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Owen McKenna #6
Tahoe Avalanche
Texas nightclub owner Bill Esteban let his nephew March Carrera live at his house in the Tahoe Keys while March was figuring out what to do with his life. But when March went missing the same night a monster avalanche slid down to Emerald Bay, Bill had a sickening hunch that March was killed by the slide. When Detective Owen McKenna is approached by Esteban, he senses that the man's hunch is driven by something more than worry. McKenna brings in a professional avalanche rescue dog to search the slide area. As the dog alerts and starts digging, another avalanche comes down on the East Shore of Lake Tahoe, claiming another victim. McKenna realizes he won't figure out the murderer's identity until he knows the motive, but the people who can help him keep turning up dead, buried under the snow. When McKenna learns how the deaths are related, he realizes that the last person to die is up on Tahoe's highest mountain. McKenna tries to get there on skis before the killer strikes again, but a ferocious storm is approaching the Sierra. And there is one more avalanche coming to bury a secret forever...
322 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 1, 2008
155 people are currently reading
114 people want to read
About the author
Todd Borg
29 books144 followersTodd Borg and his wife moved from Minnesota to Lake Tahoe in 1990. After his fourth Tahoe novel, he sold his business to write full time.
In addition to winning the Ben Franklin Award for Best Mystery of the Year, Todd Borg's Owen McKenna mysteries have been chosen for Top 5 Mystery lists by the prestigious Library Journal, and by Mystery News Reviewer G. Wedgwood. He's won Best Mystery and Best Thriller honors from the Bay Area Independent Publishers Association and received Best New Fiction accolades from libraries. His novels have also received starred reviews and raves in major trade journals and newspapers across the country.
Todd Borg and his wife live on Lake Tahoe's South Shore.
Series:
* Owen McKenna Mystery
In addition to winning the Ben Franklin Award for Best Mystery of the Year, Todd Borg's Owen McKenna mysteries have been chosen for Top 5 Mystery lists by the prestigious Library Journal, and by Mystery News Reviewer G. Wedgwood. He's won Best Mystery and Best Thriller honors from the Bay Area Independent Publishers Association and received Best New Fiction accolades from libraries. His novels have also received starred reviews and raves in major trade journals and newspapers across the country.
Todd Borg and his wife live on Lake Tahoe's South Shore.
Series:
* Owen McKenna Mystery
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews
May 25, 2017
Please do not use my review as a good judge of this book. If you have not read any of the Tahoe series, I think you'll find them enjoyable.
I think I'm finally done with this series. I started out really enjoying the books a year and a half ago, but now that I'm on #6, I've had enough of the same outline. Yes, it seems Mr Borg follows a specific outline to develop the story and lead to the climax.
He goes into so much detail about Tahoe (which is nice), but then the questions and more questions and more questions just gets old. Yes, that's part of detective work, but I don't need to know every little detail.
I found myself skipping over pages and pages in book #5 and again, doing the same thing with Tahoe Avalanche. I just wanted to get to the end and find out "who done it".
I just couldn't finish. I wasn't looking forward to my reading time. Reading fiction should not be a chore.
I think I'm finally done with this series. I started out really enjoying the books a year and a half ago, but now that I'm on #6, I've had enough of the same outline. Yes, it seems Mr Borg follows a specific outline to develop the story and lead to the climax.
He goes into so much detail about Tahoe (which is nice), but then the questions and more questions and more questions just gets old. Yes, that's part of detective work, but I don't need to know every little detail.
I found myself skipping over pages and pages in book #5 and again, doing the same thing with Tahoe Avalanche. I just wanted to get to the end and find out "who done it".
I just couldn't finish. I wasn't looking forward to my reading time. Reading fiction should not be a chore.
December 11, 2024
Exciting and freezing cold.
McKenna and Spot must have a guardian angel working overtime. The situations they get into are not for the weak of heart. I was freezing most of the time I was reading. It's amazing that he uses old fashioned solid work to find the answer to his investigation. Without a gun, just his brain and Spot. Excellent writing.
McKenna and Spot must have a guardian angel working overtime. The situations they get into are not for the weak of heart. I was freezing most of the time I was reading. It's amazing that he uses old fashioned solid work to find the answer to his investigation. Without a gun, just his brain and Spot. Excellent writing.
September 15, 2021
Owen is hired to find out what happened to a young man who was swept away by an avalanche. His care is found in a tree but when they find a body it is the body of a young woman who has been murdered. As usual in Borg's novels the bodies begin to pile up. An anonymous individual claims to be setting off the avalanches. Once again Spot and a search and rescue dog are instrumental in both finding the bodies and in saving people in danger. The mystery that Owen has to unravel is what the victims have in common. I enjoy the Tahoe novels; they are suspenseful and complicated. But I mostly like the characters: Owen, Street, Spot and Diamond.
February 28, 2024
I love Todd Borg books, they are great reading, suspenseful, and full of Tahoe locations. Having lived there and being a frequent return visitor, I can easily picture the location in the book. This one had a few too many characters for me to easily keep them straight, but I still enjoyed the story.
April 9, 2024
Easy, Fun, and Riveting
Easy read, perfect for a cold day by the fire. Held my attention and kept me turn)no the pages. Surprise plot twist. Did a good job of using seemingly insignificant details to solve the mystery. I’ll read more of his Tahoe books.
Easy read, perfect for a cold day by the fire. Held my attention and kept me turn)no the pages. Surprise plot twist. Did a good job of using seemingly insignificant details to solve the mystery. I’ll read more of his Tahoe books.
April 13, 2018
Loved the anticipation. He kept the story moving and interesting. One of his better ones!
October 15, 2018
good adventure
February 26, 2019
kinda liked it a lot ngl
March 28, 2019
Can't say enough good!
Bird's books are all so intense that you don't want to put them down and each one has its own history or lessons to teach. Enjoy them throughly!
Bird's books are all so intense that you don't want to put them down and each one has its own history or lessons to teach. Enjoy them throughly!
October 3, 2019
Mysteries with a surprise ending - I am reading these in order and have not been disappointed yet. Also, living in Reno I am familiar with many of the areas of Tahoe mentioned in the novels.
November 8, 2019
Another excellent book this is a smashing series.
March 15, 2020
Another great book!
Another hit! Great story line, wonderful characters! I know I’m madly in love with Spot, but Owen McKenna is pretty sexy too!
Another hit! Great story line, wonderful characters! I know I’m madly in love with Spot, but Owen McKenna is pretty sexy too!
January 2, 2023
Another chilling (literally) and excellent mystery! I always enjoy these books that take place in Tahoe with Spot the Great Dane. Never disappointing!
June 19, 2025
Good story
I enjoyed the trials the investigator had to endure to solve the case. I recommend this story for the young adult reader.
I enjoyed the trials the investigator had to endure to solve the case. I recommend this story for the young adult reader.
October 12, 2025
A true Todd Borg classic. Not too long and returns to some of his classic tropes (I love it when people try to kill Owen McKenna)
January 12, 2025
I have really enjoyed the Owen McKenna series so far! This book had far more characters than his previous books that were important to keep track of, but he does an amazing job with character development and connections to ensure you are not left in the dark while reading! I also find it extremely helpful to have some knowledge of the Tahoe, Carson City, Reno area for his books but I think it would still he enjoyable either way!
June 7, 2009
I enjoyed this more than I expected, but some of that is that is was a paperback and larger print, so that can bias me prior to reading. The info about setting off explosives to do snow control was pretty interesting, the analysis of avalanches that were set off even more so. I know ski places use avalanche control, adn never thought much about it beyond that, however, the method is intriguing. Clearly, there is much more to it, and it sounds to be an art form of sorts, but i found it interesting. The additional info about dogs searching for bodies in the snow was also all new to me,..so this book brought a story line that was enjoyable and plausible, and tidbits that I was intrigued by!
6th in the Owen McKenna Tahoe Mystery series by Ben Franklin Award-winner Todd Borg, TAHOE AVALANCHE is a story of greed and murder on the mountains of Tahoe.
When a monster avalanche crashes down at Emerald Bay, Lake Tahoe, a young man named March Carrera is swept off the mountain highway. March's uncle, Bill Esteban, a wealthy Houston businessman with a house in Tahoe, has a hunch that March's disappearance isn't an accident. Esteban contacts Tahoe Detective Owen McKenna and asks him to investigate.
Although McKenna's Great Dane Spot has some search training, McKenna decides to bring in a professional Search-And-Rescue dog that specializes in avalanches. When the dog searches the slide area, he alerts on a scent and digs up a great deal more than McKenna expected.
As McKenna is pulled into a harrowing investigation, another avalanche on the other side of Tahoe claims another victim. While McKenna struggles to find a connection between the victims, the murderer reveals his presence by warning McKenna off the case.
McKenna and his girlfriend, a forensic entomologist named Street Casey, are called to the morgue in Sacramento to examine an insect found in the lungs of one of the victims. Casey identifies it as a Boat-backed Ground beetle, a ferocious predatory insect that eats snails. Casey further connects the beetle to the soil of the Sierra foothills.
The killer follows his warning with a bomb that almost kills McKenna's dog Spot. Despite the bomb, McKenna continues to pursue the case. He follows a lead that takes him to San Francisco's seedy Tenderloin District, where an art-collecting Chinese mobster trades in stolen detonators that can be used to set off the type of explosives that ski patrollers use for avalanche-control. McKenna connects the mobster to a dead rich girl from San Francisco s exclusive Presidio neighborhood, and then ties the girl to a foothill vineyard with the kind of soil that provides home for the predacious beetles. He believes this new information identifies the killer.
Detective McKenna races back to the mountains, but arrives too late, for the suspect turns up dead, buried under another slide. When returning home, McKenna is bombed once again, this time sustaining a serious wound.
Faced with losing his life or the life of his dog, McKenna contemplates quitting the case. But he presses on and learns of a striking event that happened 140 years ago, an event that all of the avalanche victims also knew about.
This knowledge doesn't identify the killer, but it does indicate that there is one last person to die. McKenna realizes that the last intended victim is up on the shoulder of Tahoe's highest mountain. McKenna rushes to organize a rescue party. A violent storm is approaching, the last victim is with the killer, and there is one more avalanche coming to bury the secret forever.
In addition to winning the Ben Franklin Award for Best Mystery of the Year, Todd Borg's Owen McKenna mysteries have been chosen for Top 5 Mystery lists by the prestigious Library Journal, and by Mystery News Reviewer G. Wedgwood. He's won Best Mystery and Best Thriller honors from the Bay Area Independent Publishers Association and received Best New Fiction accolades from libraries. His novels have also received starred reviews and raves in major trade journals and newspapers across the country. The previous novel in the series, Tahoe Silence, also made Amazon's Mystery/Thriller Bestseller list.
[close:]
6th in the Owen McKenna Tahoe Mystery series by Ben Franklin Award-winner Todd Borg, TAHOE AVALANCHE is a story of greed and murder on the mountains of Tahoe.
When a monster avalanche crashes down at Emerald Bay, Lake Tahoe, a young man named March Carrera is swept off the mountain highway. March's uncle, Bill Esteban, a wealthy Houston businessman with a house in Tahoe, has a hunch that March's disappearance isn't an accident. Esteban contacts Tahoe Detective Owen McKenna and asks him to investigate.
Although McKenna's Great Dane Spot has some search training, McKenna decides to bring in a professional Search-And-Rescue dog that specializes in avalanches. When the dog searches the slide area, he alerts on a scent and digs up a great deal more than McKenna expected.
As McKenna is pulled into a harrowing investigation, another avalanche on the other side of Tahoe claims another victim. While McKenna struggles to find a connection between the victims, the murderer reveals his presence by warning McKenna off the case.
McKenna and his girlfriend, a forensic entomologist named Street Casey, are called to the morgue in Sacramento to examine an insect found in the lungs of one of the victims. Casey identifies it as a Boat-backed Ground beetle, a ferocious predatory insect that eats snails. Casey further connects the beetle to the soil of the Sierra foothills.
The killer follows his warning with a bomb that almost kills McKenna's dog Spot. Despite the bomb, McKenna continues to pursue the case. He follows a lead that takes him to San Francisco's seedy Tenderloin District, where an art-collecting Chinese mobster trades in stolen detonators that can be used to set off the type of explosives that ski patrollers use for avalanche-control. McKenna connects the mobster to a dead rich girl from San Francisco s exclusive Presidio neighborhood, and then ties the girl to a foothill vineyard with the kind of soil that provides home for the predacious beetles. He believes this new information identifies the killer.
Detective McKenna races back to the mountains, but arrives too late, for the suspect turns up dead, buried under another slide. When returning home, McKenna is bombed once again, this time sustaining a serious wound.
Faced with losing his life or the life of his dog, McKenna contemplates quitting the case. But he presses on and learns of a striking event that happened 140 years ago, an event that all of the avalanche victims also knew about.
This knowledge doesn't identify the killer, but it does indicate that there is one last person to die. McKenna realizes that the last intended victim is up on the shoulder of Tahoe's highest mountain. McKenna rushes to organize a rescue party. A violent storm is approaching, the last victim is with the killer, and there is one more avalanche coming to bury the secret forever.
In addition to winning the Ben Franklin Award for Best Mystery of the Year, Todd Borg's Owen McKenna mysteries have been chosen for Top 5 Mystery lists by the prestigious Library Journal, and by Mystery News Reviewer G. Wedgwood. He's won Best Mystery and Best Thriller honors from the Bay Area Independent Publishers Association and received Best New Fiction accolades from libraries. His novels have also received starred reviews and raves in major trade journals and newspapers across the country. The previous novel in the series, Tahoe Silence, also made Amazon's Mystery/Thriller Bestseller list.
[close:]
February 13, 2015
This is a great mystery from author Todd Borg. He combines lots of elements from the previous books to round out Owen's character and make this a really great yarn. Owen's great dane Spot again gets to take part in a significant way, and proves that the hound is not just another plot device. This time Owen and Street are on the trail of a killer who uses avalanches to wipe out his victims . . . literally. The clues are all there. Read carefully and you'll figure out this intricately plotted tale of murder and greed.
March 28, 2009
Good exciting mystery in the Owen McKenna series set at Lake Tahoe. Private investigator Owen becomes involved in a series of avalanche related deaths, how they are tied together, and why. There are great winter descriptions as well as an exciting climax and humor. Owen's girlfriend Street and his dog Spot add immensely to the story enjoyment.
January 11, 2011
This is the first book I've read by this author and I was pleasantly surprised. I love to read books set in places I'm familiar with. It was an interesting mystery involving avalanches. I learned a lot about avalanches and more about Tahoe and new places to hike, very happy about that. I enjoyed the characters also. Will be reading more from this author.
November 1, 2014
A winner!
Owen McKenna rocks. This series is terrific. I love them, and always look forward to setting in for a couple of hours to travel to Lake Tahoe and the surrounding areas. I'm hoping Todd Borg has a lot more stories left I him. I have my favorites by him, and there is not a disappointment in the bunch.
Owen McKenna rocks. This series is terrific. I love them, and always look forward to setting in for a couple of hours to travel to Lake Tahoe and the surrounding areas. I'm hoping Todd Borg has a lot more stories left I him. I have my favorites by him, and there is not a disappointment in the bunch.
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September 8, 2008I love this book because it takes place in Tahoe AND Kauai!
March 28, 2009
Full literary review at Mostly Fiction: http://mostlyfiction.com/west/berg.html
July 30, 2015
3 stars for the mystery but 4 stars for the the setting of Lake Tahoe and for the continued development of the very appealing Spot, the harlequin Great Dane.
May 24, 2014
Tahoe avalanche
I love the Tahoe series!!! They are truly amazing and a great and easy read! I have a hard time putting the books down!
I love the Tahoe series!!! They are truly amazing and a great and easy read! I have a hard time putting the books down!
October 16, 2015
This is #6 in this mystery series and I'm loving it! Owen, Street, and Spot are all great characters. Intriguing mystery in Lake Tahoe, one of my favorite places.
September 23, 2015
Lots to be learned about avalanches both controlled and otherwise in this one,. In addition a reasonable mystery set in a harsh environment.
January 28, 2017
Read this for the second time. Seemed appropriate with all of the Tahoe snow news.
April 22, 2017
Great books
The mysteries that are in and around Lake Tahoe are great reads. As Owen McKenna private detective is very intriguing. I think that Todd Borg is a very interesting writer of mysteries.
The mysteries that are in and around Lake Tahoe are great reads. As Owen McKenna private detective is very intriguing. I think that Todd Borg is a very interesting writer of mysteries.
July 7, 2017
When a man is killed by an avalanche, the authorities reasonably conclude it was an accident. But what about the other body the search dog finds beneath the massive snow slide? A fairly twisted plot and one of the better entries in the series with Owen McKenna using his brains more often that his hormones.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews