St. Claire had me quick to turn the pages from the outset. Once that bell rings on the door of Bronx Rousselle’s pawn shop questions and collateral escalate quickly. A woman shows up at his door accompanied by her mental-hospital escapee brother and a box of Inuit relics. Bronx seeks out answers in old friends and a new flame. As cold bodies stack up faster than interest on a bad loan Bronx will question his life choices as well as his ingenuity. It’s an adventure that leads from an elderly decrepit Inuit translator to the works of a ground-breaking Serbian scientist, from Minnesota to Greenland and from city hotels to a tent in the Tundra. Can old friends be trusted? Will new bonds hold when all else gives way?
St. Claire is a master of dialects, with quirky and idiom cracking
characters pervading the book. The dialogue is terse, believable and humorous. Bronx
Rousselle is a hard-boiled, stubborn, physically strong character much in the
mold of protagonists in the same genre. The narrative style, as well as Bronx’ words
and commentary had me convinced of his fierce and lonely heart. The
accompanying characters’ banter brought me many a smile.
This was the first time reading Randall D. St. Claire and
he hit all the right notes. If you like gritty fast-paced books this is a solid
choice. Where it touched on arctic survival and scientific skullduggery, I
found it well researched and believable. A ‘page-turner’ of a book, he had me
up to the last paragraph.
I received a free copy of this book from the Lone Star
Literary Life Campaign in exchange for my honest review.
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