Sound Tracks (Liza Romero Mysteries) - Hardcover

Simpson, Marcia

3.39

59 ratings by Goodreads

9781890208721: Sound Tracks (Liza Romero Mysteries)

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1890208728 ISBN 13: 9781890208721

Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press, 2001

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“...to the exalted ranks of Sue Henry, Dana Stabenow, and John Straley, readers should add Simpson... The author’s second Liza Romero mystery whisks readers into treacherous seas and among even more treacherous human beings....” —Publishers Weekly

Tourists sailing the Inside Passage north to Alaska go past Wrangell somewhere between Ketchikan and Juneau, little suspecting the riches—and the dangers—hidden in the rocky waters to starboard. Straits, bays, passages, points, islands all make up the landscape. It is there that Marcia Simpson’s deeply felt, vivid prose causes scenes to leap off the page so you can imagine juddering across the storm-tossed, wintry seas surrounding Wrangell where Liza Romero steers her old craft in and out of small Alaskan ports delivering cargo and books. She’s used to flirting with disaster.

A thud rocks Salmon Eye early one morning. A humpback whale now dives right over the boat, narrowly missing a full-body crash. But whales are usually sharp navigators. Other incidents convince Liza that the whales and dolphins of Sumner Strait are dangerously disoriented. Why?

Though Alaska may offer a haven where people can escape their pasts and build new lives, it is a wilderness. No less dangerous are the two-legged animals who live there. Liza Romero is one of the tough breed who survives, but who has compassion for the victims of its seas and shores.

Of Simpson’s Edgar-nominated debut Crow in Stolen Colors (Poisoned Pen 1-890208-36-1) Mystery News wrote “This is a great first novel with another breathtaking Alaskan setting.”

A mass market edition of Sound Tracks (0-425-17944-3 $6.50) also publishes in May.

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About the Author:

Marcia Simpson was born in Lincoln, Nebraska and received her BA from Stanford and her MA from the University of Wisconsin. She has taught learning-disabled children in Wisconsin and Alaska. Marcia spent several years living on her boat in the harbor of a small fishing village in southeast Alaska, teaching at the public school, and accumulating the stories of the fishermen and their families. She currently lives on Lopez Island, Washington, sharing sailing adventures with her husband aboard their elderly wooden ketch, Nereia.

From Publishers Weekly:

The mystery authors working the frigid land and seas of Alaska may never outnumber those overrunning sunny Florida, but to the exalted ranks of Sue Henry, Dana Stabenow and John Straley readers should add Simpson. The author's second Liza Romero mystery (after 2000's Crow in Stolen Colors) whisks readers into treacherous seas and among even more treacherous humans. Liza runs a droll combination freight delivery and "book-mo-boat," the Salmon Eye, serving the islands south of Juneau and their isolated little communities. It's a harsh but not joyless life, in which the people who share the land learn to share their lives without sharing their secrets. The drowning of a wildlife protection agent, trouble with the whale population, a knife fight, the disappearance of a traumatized Vietnam vet and a murder or two all engage Liza's attention. Simpson offers a serviceable plot and characters that compel interest without resorting to overwrought flamboyance. Still, what she captures perfectly are the rigors of daily tasks: letting the dog out for a run, maneuvering a boat single-handedly in terrible weather, getting medical attention, surviving the cold. She also captures the great irony of people so protective of their privacy and independence being so terribly dependent on one another for survival. The settlers of this land, Simpson says, "acquire its characteristics like camouflage. Those who cannot hide never stay." Those who remain are well worth getting to know. (May 6)($6.50, ISBN 0-425-17944-3).

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