Monday’s Musings on a Mystery

July 11, 2012

For July, the Monday Mystery Book Club read White Heat by M. J. McGrath. This book is set in the High Arctic. The Inuit that live there have their own traditions and way of living. The food they consume turned our stomachs, but it is eaten to keep one alive in the Arctic.

The pace of everyday life is slow, and that translates into a slow read. Several members found this book too boring, too uninteresting, with too many descriptions of ice, and too many details on the food to read it through. For those who did make it to the end, the mystery wasn’t bad. It’s there and it’s kind of political, which you don’t get from the onset of the book. McGrath manages to infuse the story with Inuit life in a way that you don’t feel preached to about it. For example, it’s there in Edie being upset with Alex for yelling for help. If you live there you know not to yell, you speak softly so as to not cause an avalanche.

On August 13th we will be discussing Electric Barracuda by Tim Dorsey. Books for the current month’s selection can be picked up at the Blue Ridge Branch.
 
Michelle L.
Blue Ridge Branch