Review: Tainted Trail by Wen Spencer

Title: Tainted Trail
Author: Wen Spencer
Genre: science fiction
Grade: B
Reason for Reading: I really enjoyed the first book in this series.

Synopsis: Ukiah Oregon, who ran with wolves as a boy, is teaming up again with his partner, Max Bennet, to find a missing person. This time they’re looking for Alicia Kraynak, the niece of their friend on the Pitsburgh police, who went missing after a hike somewhere in the mountains of Oregon. The case proves to be more complicated than any of them expect, and soon Ukiah is embroiled in another deadly struggle while trying to find out more about his past.

My thoughts: The problem with sequels is that they have to provide something new and interesting to bring to the table in order to keep the story from treading down the well-trod path of formulaic and familliar. And often, they’re more disappointing if the first book was amazing. For the first half of this book, I was fairly underwhelmed. I was interested, but not particularly engaged. Luckily, the second half provides a much more compelling read.

I tend to be a reader who needs good characters in order for a book to even remotely work for me. I thought that Ms. Spencer did a good job in that regard with her first book, and I was really impressed this time as well. I like that Spencer has seen the ramifications of the difficulties someone like Ukiah would have in integrating fully with society. And I liked seeing his insecurities and his vulnerabilities. Without those things, Ukiah would be an annoying uber-powerful character, but he’s not. Also, as with the last book, I loved the relationship between Ukiah and Max. It is pure and good, and I love that Ukiah has someone that he trusts so implicitly. The romance that develops for Max was also great, and it moved along at exactly the right pace for the amount of time that passes in the novel.

Spencer’s writing is also excellent. I love that she conveys character, setting and place with vivid, well-chosen sentences. She does a lot of showing rather than telling, so I had a great picture of the people and places in my mind as I read. I also have no doubt that, aside from the few obvious fictions, if I went to that particular part of Oregon, I’d find many of the things she describes in the book.

The plot is the only real part that I have issues with. As I said above, I thought that for the first half of the book, not a whole lot happened, and I didn’t care about it when it did. That being said, at least I was expecting the fact that these books are definitely science fiction, and wasn’t surprised when the plot went in that direction. I also think that a lot of the problems I had with the plot of this book could have come from the fact that I wasn’t really in the mood to be reading this type of story, because aside from some pacing issues I couldn’t tell you exactly why it didn’t work for me.

Overall, aside from a slow start, this is a good book, and I definitely intend to read the third book in the series.