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Andi Oliver #2
Dakota
Grimes' beloved Andi Oliver returns, on the run from her past
In this stunning sequel to Grimes' beloved Biting the Moon, young Andi Oliver is an amnesiac and drifter who awoke in a Santa Fe bed and breakfast with a man's belongings tossed about the room. Adopting a name from the initials on her backpack, Andi moves from one waitress job to the next, from Idaho to North Dakota.
It is in Dakota that she is hired at Klavans, a massive pigfarming facility that specializes in the dark art of modern livestock management. As Andi begins to uncover the truth about Klavans and a slaughterhouse called Big Sun, two men are on her trail, one a gunman hired to kill her, another who has followed her across three states demanding something from her forgotten past.
Dakota signals the return of one of Martha Grimes' most indelible heroines, a smart and troubled young woman who, though she doesnt know her own identity, knows right from wrong. Set against the breathtakingly expansive backdrop of the American plains, Dakota will reward Grimes' legion of fans as well as attracting new readers.
In this stunning sequel to Grimes' beloved Biting the Moon, young Andi Oliver is an amnesiac and drifter who awoke in a Santa Fe bed and breakfast with a man's belongings tossed about the room. Adopting a name from the initials on her backpack, Andi moves from one waitress job to the next, from Idaho to North Dakota.
It is in Dakota that she is hired at Klavans, a massive pigfarming facility that specializes in the dark art of modern livestock management. As Andi begins to uncover the truth about Klavans and a slaughterhouse called Big Sun, two men are on her trail, one a gunman hired to kill her, another who has followed her across three states demanding something from her forgotten past.
Dakota signals the return of one of Martha Grimes' most indelible heroines, a smart and troubled young woman who, though she doesnt know her own identity, knows right from wrong. Set against the breathtakingly expansive backdrop of the American plains, Dakota will reward Grimes' legion of fans as well as attracting new readers.
613 pages, Hardcover
First published February 1, 2008
11 people are currently reading
387 people want to read
About the author
Martha Grimes
114 books1,454 followersMartha Grimes is an American author of detective fiction.
She was born May 2 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to D.W., a city solicitor, and to June, who owned the Mountain Lake Hotel in Western Maryland where Martha and her brother spent much of their childhood. Grimes earned her B.A. and M.A. at the University of Maryland. She has taught at the University of Iowa, Frostburg State University, and Montgomery College.
Grimes is best known for her series of novels featuring Richard Jury, an inspector with Scotland Yard, and his friend Melrose Plant, a British aristocrat who has given up his titles. Each of the Jury mysteries is named after a pub. Her page-turning, character-driven tales fall into the mystery subdivision of "cozies." In 1983, Grimes received the Nero Wolfe Award for best mystery of the year for The Anodyne Necklace.
The background to Hotel Paradise is drawn on the experiences she enjoyed spending summers at her mother's hotel in Mountain Lake Park, Maryland. One of the characters, Mr Britain, is drawn on Britten Leo Martin, Sr, who then ran Marti's Store which he owned with his father and brother. Martin's Store is accessible by a short walkway from Mountain Lake, the site of the former Hotel, which was torn down in 1967.
She splits her time between homes in Washington, D.C., and Santa Fe, New Mexico.
She was born May 2 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to D.W., a city solicitor, and to June, who owned the Mountain Lake Hotel in Western Maryland where Martha and her brother spent much of their childhood. Grimes earned her B.A. and M.A. at the University of Maryland. She has taught at the University of Iowa, Frostburg State University, and Montgomery College.
Grimes is best known for her series of novels featuring Richard Jury, an inspector with Scotland Yard, and his friend Melrose Plant, a British aristocrat who has given up his titles. Each of the Jury mysteries is named after a pub. Her page-turning, character-driven tales fall into the mystery subdivision of "cozies." In 1983, Grimes received the Nero Wolfe Award for best mystery of the year for The Anodyne Necklace.
The background to Hotel Paradise is drawn on the experiences she enjoyed spending summers at her mother's hotel in Mountain Lake Park, Maryland. One of the characters, Mr Britain, is drawn on Britten Leo Martin, Sr, who then ran Marti's Store which he owned with his father and brother. Martin's Store is accessible by a short walkway from Mountain Lake, the site of the former Hotel, which was torn down in 1967.
She splits her time between homes in Washington, D.C., and Santa Fe, New Mexico.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 167 reviews
March 8, 2010
I love the Richard Jury series and was anxious to read more of Martha's material. I found this series to be extremely dissatisfactory and disappointing. At the end of the day, nothing was solved, the plots seemed to go no where with no real resolutions. They seem to be books about a girl with amnesia that walks around getting away with whatever she wants because she's against animal cruelty. I found the character to be unbelievable, the arguments and issues unbelievable and felt at the end of the day I'd wasted valuable reading time.
October 6, 2010
For those of you who read my review of Biting Mooon, I am sure you are wondering why I even bothered to read this, the next journey for our heroine, Andi Oliver, or whatever her name is. I hoped we learned who she was. We didn't. While this was better written, it still rambles and frustrates the reader. And nothing is solved. Don't bother to get the threequal - even if it finally uncovers what we want to know, who will care?
April 1, 2009
Why have I not been reading more from Martha Grimes?!?! This book is wonderful! You've got engaging writing (thought "engaging" might not be sufficiently strong a term); animal rights issues; amnesia (not in a form that would please clinicians, I don't think, but it opens up possibilities for character & plot, so . . .); a small town in the west; solid characters, more than one of whom got under my skin and not all of whom are human; and more. Oh, yeah, there's a plot, too, with an interesting mystery. But that's almost unnecessary.
Andi Oliver could have been just a bit too precious to tolerate or the sort of female lead who bullheadedly does the "stupid" thing & must be rescued by the man (i.e. "the girl"), but Grimes avoids both of those traps. I love the relationship between Andi & Dakota, as it unfolds, as it is viewed by others, and as Andi interprets it.
The pig factory-farm is consistent with what I've learned elsewhere, though the focus here is on the pigs, not the impact on the surrounding environment. It's role in the community of people is well handled.
Ok, gotto go find another book featuring Andi! According to the dedication, this one involved a demand by an Andi fan right here in SoFla. Let this be a lesson to us all; when you love something, let your author know!
Andi Oliver could have been just a bit too precious to tolerate or the sort of female lead who bullheadedly does the "stupid" thing & must be rescued by the man (i.e. "the girl"), but Grimes avoids both of those traps. I love the relationship between Andi & Dakota, as it unfolds, as it is viewed by others, and as Andi interprets it.
The pig factory-farm is consistent with what I've learned elsewhere, though the focus here is on the pigs, not the impact on the surrounding environment. It's role in the community of people is well handled.
Ok, gotto go find another book featuring Andi! According to the dedication, this one involved a demand by an Andi fan right here in SoFla. Let this be a lesson to us all; when you love something, let your author know!
March 28, 2008
This book irritated me, but I wanted to learn what happened so I kept skimming. Andi, a beautiful young woman with amnesia, drifts from town to town and becomes an animal rights heroine. Although she meets a friendly sheriff, she doesn't consider asking him for help to learn her identity. A sort of romantic interlude is totally unbelievable. At the conclusion, she drifts on so a sequel is probably planned.
July 11, 2013
This book is disturbing both because of its complete lack of closure as well as the horrible things that happen to animals. So, it's basically just like the first Andi Oliver book. Andi has graduated from saving animals from leg traps, canned hunts and dogfights to agribusiness and slaughterhouses. She's also still searching for her missing memory, but this book focuses a lot more on the former than the latter, which is unfortunate. I want to read about what happened to Andi to make her have amnesia, not pigs being dragged around by their ears. Grimes' writing is still fantastic: vivid, genuine and eloquent, which makes the scenes in the slaughterhouse more disturbing, but also allows the reader to appreciate the beauty of the North Dakota scenery.
Both of Grimes' young female characters, Andi and Emma (Hotel Paradise), put themselves in situations that could be dangerous and are a lot more trusting of strange men than I would be, but Grimes allows more bad things to happen to Andi than she ever did to Emma. This is more realistic, but, again, disturbing to read about.
Really, though, most of all, I'd just like some closure.
Both of Grimes' young female characters, Andi and Emma (Hotel Paradise), put themselves in situations that could be dangerous and are a lot more trusting of strange men than I would be, but Grimes allows more bad things to happen to Andi than she ever did to Emma. This is more realistic, but, again, disturbing to read about.
Really, though, most of all, I'd just like some closure.
June 23, 2013
I love Martha Grimes' Richard Jury series. I truly do. But a few years ago, she became an avid animal rights advocate and her stories reflect those beliefs. This book isn't a real story; it is a rant against the mistreatment of feed animals. I know animals can be treated cruelly in processing plants and farms but, as one of the characters say in the book, "You stop eating them, we'll stop killing them." Andi Oliver is a young woman who suffers from amnesia (but no one knows this but her) and she is hitchhiking through North Dakota when she sees a donkey in a field so she steals it because it looks hungry. She takes it to a local farm where they invite her to move in (donkey and all)and then she gets a job on a pig farm and steals pigs to keep them from being sent to slaughter. The few people who challenge her about her thievery are hushed by everyone from the townspeople to the sheriff. The story has no real point. The author doesn't seem to want to solve her identity or her past except for little pieces that pop up now and then. There is supposedly a contract out to kill her but who cares? Then she decides she should sue the owner of the pig farm for animal cruelty but the author doesn't even follow through with any solution. This was a waste of time and I was very disappointed.
March 7, 2008
I loved this book. I didn't want it to end partly because I knew that it probably wouldn't end, not really. Martha Grimes could write again about Andi Oliver. By the time the last page rolls around, Andi Oliver still has not remembered her past and we don't have any more idea than Andi does what happened to her before she woke up in the bed and breakfast at the beginning of Biting the Moon. And yet, the ending was satisfying even with the loose ends. The writing was Martha Grimes at her best. The characters were interesting and well drawn. The settings made me wish I could step into them, order a grilled cheese at the diner or take a walk down the main street or across a field. Much of the plot focuses on the abuse of animals in a factory farm, their subsequent brutal (and illegal) treatment at the slaughterhouse and Andi's attempt as just one person to right those (and many other) wrongs. I'll need to re-read Biting the Moon (which I do not remember very clearly) and then re-read Dakota, this time more slowly, to really savor it
February 26, 2012
I had a really difficult time with this book. The first half was ok but kinda rambling. Andi Oliver is an animal lover who rescues (steals) animals from cruel or abusive masters...first a donkey, then a sickly pig and finally a piglet. Everyone, including the sheriff, ignores this behavior which I find bizarre since Andi is a stranger in town who appears leading the stolen donkey. The book totally goes downhill for me when Andi gets a job at the neighboring pig factory farm. These chapters describing the cruelty and torture of the pigs is brutal, disgusting and very disturbing. The story drags on and on with no real purpose until Andi decides to sue the pig factory for cruelty to animals and starts hunting up witnesses and talking to a lawyer. I finally gave up on page 323 with less than 100 pages to go as I just couldn't stand it any longer.
February 26, 2012
I love the Richard Jury series by Martha Grimes and I looked forward to reading this but I was disappointed. The main character is young woman who has been wandering for two years running from shadowy events subsequent to an unknown trauma that has led her to have amnesia. In addition she wanders into town leading a mistreated donkey she has stolen/rescued and gets away with it and subsequent misdeeds that most jurisdictions would not allow. She apparently is more concerned with animals more than people opining that the manner in which agribusiness raises and butchers pigs is more brutal than the Holocaust. Give me a break! The animal treatment conditions she presents are horrible but not what I signed on for in a mystery.
The plot of the mystery itself seemed secondary to the animal rights arguments. I prefer more plot, less digression.
The plot of the mystery itself seemed secondary to the animal rights arguments. I prefer more plot, less digression.
February 26, 2008
When this intriguing book appeared on our 'new' shelf, I had to back up and find the first one written about Andi, Biting the Moon. It was good enough to make me look forward in anticipation to Dakota. While realizing we need to use animals as a harvest, the harvest needs to always be done mercifully. The Jews have long known this from the Old Testament scriptures, and many of the kosher laws involve this mercy. I have always thought the injunction in the law books of the Bible about not 'seething (cooking)a kid in its mother's milk' is more about our attitude toward animal than what knowledge the milkee would have about what is being cooked in the milk.
August 3, 2009
I loved this book! I love what Martha Grimes does with characters. I am having trouble eating meat after reading it though. It was very thought provoking and informative plus it involved me so much that I had trouble putting it down.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 16, 2010
I couldn't finish this book, although I made several attempts. The characters are flat and honestly, very annoying. The plot is inconsistent and did not pull me in. I felt let down and finally cut my losses and just stopped trying to muddle through it. Too many good books out there to waste my time on this.
May 21, 2013
This Martha Grimes novel might do more to improve conditions in the meat packing industry than all the PETA marches in the last ten years. While some of the scenes are decidedly gruesome, it's not gratuitous violence. The characters are well rounded, and the story line compelling.
April 23, 2012
This is a sequel to Biting the Moon, which I think I may have read some years ago. It really doesn't matter, as this story has enough background that it can stand on its own without knowing all that happened in the previous book. Andi Oliver, a name she chose for herself because of the initials on her backpack, is a young woman with no past, literally. Her memory of anything prior to two years ago when she woke up in a motel room in Sante Fe has been obliterated. She has been wandering about the Great Plains, on foot, since making a dramatic escape and finds herself settling down in a small town in North Dakota. Andi causes trouble for some rough characters from the moment she hits town, but her sheer determination and uncompromising moral character allow her to make fast friends and lead her to become a crusader for animal rights in a business where the almighty dollar blinds some to the utter cruelty of the work. The scenario is horrifying for its graphic description of the factory farm and slaughterhouse practices and the more so because it rings so true. There are some great characters here. A few developments that seem a little contrived, but not enough to render the book any great harm. I was captivated by this and found it hard to put the book down. It has renewed my interest in Ms Grimes, an author I had concluded I didn't like because of one other book that disappointed. I've got some catching up to do!
January 2, 2016
I read this book trying to solve the riddle that Martha Grimes is to me. What makes her tick? She is a master of characterisation, and I love all her protagonists – most of them have a hurt child hidden somewhere within them. Andi is the bleakest of them all, as she has no story – her amnesia allows only for the tiniest glimples of a childhood self, all else we see is an awesome young adult taking life head-on, however much courage that might take. She may be 19 or 20 years old, identifies with any maltreated animal, is fearsomely brave and of course beautiful. So Grimes shows how men flock around her wherever her love for animals brings her, circling her as it where, some grossly, but many also protectively, all sensing her vulnerability. Helped by the good guys and by her own gut-feelings (and mere stubbornness) Andi wards off any danger that arises from her activities as an animal rights activist as well as from her beauty as if moving under a big protective shield. - Too good to be true? It seemed to me that Grimes is writing an alternative story here to what in all probability would have happened to someone like Andi. Sadly that may tell us a lot about Grimes's own experiences. She seems to be willing Andi's story towards some kind of a happy ending, but her history, both unknown and self-made, propel her forward like tumbleweed, not allowing for such an easy cop out.
February 3, 2010
Andi Oliver is a beautiful young woman and a drifter. Andi cannot remember her real past so she has made up a background for herself. She rarely tells anyone that she actually suffers from amnesia and doesn’t know where she is from or if she has a family.
Grimes introduced Andi in the novel Biting the Moon. As Andi walks along the road, she discovers a donkey that has been mistreated. Andi manages to free the donkey and takes the donkey with her. When she reaches the town of Kingdom, she runs into Eula Bond that owns a vegetable stand. Eula is a kind woman and points her in the direction of the stables where she can put up her donkey for the night. Eula also tells her of a good place to spend the night.
Andi is befriended by a local rancher who offers Andi a place to stay and a job. The duties on the ranch leave Andi a lot of spare time so she takes a job at Klaven’s pig farming facility. Andi has a soft place in her heart for animals and can’t stand the abuse the pigs have to suffer at this facility.
Andi is an interesting character with a big heart. The book dwells on many animal rights issues and in places is difficult to read and learn the truth about how animals are really treated in some of the farm facilities and the slaughtering houses.
Grimes introduced Andi in the novel Biting the Moon. As Andi walks along the road, she discovers a donkey that has been mistreated. Andi manages to free the donkey and takes the donkey with her. When she reaches the town of Kingdom, she runs into Eula Bond that owns a vegetable stand. Eula is a kind woman and points her in the direction of the stables where she can put up her donkey for the night. Eula also tells her of a good place to spend the night.
Andi is befriended by a local rancher who offers Andi a place to stay and a job. The duties on the ranch leave Andi a lot of spare time so she takes a job at Klaven’s pig farming facility. Andi has a soft place in her heart for animals and can’t stand the abuse the pigs have to suffer at this facility.
Andi is an interesting character with a big heart. The book dwells on many animal rights issues and in places is difficult to read and learn the truth about how animals are really treated in some of the farm facilities and the slaughtering houses.
May 30, 2011
This is a sequel to 'Biting the Moon.' I found it forced, unbelievable, and poorly written. There are several cases of where Ms. Grimes gave details about something but never developed a story associated with the details. It is unbelievable that a girl can show up in a town with a donkey, steal pigs, carry a gun, and no one question her. In fact, she gets TWO jobs for which isn't qualified for. P-l-e-a-s-e! The ending left it open for another sequel. If Ms. Grimes revives Andi again - I hope she writes a more plausible story.
August 3, 2009
Much of what I said about Blue Heaven applies here. It's a page-turner but moralistic & simplistic & melodramatic. A girl with amnesia (!) wanders into a small North Dakota town & stirs up all kinds of trouble for the local bad guys--first the local elite family, who bully everyone in town, then that story is mysteriously dropped for a new villain, the local factory hog farm (and the packinghouse in a nearby town). Ostensibly a thriller, I guess, it's an anti-factory farm, animal rights screed.
March 25, 2010
I agree with some of the reviewers about some of the situations the girl gets into. This is fiction and is does bring into high relief our food practices and the way that animals are treated in the process. This is the most important aspect of the book and the one I appreciate the most. I would love to see more of these books.
July 13, 2018
It was almost impossible to put this book down, even with its horrific subject matter. Those truly awful images aren't for the faint of heart. But yes, exposure/whistle blowing does make a difference eventually! Never think otherwise. Now Martha, you really can't leave us hanging by not doing Andi Oliver, #3! Please!!!
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November 21, 2022Boring narrator and language DNF
March 27, 2009
Too much like Hotel Paradise--you got your chatty crowd at the diner, you got your wonderfully kind sheriff, you got your dreamlike quality to the narration, you got your annoying cab driver (who takes cabs anyway? what is it with Martha Grimes and taxis?), you got your surrogate parent figures for the innocent but wise young heroine, you got the mystery novel that never even lets you know what the mystery is, much less the solution...Which works in Hotel Paradise and the followups, set somewhere in the past, somewhere in New England, but doesn't quite work in modern day North Dakota.
The characters are bizarrely black and white. Grimes is too good of a writer to be doing this through ineptitude, so there must be a reason why people are either instantly kindred spirits with Andi (including the hit man originally hired to kill her) or instantly want to rape and torture her. And yes, the vivid descriptions of the pig farm and slaughterhouse let you know what the overriding purpose of the book is. Unsettling, at the very least. But all the same, it is Martha Grimes, and I do find myself rooting for Andi, and wanting to know what happens and what happened to her.
The characters are bizarrely black and white. Grimes is too good of a writer to be doing this through ineptitude, so there must be a reason why people are either instantly kindred spirits with Andi (including the hit man originally hired to kill her) or instantly want to rape and torture her. And yes, the vivid descriptions of the pig farm and slaughterhouse let you know what the overriding purpose of the book is. Unsettling, at the very least. But all the same, it is Martha Grimes, and I do find myself rooting for Andi, and wanting to know what happens and what happened to her.
February 17, 2008
I loved this book. I didn't want it to end partly because I knew that it probably wouldn't end, not really. Martha Grimes could write again about Andi Oliver. By the time the last page rolls around, Andi Oliver still has not remembered her past and we don't have any more idea than Andi does what happened to her before she woke up in the bed and breakfast at the beginning of Biting the Moon. And yet, the ending was satisfying even with the loose ends. The writing was Martha Grimes at her best. The characters were interesting and well drawn. The settings made me wish I could step into them, order a grilled cheese at the diner or take a walk down the main street or across a field. Much of the plot focuses on the abuse of animals in a factory farm, their subsequent brutal (and illegal) treatment at the slaughterhouse and Andi's attempt as just one person to right those (and many other) wrongs. I'll need to re-read Biting the Moon (which I do not remember very clearly) and then re-read Dakota, this time more slowly, to really savor it.
June 5, 2014
This could easily be one of the worst books I have ever read in my entire life. I felt nothing for the main character, Andi, and found myself wishing her harm at times throughout the book.
The plot was slow and boring, and the writing was repetitive and juvenile. There were points when I wondered if the main character was a complete moron.
This is disappointing for me as I am a fan of Grimes' Emma Graham series. But Andi Oliver is no Emma Graham.
The book annoyed me for myriad reasons, but mainly because Andi was so annoying! She was not endearing in any way and the ways she defended her cause were nonsensical and frustrating. There was not one chapter in the entire book where I felt connected to her or her goals. At the risk of sounding like I'm name-calling, she was an amnesiatic, atheistic, radical animal activist who was also (and most annoyingly) a compulsive liar, and I just couldn't get behind all of that!
I quite literally could not wait for this book to end. I finished it only out of respect for Martha Grimes; however, I will NOT be reading any more about Andi Oliver.
The plot was slow and boring, and the writing was repetitive and juvenile. There were points when I wondered if the main character was a complete moron.
This is disappointing for me as I am a fan of Grimes' Emma Graham series. But Andi Oliver is no Emma Graham.
The book annoyed me for myriad reasons, but mainly because Andi was so annoying! She was not endearing in any way and the ways she defended her cause were nonsensical and frustrating. There was not one chapter in the entire book where I felt connected to her or her goals. At the risk of sounding like I'm name-calling, she was an amnesiatic, atheistic, radical animal activist who was also (and most annoyingly) a compulsive liar, and I just couldn't get behind all of that!
I quite literally could not wait for this book to end. I finished it only out of respect for Martha Grimes; however, I will NOT be reading any more about Andi Oliver.
March 4, 2015
True, the Andi Oliver series is different from Ms. Grimes' other work. But that is kind of the point. Yes, the books end in an open-ended way, but that is also the point. Andi is an amnesiac; her very life is an open-ended mystery.
All of that, to me, shows Ms. Grimes ability to write other complex characters. I appreciate and admire that. And I enjoy the Andi Oliver books, if only because I learn a different point of view: Andi's often judgmental viewpoint is educational in many ways. She is a deeply caring individual, and she focuses that caring on the voiceless victims of our society, the animals. I have never been a fan of factory farms, but I also never looked into the details. I have never been a fan of environmental protesters, either, but can kind of see the point now.
I enjoyed the book, and the previous one, "Biting the Moon," if only because it is so different than what I normally gravitate to. One learns to care about Andi, and one finds oneself looking closer at the choices one makes in life.
All of that, to me, shows Ms. Grimes ability to write other complex characters. I appreciate and admire that. And I enjoy the Andi Oliver books, if only because I learn a different point of view: Andi's often judgmental viewpoint is educational in many ways. She is a deeply caring individual, and she focuses that caring on the voiceless victims of our society, the animals. I have never been a fan of factory farms, but I also never looked into the details. I have never been a fan of environmental protesters, either, but can kind of see the point now.
I enjoyed the book, and the previous one, "Biting the Moon," if only because it is so different than what I normally gravitate to. One learns to care about Andi, and one finds oneself looking closer at the choices one makes in life.
January 19, 2010
This was an odd little book. Somewhat unbelievable but compelling in it's own way. I just found it odd that the main character fights to save these doomed but beloved pigs and every other chapter found her friends cooking bacon or sausage. The slaughterhouse/pig farm parts were brutal to read about.
This is the only book I have read with this character. It is clear there are more before and after this book. Her situation is a bit over the top: only 20 or so years old, suffering from amnesia, had already murdered someone, travels by walking thousands of miles, gets involved in any number of suspicious acts yet never seems to end up in jail or suspected of wrong doing. People just give her jobs even though she has NO identification and is barely of legal age. I just found this bizarre. I guess if your willing to suspend belief, which I did, it made for quite a tale.
This is the only book I have read with this character. It is clear there are more before and after this book. Her situation is a bit over the top: only 20 or so years old, suffering from amnesia, had already murdered someone, travels by walking thousands of miles, gets involved in any number of suspicious acts yet never seems to end up in jail or suspected of wrong doing. People just give her jobs even though she has NO identification and is barely of legal age. I just found this bizarre. I guess if your willing to suspend belief, which I did, it made for quite a tale.
April 16, 2013
I've struggled getting through this, still haven't finished it actually. I'm from ND. I have relatives living in the very area this book takes place in. I'm convinced that the author simply pointed at a map and said "here's where this implausible story will take place", because she's not really describing ND. The landscape is beautiful if a bit dry. Most everyone (at least until the oil boom hit) has names of German, Scandinavian or sometimes Polish or Ukranian origin if they aren't Native American of which I don't remember a single character with those backgrounds. The story doesn't seem to be going anywhere in particular in reference to the main character. It's more just a rant against animal cruelty.
I love her Richard Jury novels, but have been disappointed with this novel.
I love her Richard Jury novels, but have been disappointed with this novel.
September 25, 2008
This is a sequel that would have been better if the previous book had been read. That being said, there were some unanswered questions throughout the book.Biting the Moon was the beginning of this series. Martha Grimes ended the book so that she could continue the story in a future book.
Dakota was about drifter, Andi Oliver (not her real name). Andi has amnesia and can not remember who she is, or where she came from. However she seems to "rescue" animals, and finds homes for them. This is not a book I would normally pick up, but it was enjoyable. I assume the animal farming practices were "right on".
Dakota was about drifter, Andi Oliver (not her real name). Andi has amnesia and can not remember who she is, or where she came from. However she seems to "rescue" animals, and finds homes for them. This is not a book I would normally pick up, but it was enjoyable. I assume the animal farming practices were "right on".
April 14, 2009
Martha Grimes has gotten too "preachy" in her last couple of books. This one goes overboard about animal rights. My other criticism is that Andi Oliver is a little too good to be true. She is beautiful and everyone falls in love with her.
March 12, 2008
This is one of her best books. Some of it reminded me very much of Sinclair's The Jungle. Highly recommended.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 167 reviews