A River Out of Eden
by John Hockenberry
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Description
On a night of torrential rain, a warrior appears near the Colombia River, where the Chinook people thrived before the hydroelectric dams came and changed their entire way of life. He has come to reclaim the river, to return it to its original majesty. Soon after, government employees are found murdered with elaborate harpoons. As the body count grows, Francine Smohalla, a government marine biologist of Chinook and white descent, embarks on her own investigation of the bizarre murders. As she show more desperately tries to find the killer and prevent any other murders, she finds herself spinning in the convergence of ethnic hatreds between Indians and whites, an unlikely relationship with a kindred spirit whose troubled life has led him to contemplate terrorism and apocalypse, an ancient prophecy about the return of her beloved salmon, and the giant dams on the Columbia that loom large and as seemingly immovable as the mountains themselves. A River Out of Eden is a gripping literary thriller straight from today’s headlines set against the uniquely American contradictions of the Pacific Northwest. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
This novel appealed to me on several levels. It is a first rate thriller that will keep you reading late into the night. It paints an accurate picture of the Columbia River, its dams and their effects on the people and environment. But it was the last last hundred pages that won me over. Some may consider this a dangerous novel. A book filled with radical notions. Me, being a fan of Ed Abbey, and a self-avowed anarchist, it appealed to my heart and soul.
A River Out of Eden is a wonderful mystery filled with delightful characters. It is a story of the damming of the Columbia River and its effect on the native people who depended on the river and the salmon fishing for their livelihood. It is also a story of an alternative reality. It mixes real places with invented background and importance. I have personally visited several of the places mentioned in the book, and was confused by distances in the book. The ending was a surprise to me and was what brought to full awareness how alternate the reality of the book is. I would recommend this book for those who like a good mystery with a social conscience.
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- Members
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- Popularity
- 516,445
- Reviews
- 2
- Rating
- (3.06)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 3
- ASINs
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