The tornado and those who chase it form the nucleus of this book. Much of the writing describes the awesome power of nature that a tornado represents and the effects on places and people in the areas of the USA where tornadoes hit. The story commences in Promise, Texas with the manifestation of a tornado graphically described. Police chief Charlie Grover has several deaths to cope with as well as the physical destruction but the real horror comes with the realisation that the family destroyed in one farmhouse have died by human agency in a peculiarly unpleasant way.
The research behind this story is enormous in extent and the information on tornado chasing and the technical side of that process feels very accurate. I could not really find sympathy with the people who risk their lives to follow and experience tornadoes.
As I have written in another review in this volume I enjoy finding out about other ways of living and working - Virginia Lanier’s books are a case in point. She wrote about bloodhounds, their training and their use to track lost children etc. This is an alien area for me but she had me entranced by the experiences of the dogs and their handler. Nevada Barr’s books about US Park Ranger Anna Pigeon give an equally fascinating glimpse of another world where activities are outdoors and potentially dangerous. Perhaps it is the recklessness of chasing tornadoes that offends me.
Charlie has his own problems and his past relationships hamper him as he struggles
to find this perpetrator in the most difficult of circumstances since the murderer
strikes during times when police investigation is impossible. The build up of
evidence stretching into the past is very well done and so is the realisation
of the breadth of the crimes. The characters are well realised and the identity
of the culprit is beautifully hidden. The climactic ending continues and continues
to a point of almost unbearable strain.
-----
Jennifer Palmer
Alice Blanchard has written a previous novel, Darkness Peering and a
book of The Stuntman’s Daughter: Stories.