The Loop

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Nicholas Evans

Used from £0.01

Pages: 399 (Hardcover)

ISBN: 0593040678

Pub: Bantam Press

Pub date: 1998-09

Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 566303

Editorial Review:

Things aren't going too well for wolf biologist Helen Ross. At 29, she's unemployed (recently retired dishwasher), single (boyfriend of two years left her for Africa), and has just learned that her father is marrying someone younger, richer, and prettier than herself (completely accurate). Back in her lonely log cabin in Cape Cod, frantically chain-smoking, she receives a message from her former lover Dan Prior. Prior, also a biologist, works for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service wolf-recovery program. In return for helping him track the lupine posse, Prior will provide her with a cabin, truck, and a snowmobile for good measure in a rustic little town called Hope, just outside Helena, Montana. Apparently, Ross has never heard the proverb "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is," and happily skips off to Big Sky Country.

Within moments of her arrival, she finds out what she's up against: a small town with a long history of wolf fear and loathing, no resources (big surprise), and a powerful rancher who will do whatever it takes to eliminate the wolves. The rancher, testosterone-saturated Buck Calder, has got the community riled up after a wolf stalked his daughter's home and killed the family dog. He won't stop until every last endangered wolf is dead, which proves problematic for Ross when she decides to romance his 18-year-old son, Luke. Cynics be warned: their love affair spawns a treasure-trove of gooey pillow talk and syrupy prose. Even so, Evans has made impressive strides as a writer since his debut novel, The Horse Whisperer, and his storytelling has reached a noticeably new level of sophistication: the plot is tight, the characterization is realistic, and the dialogue is crisp. --Rebekah Warren

Reader Reviews:

READ THIS BOOK! (0/0 people found this helpful)

This was the best book I haeve read for ages, I couldnt put it down. The setting is that of the horse wisperer, but the story line dose tend to jump around a little but its worth it for the fab story!

An upmarket Mills & Boon with a wildlife angle. (0/0 people found this helpful)

Disappointing read to say the least. Not a patch on the Horse Whisperer. A battle between ranchers and ecologists over a pack of wolves. Really an upmarket Mills & Boon with a wildlife angle - a real flop.

the loop in Chicago is more interesting (0/0 people found this helpful)

2-dimensional main character loves wolves and a simpleton. Good adjectives used in descriptions. Otherwise an absolute clanger written to justify the second payment in a contract. Yes, he researched the locations. Yes, he researched the animals. But he unplugged the quality control function. Miles short of Horse Whisperer