The story is a vast international conspiracy that links spies, sexpots, bumbling journalists, a famous macho writer, and trout fishers hunting for a mythic insect. Our main character, Bowie Rhodes was Born in 1945 in a shack deep in the Michigan forests of the Upper Peninsula. He grows up tall, exceptionally good-looking, reasonably adept at writing, and very, very curious about the relationship between his father, a chain-smoking trout-fisherman, and his powerfully over dominant mother. He’s haunted by memories of a dead man his father pulled out of the a nearby stream, as well as by the beguiling attractions of Raina Chickerman, (is that name for real you ask?) ...Yes, indeed it is! She's the brilliant, sexually precocious, trout-fishing daughter of the closest upstream neighbor. As Bowie grows up, gets a scholarship to Michigan State, and studies journalism, he becomes positively obsessed with Raina, who appears at odd moments, teases him sexually or intellectually, sometimes both at the same time, then blows away before he can touch her...and with her a lost manuscript about the snowfly, a legendary insect that hatches once every 20 to 40 years and is simply irresistible to big dumb trout. Bowie’s journalistic pursuits take him to Viet Nam, England, and Russia, where he finally tracks down the missing manuscript, which is written in some kind of unbreakable code by a mysterious German scientist. Naturally, other good and bad guys want this manuscript also. The trail leads to a bunch of renegade mountain men, led by Raina and that famous macho writer, all of whom are waiting for the snowfly to help them land the biggest fish of all. This madcap fish story updates the Grail quest with unsettling violence, preposterous schemers, and an abundance of overly sexy women who dispense pithy statements on the meaning of life and can’t wait to jump into the nearest trout stream. This is the first book that I've read by this author, but he is visiting my library in a few weeks, and I thought it would be nice as well as polite, to at least have some idea of what he writes...but I'm still not really sure that I know the answer to that yet. I'm still in the dark as to if this was intended to a comedy or if it's just the result of the author having too much trout stream water on the brain. I can't wait to meet this guy! It was to say the least entertaining, so I'll hold at the 3.5 rating until I better understand if the author is absolutely brilliant, or a great deal in need of psychological help:) ( )

Started to read this for book club but, not enough copies to go around. I read it anyway. Not really a typical mystery but, bery intriguing. Fantasy story about fly fishing and mythical fly that hatches only every 10 years but, draws monster fish. I had a hared time putting this one down. ( )

A mystery surrounding by flyfishing. If you love flyfishing and mysteries its a good read, if you don't, you'll find it tedious. ( )