Tahoe
Ice Grave
An
Owen McKenna Mystery
Todd
Borg
Thriller
Press (Trade Paperback)
ISBN-10: 1-931296-13-8 (1931296138)
ISBN-13: 978-1-931296-13-7 (9781931296137)
Publication Date: August 2002
List Price: $16.95
Synopsis (from
the publisher): Early one frigid morning in January a young man named
Thos Kahale walked into the icy waters of Lake Tahoe and died a brutal
death.
It turned into a murder.
Hired to investigate, Owen McKenna learns that the Hawaiian side of the
man's family had a secret shrine hidden in a cave in the cliffs of
Kauai. Owen files to Kauai and hears about a long-lost manuscript that
Mark Twain left when he visited Kauai in 1866.
A priceless manuscript went missing in Hawaii over a century ago.
The manuscript, which would be worth millions, is rumored to have been
lost in a hurricane. Owen suspects that it was hidden in the secret
shrine.
A madman is killing everyone in his way.
As more people die, Owen tracks a vicious killer who looks like a
Viking. Owen follows the Viking back to Tahoe and learns of a cave of
ice that is sacred to Tahoe's Washoe Indians.
The manuscript may have turned up in Tahoe.
The killer has, too...
Thos, who was half Washoe, may have hidden the manuscript in the Tahoe
cave. Only one person, whose identity is unknown, knows the answer.
Owen and his Great Dane Spot have to find that person before the Viking
does and they are running out of time.
Review:
Todd Borg's third Owen McKenna thriller, Tahoe Ice Grave,
effectively mixes a literary mystery within a murder mystery.
The book opens with a mesmerizing prologue. Read it twice, it's that
good. These first few paragraphs serve to set the tone for the book and
to introduce this well written mystery. The literary aspect of the
mystery lends an interesting element to the otherwise rather ordinary
plot. (Mark Twain did spend 4 months in Hawaii on assignment for the
Sacramento Union, visiting Oahu, Maui, and the Big Island, though there
are no published reports that he ever visited Kauai. It is interesting
to speculate that he may have made a secret journey there with the
manuscript referenced in this book.)
Borg's descriptive style of writing that communicates the cold and dark
perspective conveyed by the title and his detailed depictions of the
Tahoe landscape make the book better than the plot would suggest.
Overall, Tahoe
Ice Grave is a fine addition
to the Owen McKenna mystery series.
Special thanks to Thriller Press for providing a copy of Tahoe Ice Grave for this review.
Review Copyright © 2002 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved
Have you read Tahoe Ice Grave? How would you rate it?
Mysteries in this series ...
Tahoe
Death Fall
Thriller Press (Hardcover), August 2001
ISBN-10: 1-931296-11-1 (1931296111)
ISBN-13: 978-1-931296-11-3 (9781931296113)
Tahoe
Blowup
Thriller Press (Hardcover), September 2001
ISBN-10: 1-931296-12-X (193129612X)
ISBN-13: 978-1-931296-12-0 (9781931296120)
Tahoe Ice Grave
Thriller Press (Trade Paperback), August 2002
ISBN-10: 1-931296-13-8 (1931296138)
ISBN-13: 978-1-931296-13-7 (9781931296137)
Tahoe
Killshot
Thriller Press (Hardcover), August 2004
ISBN-10: 1-931296-14-6 (1931296146)
ISBN-13: 978-1-931296-14-4 (9781931296144)
Tahoe Silence
Thriller Press (Trade Paperback), August 2007
ISBN-10: 1-931296-15-4 (1931296154)
ISBN-13: 978-1-931296-15-1 (9781931296151)
Omnimystery
keywords for Tahoe Ice Grave
...
Location(s) referenced: Lake Tahoe, Nevada, Kauai,
Hawaii.
