A Blizzard of Polar Bears by Alice Henderson

 

Have you read any good thrillers lately?  Do you like books with non-stop action or books with slower thrills?

 A Blizzard of Polar Bears is a follow up to last year’s novel, A Solitude of Wolverines and starts right where the last book ended.  That being said, A Blizzard of Polar Bears also works as a standalone novel.  I would recommend reading A Solitude of Wolverines first if you can.

 Alex Carter is a wildlife biologist just finishing up a wolverine study in Montana.  She is hired for an exciting new polar bear study in Manitoba Canada.   She starts work and is excited to be making a difference studying the effects of climate change on polar bears in the artic.  After the first few days of great work, things start to go wrong with the study. Someone breaks into the lab, takes all of their data, and steals their samples.  Their helicopter pilot is hired by someone else.  Then the group realizes that they themselves have become the hunted.  Who is after them?  There is a lot of suspicious activity happening in this small town.

 I really enjoyed the wildlife biology and climate change aspects of this novel.  I find them intriguing and interesting; I am an environmental engineer for my career.  I work in the water field and not with wildlife so it’s interesting to see the science and how research is performed.  Just like with a Solitude of Wolverines, A Blizzard of Polar Bears has nonstop action as the plot progresses.  It’s kind of like an environmental action thriller.  It would be a big blockbuster movie with lots of explosions.  I find it highly entertaining, and I read this book in one day.

 One item I really loved was that the mysterious man that seems to be following Alex around in A Solitude of Wolverines, actually meets with Alex and works with her in A Blizzard of Polar Bears.  What is his back story?  Why is he following Alex around?  Will Alex be able to warm him back up when he falls into freezing cold water in the wilderness?  Ha!!!!  I feel like every snow set movie or book has a warming up scene in it.  Do you have a favorite movie or book with this type of lifesaving scene?

 Overall, A Blizzard of Polar Bears is a very entertaining wildlife ecology thriller.  I can’t wait for the next book in this series.

 Book Source:  A Review Copy from William Morrow.  Thank-you! I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

A Solitude of Wolverines by Alice Henderson

What is the last book you read that kept you up too late?

Alex Carter is a wildlife biologist.  After a shooting at a wildlife dedication, Alex decides it is time to go back out to the wilderness.  She takes a job studying wolverines at the Land Trust for Wildlife Conservation in Montana.  Once she arrives onsite, she discovers she is staying in a remote, abandoned ski chalet that has a dark history of its own.  Alex finds the elusive wolverines, but she also uncovers another mystery.  Will Alex be able to solve who is engaging in the illegal activity on the conservation, and even more importantly, will she be able to survive as she becomes the hunted?

I could not put a Solitude of Wolverines down.  Much to my husband’s dismay, I couldn’t stop reading this book, giving a gasp, and then updating him on the action that was taking place.  This suspense novel had a unique premise and plot and I enjoyed it.  I really liked the description of the wildlife and Alex’s work.  I also enjoyed that the plot kept moving and was very intriguing.  Alex does become more of a movie action hero at the end, but I enjoyed it.  There was an overall mystery that was hinted at and not tied up.  I hope this is the first in a new series as I can’t wait to read the next one!

As an environmental engineer, I really liked a side story in the novel about ethics.  Alex had to do an environmental impact survey and her boss wanted her to violate her ethics and hide the fact that she had found threatened snowy plovers.   Of course, Alex stuck with her ethics, but she lost her job and boyfriend.  This was a great, unfortunately, real world situation.

Favorite Quote:

“The wetlands dedication ceremony was a resounding success until the gunman showed up.” – This was quite the opener for this book and immediately drew me in.

Overall, A Solitude of Wolverines is a great new thriller set in the wilderness.  I loved it and highly recommend it.

Book Source:  Review Copy from William Morrow.  Thank-you!