Slickrock

Gail McCarthy (Roped, etc.), a smart and stubborn veterinarian fast approaching middle age, is looking forward to a trip in California's Sierra Nevada mountains, accompanied only by her two dependable horses and one frisky dog. Crum spins a solidly built story that pits the independent and savvy woman against a heedless natural world and some nasty humans. Gail leaves the pack station after an unsettling incident: she has watched a local die after a self-inflicted gunshot wound and has listened to his last few, cryptic words (""Green fire in their bellies. I couldn't save them. Dying""). Although still uneasy (several intrusive packers are extremely interested in those last words), Gail heads off alone into a territory that is familiar but enchanging--brilliant wildflowers, magical, open green meadows, white water. But storms, rock slides and an attack by wasps wear down her and her animals. Worse, she feels she is being stalked, as a felled tree, a snare set for horses and a sabotaged bridge are set in her path. And when she is joined by an enigmatic yet attractive packer she had met earlier, she is deeply ambivalent: Is he a protector or a menace? Some finely drawn portraits, a tight plot that keeps its secrets until the end and a spectacular assist from Mother Nature make for memorable reading. (Nov.)