in a soulless internet café, she’s facing some cold, hard
facts; she’s unpublished, unhappy and broke. And right then, the gorgeous Pete
Halland blows into her life – headed for the mythical Powder Burn mountain to
write history and blast into legend.
If she
throws in her lot with Pete and reports the story for National Geographic
magazine it could rescue her ambitions, but he’s holding back some crucial
information – the question for Sam is... what?”
Appraisal:
There was a
time when I read a lot of books that were in a non-fiction subgenre that, for
lack of a better term, I’ll call armchair mountaineering. Most of those I read
are long out of print, but a relatively recent and well known example is Jon
Krakauer’s Into Thin Air. Many of
those took place in the Himalayan mountains, as does Powder Burn. Although the story largely takes place in a fictional
Himalayan kingdom, Chisnell’s descriptions of the area and the personalities of
the types of people who find adventure there fit reality, or at least my perception
of it formed from reading those other books.
The story,
which I don’t want to say much about, is also different from the typical
thriller due to the setting and the personalities involved. Of the main
characters, some of them you’ll like (especially Sam, the protagonist), some
you won’t, and others you’ll feel ambiguous about, but all add to the tale in a
good way. A fun, relatively quick read and a great start to the series.
FYI:
A small
amount of adult language.
Format/Typo Issues:
No
significant issues.
Rating: **** Four stars
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