Summer is a time for reading and relaxing, whether you’re lounging by the pool or at the beach, stretched out on a blanket in a grassy park meadow, or sitting on a back patio. Every summer for the past few years, ZooGoer has tried to suggest a few books to add to your summer reading list. We usually recommend light, entertaining mysteries, but ones that have a conservation or environment slant. That way you can read guilt-free. Don’t be frustrated if you aren’t leaving the area for vacation this summer. Our group of books will whisk you away to Carlsbad Caverns National Park and Gila Wilderness, both in New Mexico, and to the white-washed resort communities of Cape Cod. Enjoy!
Blind
Descent.
1998. Nevada Barr. G. P. Putnam’s
Sons, New York. 341 pp.
Blind Descent, the sixth mystery featuring National Park Ranger Anna Pigeon, may be Nevada Barr’s best. Not so much for its plot, which drags before it reaches its surprise conclusion, or character development—Pigeon is as irritating as ever—as for its evocation of place, Barr’s strong suit. Lechuguilla Cavern, a monster of a cave in Carlsbad National Park, was discovered only in 1986 and remains largely unmapped. It is so big, Barr reports, locals joke it is where Monument Valley is stored for the winter. Exploring it is treacherous and scary for even the most experienced spelleologist. But the claustrophobic Pigeon finds herself trekking through the cavern to help bring out an injured friend, whose fall may have been an accident—or attempted murder. Barr’s precise description of the cavern, whose rugged topography is as diverse and challenging as that of any mountain range, and of her own fear and awe of the cave’s alien, but fantasically beautiful environment, is brilliant. Imagine climbing Everest, but underground in pitch darkness, and you get some idea of caving in Lechuguilla. I usually forget murder mysteries as fast as I read them, but Blind Descent figured into my dreams for weeks.
Mexican
Hat.
1997. Michael McGarrity. W.W. Norton
& Company, New York. 316 pp., hardbound (also available
in a 1998 paperback).
Former cop Kevin Kerney is temping as a forest ranger in
New Mexico’s vast Gila Wilderness when he stumbles upon
the remains of a poached black bear. Unable to ignore the
crime, despite orders from his bosses, Kerney embarks on an
investigation that unmasks a poaching ring that is using its
huge profits to underwrite other nefarious activities. At
the same time, he is trying to solve two murders, one contemporary
and one more than 50 years old. Along the way, Kerney himself
becomes the object of a manhunt as his sleuthing threatens
the local good-old-boy network that joins cops and criminals
in a conspiracy of silence. In his second Kevin Kerney novel
(the acclaimed Tularosa was the first), Michael McGarrity
again does a masterful job painting New Mexico’s rugged
natural landscape and the equally rugged social and cultural
landscape shaped by it. And in Kerney, he has created a likeable
though flawed hero trying to come to terms with the contradiction
of the modern West.
Mendel’s
Dwarf.
1998. Simon Mawer. Harmony Book, New
York. 293 pp., hardbound.
Literary fiction rather than genre thriller, Mendel’s Dwarf author Simon Mawer slowly builds tension and suspense until his quirky, erudite tale about genetics (complete with footnotes!) becomes a riveting page-turner. Benedict Lambert is a genius, a world-renowned geneticist—and a dwarf who hides his bitter loneliness beneath a mask of witty self-deprecation. He also happens to be the great-great-great nephew of Gregor Mendel, the brilliant but shy Austrian monk whose discovery of the mechanisms of genetic inheritance was ignored until after his death. Skillfully interweaving a moving biography of Mendel with Lambert’s search for both the genetic basis of his dwarfism and a lover who will help perpetuate his genes, Mawer’s story is thought-provoking and ultimately scary in its exploration of the uses and abuses of our rapidly increasing ability to practice eugenics through genetic engineering. And in Benedict Lambert, he has created an arrogant, unlikable protagonist who nonetheless has the reader unwillingly wanting him to succeed in his manipulative efforts to find the love he so desperately seeks. Wise, moving, and beautifully written, Mendel’s Dwarf is well worth your time.
Chromosome
6.
1998. Robin Cook. Berkeley, New York.
460 pp., paperback.
Also a cautionary tale about the downside of modern genetic manipulation, but at the other end of the literary spectrum, is Robin Cook’s Chromosome 6. Chromosome 6 is where the genes for the Major Histocompatibility Complex lie. These genes, part of the immune system, govern the recognition of self and non-self, and are responsible for the rejection of organ transplants and skin grafts unless the donor is very closely related to the donee. In Chromosome 6, a young scientist’s new technique to insert a portion of that chromosome into a bonobo (pygmy chimpanzee) embryo, resulting eventually in an immunological "clone" of the person from whom the chromosome came, leads to a nefarious "organs-for-profit" scheme. More frightening, perhaps, is the strange behavior of the bonobos who possess the human genes; are they acting all too human? The action alternates between New York and West Africa as the heroes take on the mob, a huge biotech firm, shady physicians, a sinister German expatriate running the show in Africa, and other surprising aggressors. A fun, quick read, Chromosome 6 comes complete with a glossary to define some technical terms used in the text.
--Susan Lumpkin
Bluefin
Blues.
1997. Paul Kemprecos. St. Martin’s
Press, New York. 228 pp., hardbound.
A New York stockbroker is killed when tuna boat Lady Pamela knifes through a charter boat just off Cape Cod. But the hit-and-run is forgotten when the Coast Guard finds a Japanese bluefin tuna buyer dead, a harpoon through his chest, on the tuna boat. Takaido, the buyer’s grandfather, enlists modern tough-guy Aristotle "Soc" Socarides to investigate the murder. Soc is the epitome of a private investigator, with a Magnum, P.I. cast of Vietnam War buddies, a background as a Boston cop, and a fear of romantic commitments--it’s his Yankee sensibilities and New Englander’s nobility that make him likeable. Soc gets assistance along the way from a Tokyo cop who wears cowboy boots and spits out Yiddish phrases, a hard drinking, sponge diving Greek uncle, and main suspect Charlie Snow, the hotheaded tuna fisherman who owns Lady Pamela. As Soc unravels the mystery he learns the political and environmental issues surrounding the tuna industry, as well as the competitive, and often greedy nature of fishermen who can sell a single bluefin for $20,000. Ultimately, Soc also discovers something fishy about his client. Although Kemprecos relies heavily on clich characters, this book is as fun and charming as its Cape Cod setting.
--Robert Moll
