It is not that teacher-outdoorsman Will Buchanan goes looking for murders to solve, although he does so once again in this well-crafted, often gripping entry in Eslick's White Mountains series (Tracked in the Whites; Snowkill). Rather, between his romantic entanglement with the local sheriff and the troubled family background of one of his students, Buchanan has little choice—especially when he finds himself accused by that student of rape, thrown in the county jail and put on leave from the prep school where he works. What else is a man to do but rescue the student from the psychosis of her dysfunctional family, win back the woman he loves and restore his own and his school's good names? Buchanan is a man's man: at home in New Hampshire's rugged wilderness, partial to fine whisky, emotionally restrained, a straight talker. Buchanan even fights bare-knuckle with a former navy SEAL. Little surprise, then, when along comes a character named Jacob Barnes, Eslick's homage to Hemingway. If occasional lapses into melodrama hardly evoke that literary lion, Eslick may surpass the master in the strongly individualized portrayals of the story's female characters. In the meantime, the autumnal colors of the White Mountains beckon. Though the woods prove dark, deep and deadly, readers should enjoy the excitement of joining Will Buchanan on the trail. Agent, Alison Picard. (Sept. 15)
