April Smith is another author I’ve never read before and, as always, I am a little leery of reading new authors because I never know what I’m going to get. Will it be a winner or a loser?North Of Montana had a long build-up to the main plot line – investigating a movie star’s claim that a doctor hooked her on prescription drugs. While this often slows the pace of the story down, it seems to be more and more common these days. Several sub-plots that only tangentially touched on the main one slowed the story even more.As in many books, the protagonist, Ana Grey, has a troubled past that affects her current actions. Perhaps I’ve read too many books with characters like this, but the more I encounter them, the more tedious I find them. Doesn’t anyone have a normal childhood anymore?Some of the descriptive prose in this book was very confusing. I was never quite sure if we were reading Ana’s thoughts. Or was she describing something she was seeing? It almost read like an attempt by the author to be ‘literary’ but fell flat in my opinion, and just sounded pretentious.I didn’t find Ana to be an engaging character or even a likeable one. I just didn’t care if she succeeded or failed. That is not the way to make me want to read another book by this author.There was the obilgatory sex scene but it seemed to come 'out of the blue' with no foundation under it. Yes, Ana and her partner had been flirting off and on, but there seemed to be no reason for them to get it on when they did. That she did it with a married man turned me off to Ana. I'm not picking on women here. I would find a man doing it with a married woman equally offensive.Still, to be fair, this is the first book in the series and they sometimes can be a bit rough. Often the author planes down those rough spots in later books. So, if I encounter the second book in this series, I will read it. But I won’t actively hunt for it.April Smith isn’t that good.
I have just finished this book. April Smith involves a brash, uppity strong character, Special Agent Ana Grey with the FBI. She is out to prove that women can do it and she does. Working as a homicide and robbery detective for seven years, she is aching for a promotion. However, she faces a man who made a pact with the devil and he uses his position to block her advancement. With the head of the division, she finds herself working on a political case which involves many people pushing levers she cannot see. With dogged determination she works to reveal the underlying truths. As she makes progress, she remembers the injustices in her own family, and how the results are buried deep with her, and are now pushing themselves to the forefront. As she confronts each past memory and how it was hidden her for her to survive, she grows to see the results of hatred among families. Healing comes in the form of back-flashes which she allows to overcome and enlighten her. The way to this healing is fraught with injustice, politics, deception, murder, and complicity. The book is written in present tense, every action immediate. Ana's encounter with Mexican healer through her connection with one of her contacts tests her gnosticism. At the end, she sees the crossroad with its shrine in the sorriness part of town and feels the hope that allows many people to come to America from distant lands to begin a new way of life.
What do You think about North Of Montana (2009)?
I read outside my normal genre for the Ana Grey books on the recommendation of a friend. After one, I was hooked. This is the note I sent him while on the second book: I was reading while waiting for the bus this morning. When it pulled up, I got on without looking up. Still on the bus 45 minutes later, it's pouring rain and hail and no one can figure out how to close the roof hatch that I'm sitting under. Which is of course when I finally stopped reading and noticed that not only am I getting pelted, but I'm on the wrong bus, in the wrong part of town, and I'm late for work. But I'm laughing victoriously because it means that I get to read more while I dry off and wait for another bus to take me back. -- That, my friend, is the definition of a good read.Highly recommend, bur warning: they're hard to put down so clear your schedule.
—Staci Woodburn
this was not what i expected, Montana being a street in California that divides the "haves" from the "have-nots"-but it was an ok book. Ana seemed to jump around a lot as far as her emotions, i have to wonder why she became an agent since she seems a little unstable at times (you would think with all the psychological checking that people in that position would need to go thru, they would maybe have noticed something about her?) BUT it turns out she really has a bunch of skeletons in her closet..my mind was blown when i found out there are (so far) 3 other books in this series! this was the beginning one-lucky for me, cos i picked it up on a whim-now i need to figure out if i liked her well enough to keep reading. i'm not sure yet. :)
—Sue
actual book, n ot on tape.Weird of me.... the title confused me "what is north of montana?"but the novel is set in LA and santa monica.... oh year, north of montana, where the hero and I rarely go.this book came HIGHLY recommended while at the Festival of Books.I just finished this book and good morning killer on book on tape.I found good morning killer to be part FBI story and 2 parts soap opera on his personal life.I liked the character of ana but i wanted more time on the pot and not on her life. i think that is just me.For North of MontanaWhen [F.B.I. agent] Ana Grey is given a high-profile case involving a Hollywood actress who claims that her doctor has hooked her on illegal drugs, Ana's own puzzling history collides with her investigation and she must face an uncomfortable truth about her family and herself."I looked at some of the other Goodread reviews and am glad that others voice their true opinions. I LIKED THIS BOOK AND DID AN ALMOST STRAIGHT READ.I preferred it to good morning killer.Try it!!!
—Steve
