As an ecopsychologist, Dr. Esmerelda Green is skilled at solving the mysteries of the mind, especially if they collide with the laws of nature. But when a body is found below the crumbling cliffs near her Los Angeles home, she is pulled back in time to a tragedy that defies all understanding.As a reader, I enjoy books that backdrop the story against a different, or new to me, setting. These settings can add to the tone of a story in quiet and barely perceptible ways. This is what I was looking forward to as I opened this novel. The idea of an eco-mystery intrigued me. I was hoping for a great mystery/suspense tale rising up from the background of an ecologically friendly setting. What I got instead was a 336 page lecture on being ecologically responsible and friendly with a great suspense story trying to be heard through the rhetoric. I got tired of the continual explanations of how Ez lived and built and survived and cooked and ate in a sustainable way. I just didn't care that much - I wanted to delve into the mystery not learn how tofu could be scrambled to make a great tasting egg-like breakfast. What started out with great promise soon lost my interest entirely. I guess I'm just not the environmental activist type; maybe if I were, I would have enjoyed the book more.
When a young girl is murdered at the same cliff that took the life of her best childhood friend, Ez suspects the two are connected - and, having always lived up to her ecological name, she has learned to trust her intuition and the cues that the natural world can offer. In fact, from her hybrid car to her organic diet, Ez is living a sustainable life in every way - except for the man she is falling in love with, an attractive TV news reporter who drives, of all things, a Hummer. Soon swept into a maze of corporate corruption and family secrets, Ez finds herself falling further and further into danger ...
/5
Character Development 4
Editing 5
Sex 0
Violence 2
Romance 3
Readability/Flow 2
Ugh! I hate books with agendas! If the author has something to say that's fine but they don't need to forget the actual story! The cover's cool.
ReplyDeleteThat's exactly how I felt. I discovered that there are some people that liked it. Not me.
DeleteThis does not sound good, sure it would have been good to have a little of that stuff, but the whole book? Isn't this a mystery?
ReplyDeleteSupposed to be but I lost the mystery. I agree, I was hoping to learn a little and enjoy the eco background but I really wanted it to stay in the background.
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