Tag: action thrillers

The Last Ranger – Peter Heller

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The Last Ranger - Peter Heller

The Last Ranger is only the second book I’ve read by Peter Heller. The first, The River, was one of the best books I read in 2020…

So I was looking forward to reading The Last Ranger. I must admit that I found it a little slow going in the beginning and and actually set it aside and started reading James Grippando’s latest Goodbye Girl.

However, I went back to it as the library due date for the book approached, uh it’s today! Anyway, I’m glad I returned.

About the Last Ranger

The setting of The Last Ranger is Yellowstone Park. The main character Ren Hopper is a Park Ranger or an Enforcement Agent assigned to act like the police within the Park. As an Enforcement Agent his duties range from breaking up fights at campgrounds to saving tourists from moose attacks.

He also works to keep the peace between the vacationers,who tromp around with cameras and the locals who want to carve out a meaningful living in the lands beyond the park boundaries,.

The book takes off when Ren finds his friend Hilly, a biologist and wolf expert, nearly dead in the steel jaws of a wolf trap. He hopes it’s just an accident.

However, a small red ribbon tied to the stake makes him fairly certain that it wasn’t. The first and best suspect is a known poacher, who has an ongoing feud with Hilly.

Aside from this investigation Ren soon finds that someone is also out to get him. The best suspect is a member of a local group of ranchers

\.These ranchers have formed an alliance at odds with both the park and with Ren’s responsibility to protect it. Is the poacher a member, too?

From Goodreads

Rife with surprising humor, populated by a cast of extraordinary characters, each drawn to Yellowstone for their own reasons, Peter Heller once again mines the rich vein where our very human impulses play out against the stunning beauty of the natural world.

More at Goodreads

My Thoughts about The Last Ranger.

The setting is one of the aspects like the most about The Last Ranger. I have only visited Yellowstone Park and surrounding area via the books of C.J. Box. And both authors have left me feeling that I’ve been there and wishing that I could be there. I get the same feeling from the William Kent Krueger’s Cork O’Conner books.

Needless to say, the characters are the other aspect of the book I love. Major and minor characters are real life folks with real life problems. And the reader gets to know and care for them all. Even if you are rooting against some of them you still understand their behavior.

Speaking of behavior, I also like books that teach me something. The Last Ranger does just that discussing both behavior of the wolves of Yellowstone, as well as, their impact on the environment.

The bottom line is I highly recommend this book. So check it out. As for me, I will be on the lookout for books from Heller’s back catalog! I will also be getting back to Grippando’s Goodbye Girl.

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Petwer Heller
Peter Heller

About Peter Heller

If You Enjoyed The Last Ranger Here’s Where My Reading Went (and Where It’s Going)…

This one sent me down a bit of a wilderness/conservation rabbit hole…

  • Nora Kelly (Preston & Child) — archaeological thrillers I’m planning to dive into, a natural. It’s also set in the rugged moutnains of the American west.
  • Breaking Wild — Diane Les Becquets — a gripping wilderness survival story that I couldn’t put down (see my original post)
  • Alice Henderson — Alex Carter series — where I’m heading next with environmental thrillers
Preston & Child
Diane Les Becquets
The Vanishing Kind Alice Henderson
Alice Henderson

Let’s Talk Action Thrillers!!

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 Thoughts about the Action Thrillers that I have Read and those I Still Read!

I guess I started reading action thrillers back in the early 1980s, when a work colleague introduced me to the works of Clive Cussler and his hero Dirk Pitt! My first encounter with Mr. Pitt was in the book Raise the Titanic. I quickly went back and read his previous books and continued to follow Dirk’s adventures for several years. The novels always had a good mix of history and action.

At the same time I started to read The November Man novels from Bill Granger. The November Man books were James Bond and Jason Bourne type novels with an intriguing character. I followed this series for many years reading most of the twelve books in the series.

During this period, I also read most of Robert Ludlum;s action thrillers, along with books from David Morrell like The Brotherhood of the Rose and The League of Night and Fog. Richard Hoyt was another author whose action thrillers I enjoyed. His character was James Burlane.

I also read several of the John LeCarre George Smiley novels I know for sure that I read The Spy Who Came in From the Cold and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and I may have read another but I’m not sure.

More recently the three action thriller series that I have followed, though I am way behind on all of them are the Mitch Rapp novels of Vince Flynn, Brad Thor’s Scott Harvath novels and Alex Berenson’s John Wells series. I have enjoyed all the books in these series, but over the last few years, I have read fewer and fewer of these types of books. At this point I think I will just have to just pick up one of the recent books, read it, and then go back and read the earlier one. It seems that if I don’t do that, I will just keep putting off reading books that I like!!!

One action thriller series, that I have kept up with pretty well, is the James Rollins Sigma Force series. The latest book in that series is The Bone Labyrinth, which is number 11 in the series. I have read all of the books except the first book Sandstorm and the two most recent books The 6th Extinction and of course The Bone Labyrinth. I have both of those books checked out of the library right now and Sandstorm has been on my TBR pile forever!!

Prior to starting the Sigma Force Series, Rollins wrote several standalone thrillers like Subterranean, Excavation and Deep Fathom all of which were great reads

Hey I forgot the Gabriel Allon books from Daniel Silva.and what about the Bob Lee Swagger books fromStephen Hunter, those are good too!! Can you say too many books too little time!!

Now I haven’t even touch on the suspense and psychological thrillers that I have read…….that’s for later now it’s back toThe Forgotten Room by Lincoln Child. Child is half of the writing team of Preston & Child whose Pendergrast series I also have read!! Hmm, that reminds me that the Pendergrast series is up to Book 15 and that I am only on book 7 …..argh!

So who is your favorite action thriller character????? Hmm, maybe Mitch Rapp, no John Wells…….

 

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Darkness on the Edge of Town – J Carson Black

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Darkness on the Edge of Town- J Carson Black

So several weeks ago I was browsing the list of  Mystery and Thriller Books in the Amazon Kindle store and came across Book 1 in the Laura Cardinal series Darkness on the Edge of Town by J Carson Black.  

The author and series were  new to me but the price was right 99 cents. So having money left from the  gift card Peter  gave me for Father’s Day,  I quickly made the purchase.

What I found was a terrific read (Book 22 for 2011) and another series to follow (like I need another!) The series features Laura Cardinal a top investigator in the Arizona Department of Public Safety (DPS) stationed in Tuscon.

From Goodreads.com………

When Arizona DPS investigator Laura Cardinal is sent to Bisbee, Arizona, to investigate the murder of a fourteen-year-old girl found in the park band shell, she knows immediately what she’s up against: a cunning sexual predator. But why is she plagued by the abduction of a schoolmate eighteen years earlier? In a runaway case that propels Laura from a lavish Tucson estate to the secretive heart of a north Florida town, she must confront the ghosts of her own past. Then another child goes missing–and Laura must race the clock to find her!

My Thoughts

I really liked this book.  I enjoyed the character of Laura Cardinal – tough when she needs to be but displaying  a tender side, too.  I thought the story line moved along well and kept the book consistently interesting. Sometimes early in the book things were a little confusing and I found myself saying who? what? But as the book progressed things became clearer.  I’m not sure what I think of the ghostly specter of Frank Endicott, who visits Laura! But I do know I’ll go back to Tuscon for another visit!