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Jesse Parker Mystery #1
Storm Peak
Ex-Denver police detective Jesse Parker has returned home to Steamboat Springs, Colorado, to spend the winter working ski patrol and forgetting about his past. But somewhere out in the snow, a killer has other ideas.
It begins when a skier is found brutally murdered. Local Sheriff Lee Torrens asks her old friend to help out with the investigation, and Jesse finds himself reluctantly dragged back into a world of violence and murder he thought he had left behind.
As Jesse and Lee work together, the memories of what they felt for each other long ago resurface--even as a madman strikes again and again, leaving no clue or trace as to identity or motive. Because for the killer, there are more important things to do than lead the authorities on...
Like choosing who will die next.
It begins when a skier is found brutally murdered. Local Sheriff Lee Torrens asks her old friend to help out with the investigation, and Jesse finds himself reluctantly dragged back into a world of violence and murder he thought he had left behind.
As Jesse and Lee work together, the memories of what they felt for each other long ago resurface--even as a madman strikes again and again, leaving no clue or trace as to identity or motive. Because for the killer, there are more important things to do than lead the authorities on...
Like choosing who will die next.
400 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2009
49 people are currently reading
468 people want to read
About the author
John A. Flanagan
2 books44 followersMysteries from the New York Times bestselling author of the Ranger's Apprentice novels, John Flanagan.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 66 reviews
February 9, 2011
The story is just as good as his Ranger's Apprentice series, which may be my favorite of all time. However, I felt that he overcompensated with the "adult" part of the novel. It was as if, since he was not writing a young adult novel, he used every curse word and sexual situation that he possibly could. I felt all of that detracted from the story, which I really enjoyed. I would like to read more, but I don't want to have to wade through the extra crap.
March 11, 2022
This started out as good fun, reading about murder on the mountain in the hot tub after a day’s skiing. The details of how the bad guy perpetrates his revenge are intriguing, and the cops’ love triangle is a reasonable subplot. Flanagan brings in a variety of colorful ski-town types who feel the cold, heat their cabins with pine logs, and eat not a single vegetable in 391 pages. However it is inconceivable that anyone would call a workplace subordinate “Honey” unless ironically, or that the response wouldn’t be incredulous laughter. The female characters’ body parts (long legs, firm breasts, yawn) are referenced every time they appear, and Flanagan has special scenes for the two hot love interests in which they walk around naked, flash some teenagers in the street, or just admire their own firm breasts. And, really, shame on Penguin’s editors for allowing “Her tongue explored his mouth…” especially as the guy was bleeding out from a gunshot wound at the time.
February 28, 2023
I went into this with my expectations way too high. I love John Flanagan's teen historical fantasy work (aka Ranger's Apprentice aka my favourite series of all time) and so figured that I'd love the story he would tell in Storm Peak, his adult crime mystery.
Oh boy was I very much wrong.
I ended up hating this so much that I rage read the second half in order to be able to count it as a book read since I'd put so much effort into reading the first half.
I hate the way Flanagan writes adult women. He has no idea how an average woman thinks, and hyper sexualises them, even when writing from their perspective. I'm all for women appreciating their own attributes, but I'm sorry, Flanagan was too heavy handed with it.
This may not be a spoiler exactly, but hey. Examples of Flanagan hypersexualising his female characters:
Besides Flanagan's representation of women, I also really disliked the way he organised his crime plot. There was way too much of the bad guy's perspective in there, he wrote way too many scenes from multiple perspectives (I only need to read it once, thanks, I already know what happened, it's not as tense as you want it to be) and the final few chapters were just absurd.
So yeah, I really didn't like this one. I will not be continuing to the sequel. One was bad enough.
Sorry Flanagan. I still love your Ranger's Apprentice and Brotherband series, and I probably always will. This was just not it.
Oh boy was I very much wrong.
I ended up hating this so much that I rage read the second half in order to be able to count it as a book read since I'd put so much effort into reading the first half.
I hate the way Flanagan writes adult women. He has no idea how an average woman thinks, and hyper sexualises them, even when writing from their perspective. I'm all for women appreciating their own attributes, but I'm sorry, Flanagan was too heavy handed with it.
This may not be a spoiler exactly, but hey. Examples of Flanagan hypersexualising his female characters:
Besides Flanagan's representation of women, I also really disliked the way he organised his crime plot. There was way too much of the bad guy's perspective in there, he wrote way too many scenes from multiple perspectives (I only need to read it once, thanks, I already know what happened, it's not as tense as you want it to be) and the final few chapters were just absurd.
So yeah, I really didn't like this one. I will not be continuing to the sequel. One was bad enough.
Sorry Flanagan. I still love your Ranger's Apprentice and Brotherband series, and I probably always will. This was just not it.
March 6, 2016
Decidedly average thriller, about a serial killer targeting a small ski resort in Colorado for fairly banal reasons. The sheriff asks her friend and childhood sweetheart, an ex-policeman who has retreated home to the mountain after blaming himself for the death of his partner, to join the investigation. Unfortunately he's a complete dickhead, who first sleeps with her, then goes back to his ex, then agonises over which to choose while missing obvious clues and making stupid mistakes that lead to a very boring snowmobile chase (described in agonising detail) before the inevitable showdown.
While this was a 350 page book, the print was tiny so it took ages to finish, and really wasn't worth the effort.
While this was a 350 page book, the print was tiny so it took ages to finish, and really wasn't worth the effort.
March 20, 2010
I love cheesy thrillers, but this one didn't cut it for me. Being from Colorado, I think I was actually offended by the author's portrayal of Coloradans as simple-minded, hick-talking mountain people. I would have overlooked that piece, but the plot and movement of the story were just kind of silly.
August 23, 2017
In the ski town of Steamboat Springs, Colorado, Jesse Parker, an ex-detective from Denver returns to his home town and eventually joins the Sheriff’s team. The Sheriff of Routt County is his friend and old girlfriend and she is requesting his help solving a crime by a serial killer, so he becomes her deputy. Jesse gets the idea that the serial killer is against the whole town, so they start by seeing who was recently fired. In the process of eliminating people, they narrow down their suspects.
The serial killer’s past was always ugly. It started when he was young with the brutal, sadistic beatings from his unsuccessful businessman father, who took things out on him. His mother did worse, which was nothing. She sent him to a boarding school where bullies starting picking on him. Teachers there told him that “the solution to his problem lay in his own hands.” So, he confronted the bullies, only to have the worst beating ever. So, he decided to do what he must and created his own weapon in the wood shop. He created an instrument that had several bullet-headed nails sticking out of a piece of wood, like small spikes. He then went after the bully. The boy had a destroyed left eye, a fractured skull, a broken wrist, and forearm, along with two cracked ribs. After beating the bully, he became known as a deeply disturbed young man with the tendency to extreme violence, or so the doctor stated in his notes. That is before they found the doctor in a pool of blood. Matthew was soon gone and his string of murders had only begun. He started killing randomly with a jigger, which gave his crimes the outlandish or recognizable feature that he seemed to crave.
The book is full of mystery and romance. Abby, Jesse’s x-wife showed up just when things were getting steamy with the Sheriff. Abby just happened to be the reporter doing the piece on the serial killer.
I loved the characters and felt it was a page turner. Reminded me a lot of a James Patterson book.
The serial killer’s past was always ugly. It started when he was young with the brutal, sadistic beatings from his unsuccessful businessman father, who took things out on him. His mother did worse, which was nothing. She sent him to a boarding school where bullies starting picking on him. Teachers there told him that “the solution to his problem lay in his own hands.” So, he confronted the bullies, only to have the worst beating ever. So, he decided to do what he must and created his own weapon in the wood shop. He created an instrument that had several bullet-headed nails sticking out of a piece of wood, like small spikes. He then went after the bully. The boy had a destroyed left eye, a fractured skull, a broken wrist, and forearm, along with two cracked ribs. After beating the bully, he became known as a deeply disturbed young man with the tendency to extreme violence, or so the doctor stated in his notes. That is before they found the doctor in a pool of blood. Matthew was soon gone and his string of murders had only begun. He started killing randomly with a jigger, which gave his crimes the outlandish or recognizable feature that he seemed to crave.
The book is full of mystery and romance. Abby, Jesse’s x-wife showed up just when things were getting steamy with the Sheriff. Abby just happened to be the reporter doing the piece on the serial killer.
I loved the characters and felt it was a page turner. Reminded me a lot of a James Patterson book.
December 21, 2021
finished yesterday 20th december 2021 good read four stars really liked it kindle library loaner first from flanagan-john murder on the mountain. don't know what it is exactly, flanagan-john calls them "snowmobiles" and yet he also uses the word "bike" or maybe it was "bicycle" and other words describe an actual snowmobile so don't know where the bike comes in...some sort of regional flavor? i believe someone makes something combo of snowmobile/motorcycle...but it gave me the impression he didn't know what he was talking about. skiing, on the other hand, einstein. can you see einstein on skies? yeah, you betcha. crotch-rockets...another word we use to describe them. i can be out in the tree, big hemlock if it matters, nice and quiet...and ten miles away you can hear them. be loud. be somebody. every year one of them discovers immovable force. anyone want evidence of god take a half-hour drive anywhere...jackasses everywhere, god looking out for them. blue-eyed wonder thousands don't die on the roads every day. and it's not even noon. (folk who live in small towns will get it.)
January 18, 2018
Bought this at the Steamboat bookstore name-dropped frequently along with all the other local hangouts. I like to support the locals, you know. But all the awkwardly inserted landmarks along with the stereotypical stoic but damaged male lead and the bold but insecure female lead (both with extraordinarily hot bods) and the B-movie plot made this more of a plodding slog through the dirty snow plowed up in the parking lot than a thrilling slalom through pristine powder. Meh.
September 17, 2020
I'm a big fan of John Flanagan's overall work. I do have to admit, I haven't read much mystery. So there isn't much I can compare this to. This book was both enjoyable and forgettable. The story and interaction between the characters was fun. But I felt the plot was a bit cliché. I'm still going to check out book# 2 in the Jesse Parker series. But I can see why Flanagan returned to his world of fantasy after that book was published. Still... Storm Peak was fun in a trashy kind of way.
April 30, 2021
Disappointed
While the story line is excellent, just what I would expect from this author based on his previous books, I fail to understand why most authors feel they must use foul language and sex to “adult” books. The story didn’t need either the bad language or sex to sell. I realize that his previous books were for youth, but this story was great without that. Won’t buy more of his Jesse Parker Mysteries.
While the story line is excellent, just what I would expect from this author based on his previous books, I fail to understand why most authors feel they must use foul language and sex to “adult” books. The story didn’t need either the bad language or sex to sell. I realize that his previous books were for youth, but this story was great without that. Won’t buy more of his Jesse Parker Mysteries.
September 27, 2022
Generally speaking, I did like this book. It is fast-paced and interesting. However, the characters are rather two-dimensional, and it definitely has some thematic elements. I would not say it is a clean or moral book. I do not recommend it for that reason.
SPOILER ALERT: Specifically, there are several sexual encounters that are explicit. This is totally unnecessary. In addition, there is a good bit of foul language.
SPOILER ALERT: Specifically, there are several sexual encounters that are explicit. This is totally unnecessary. In addition, there is a good bit of foul language.
March 13, 2024
Interesting enough, but I feel like it could have been about 100 pages shorter than what it was. The ending was good overall but seemed to drag on and on. Could tell it was written by a man by the near constant reference to the women characters' physical attributes. But for the most part, I did enjoy it.
June 26, 2017
This book sounded excited, but I was disappointed when I found it was filled with vulgar language.
April 18, 2021
Good story - terrible language. Won't read any others in this series.
Read
August 16, 2022NOOK
February 6, 2023
Excellent read, fun characters, hope to hunt down more of the Jesse Parker series
February 13, 2023
Excellent
I read all the Ranger books and loved them. I was not sure about this genre but Flanagan knocked it out of the park. Excellent read.
I read all the Ranger books and loved them. I was not sure about this genre but Flanagan knocked it out of the park. Excellent read.
April 10, 2024
Fun who-dun-it in a cool setting I've visited several times.
Read
October 23, 2024A pretty good read. Not crazy about the authors prose. Seems to have an obsession with the words, “morosely and purchase”!
February 24, 2025
great book
August 12, 2025
This was a cheesy mystery thriller but so fun to read with the setting in steamboat! Recommend for a fun quick read 😀
November 11, 2022
I purchased this book at Off The Beaten Path- the book & coffee shop in Steamboat Springs that is mentioned a few times in the book. This book was as enjoyable as my wife's and my vacation in Steamboat Springs. While our vacation was very relaxing, the ending of the book was especially exciting. I also enjoyed reading and remembering some of the shops and places we visited.
January 18, 2014
It is hard to fight a passion. Trying to stop doing something you love to do is one of the hardest things one could do. No matter if you have had wonderful times doing it to terrible memories from it, you still love following your passion. Jesse Parker, the main character in Storm Peak, by John Flanagan, shows that one will always go back to their passion no matter how hard they try not to follow it anymore. Jesse shows this by moving away from where his terrible memories are from and by being asked to help out with an investigation.
In the beginning of the book, it tells why Jesse moved to Colorado to forget his past of being a detective. “I wanted to escape that old city. I don’t want to relive the past” (5). His past experiences of being a detective made him want to move on. But, he doesn’t do a very good job of trying to forget about it. After the tragic event that made him want to move back home to forget his past, he gets a job working as a member of a local ski patrol team, trying to lay low for a while. Sounds somewhat familiar, doesn’t it? Going from detective to ski patrol isn’t too big of a jump. Especially if he is trying to forget about his past. By becoming of a ski patrol group in his hometown, shows that he cannot simply escape his passion and discretely still wants to be a detective.
Not only that he has a new job similar to his old one, he also gets asked by the local sheriff, Lee Torrens, to help out with the new tragedy that has happened. Since Jesse was “reluctantly dragged” (87) into this case, he was almost thrilled to be back doing detective work. Even though Jesse wanted to get away from his past, he cannot help himself doing what he loves to do. As much as Jesse didn’t want to get roped back into all the detective work, he couldn’t fight it. He loved it so much that he was willing to have the chance of re-living the event he was trying to escape from.
When someone has a passion, they go for it no matter what. Even if something terrible has happened, people will still follow it. In Storm Peak, it gives the wonderful example of Jesse Parker and what he went through. Going from detective to patrol back to detective, Jesse never wanted to leave the detective field, he just needed a break from his work. But his break from work just led him back to his detective work, which he is fine with it. He loves detective work so much that he didn’t hesitate to get back into it. His passion is detective work. He would do anything to get back into it. He followed his passion and went back to it. Jesse’s experiences shows that one should always follow your passion and never fight it.
This book is split up into a lot of small, four to ten page chapters, which didn’t provide enough information at times. Most of the time, these chapters were very descriptive and gave the reader enough information to not have any questions of why something happened. But there were just a few parts where I was confused and had trouble figuring out what happened, such as chapter fifty-two. I was completely lost at the end of the chapter where it turned from serious to explicit within seconds. I would have been alright with the author leaving that explicit part out of the book. It made me feel a bit uncomfortable when I was reading. When I read that part, I looked back at the cover of the book to make sure I wasn’t reading an erotic novel of sorts. Besides that little part, the book was very well written, gave excellent details and gave the reader enough clues so the reader would want to continue reading.
Overall, I enjoyed reading this book. It showed how once someone finds something they love to do, they can’t stop doing it, through an interesting mystery storyline. The author kept me reeled in with the characters and how they developed through the story. This story actually helped me somewhat into trying to find my passion. I still have a lot to figure out, but this book did give me a good start on what my passion is. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to read a very intriguing, suspenseful mystery and a moving story.
In the beginning of the book, it tells why Jesse moved to Colorado to forget his past of being a detective. “I wanted to escape that old city. I don’t want to relive the past” (5). His past experiences of being a detective made him want to move on. But, he doesn’t do a very good job of trying to forget about it. After the tragic event that made him want to move back home to forget his past, he gets a job working as a member of a local ski patrol team, trying to lay low for a while. Sounds somewhat familiar, doesn’t it? Going from detective to ski patrol isn’t too big of a jump. Especially if he is trying to forget about his past. By becoming of a ski patrol group in his hometown, shows that he cannot simply escape his passion and discretely still wants to be a detective.
Not only that he has a new job similar to his old one, he also gets asked by the local sheriff, Lee Torrens, to help out with the new tragedy that has happened. Since Jesse was “reluctantly dragged” (87) into this case, he was almost thrilled to be back doing detective work. Even though Jesse wanted to get away from his past, he cannot help himself doing what he loves to do. As much as Jesse didn’t want to get roped back into all the detective work, he couldn’t fight it. He loved it so much that he was willing to have the chance of re-living the event he was trying to escape from.
When someone has a passion, they go for it no matter what. Even if something terrible has happened, people will still follow it. In Storm Peak, it gives the wonderful example of Jesse Parker and what he went through. Going from detective to patrol back to detective, Jesse never wanted to leave the detective field, he just needed a break from his work. But his break from work just led him back to his detective work, which he is fine with it. He loves detective work so much that he didn’t hesitate to get back into it. His passion is detective work. He would do anything to get back into it. He followed his passion and went back to it. Jesse’s experiences shows that one should always follow your passion and never fight it.
This book is split up into a lot of small, four to ten page chapters, which didn’t provide enough information at times. Most of the time, these chapters were very descriptive and gave the reader enough information to not have any questions of why something happened. But there were just a few parts where I was confused and had trouble figuring out what happened, such as chapter fifty-two. I was completely lost at the end of the chapter where it turned from serious to explicit within seconds. I would have been alright with the author leaving that explicit part out of the book. It made me feel a bit uncomfortable when I was reading. When I read that part, I looked back at the cover of the book to make sure I wasn’t reading an erotic novel of sorts. Besides that little part, the book was very well written, gave excellent details and gave the reader enough clues so the reader would want to continue reading.
Overall, I enjoyed reading this book. It showed how once someone finds something they love to do, they can’t stop doing it, through an interesting mystery storyline. The author kept me reeled in with the characters and how they developed through the story. This story actually helped me somewhat into trying to find my passion. I still have a lot to figure out, but this book did give me a good start on what my passion is. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to read a very intriguing, suspenseful mystery and a moving story.
May 25, 2009
There are never enough new crime fiction writers and/or novels in Australia every year (okay so I'm greedy!), but there are certainly never enough quite as good as STORM PEAK which is John A Flanagan's first crime fiction novel, and I'm certainly cheering for more.
STORM PEAK is set in Colorado in the US, and I hope a reader would be hard-pressed to pick that the setting isn't the author's own, except perhaps for the use of the much beloved u (in spelling). Setting away from the author's home base can sometimes not work - little inaccuracies in dialect and/or terminology can clang badly, but very little seemed not to fit. There's a central male character - Jesse Parker, ex-Denver police detective, returned to civilian life in his hometown of Steamboat Springs, Colorado after a stake-out goes horribly wrong. Add a central female character - Lee Torrens is the local sheriff, local girl, ex-childhood friend and teenage sweetheart of Jesse. There's still some ongoing sexual and romantic attachment between them. Tentative attempts to re-establish a personal relationship after many years, rapidly goes pear-shaped when Jesse's journalist ex-wife appears in town. His ex-wife is in town because there's a serial killer in Steamboat Springs. Not exactly a series of elements that would immediately make me like the sound of this book. So my sheer enjoyment of it came as somewhat of a surprise for a number of reasons.
Firstly, the setting, the tone and the characters seemed to fit like a hand in a tailor-made glove. Secondly, despite the on-again / off-again / will she / won't he relationship between Jesse and Lee, there's also a feeling of reality about the difficulties of somebody going home, and everyone trying to pick up the pieces after many years. The balance of the relationship versus police work and the killer's activities was good - the personal certainly didn't cloud or overshadow the main thread of the book, and it added some pace and texture at points. The serial killer element worked despite a reasonably predictable motivation, mostly because of the nature of the killings - random targets, often in public places, there's a level of bravado that makes this killer less sick and creepy, more dangerous and edgy.
Jesse's rapidly drafted in as a Deputy Sheriff to help investigate the killings, and there's obviously going to be pressure from on high, with the town relying on tourist traffic, and tourist hang-outs being amongst the killer's preferred stalking locations. The tension at the end of the book is ramped up quickly with a dangerous battle to save the girl, a nice little twist and a follow-up hefty dose of a happy ending. By that stage that didn't make me want to cringe, and overall, this book was extremely entertaining. I hope the publisher's entering STORM PEAK in the Best First Crime Novel category of the Ned Kelly awards this year, it would be very interesting to see how it goes.
STORM PEAK is set in Colorado in the US, and I hope a reader would be hard-pressed to pick that the setting isn't the author's own, except perhaps for the use of the much beloved u (in spelling). Setting away from the author's home base can sometimes not work - little inaccuracies in dialect and/or terminology can clang badly, but very little seemed not to fit. There's a central male character - Jesse Parker, ex-Denver police detective, returned to civilian life in his hometown of Steamboat Springs, Colorado after a stake-out goes horribly wrong. Add a central female character - Lee Torrens is the local sheriff, local girl, ex-childhood friend and teenage sweetheart of Jesse. There's still some ongoing sexual and romantic attachment between them. Tentative attempts to re-establish a personal relationship after many years, rapidly goes pear-shaped when Jesse's journalist ex-wife appears in town. His ex-wife is in town because there's a serial killer in Steamboat Springs. Not exactly a series of elements that would immediately make me like the sound of this book. So my sheer enjoyment of it came as somewhat of a surprise for a number of reasons.
Firstly, the setting, the tone and the characters seemed to fit like a hand in a tailor-made glove. Secondly, despite the on-again / off-again / will she / won't he relationship between Jesse and Lee, there's also a feeling of reality about the difficulties of somebody going home, and everyone trying to pick up the pieces after many years. The balance of the relationship versus police work and the killer's activities was good - the personal certainly didn't cloud or overshadow the main thread of the book, and it added some pace and texture at points. The serial killer element worked despite a reasonably predictable motivation, mostly because of the nature of the killings - random targets, often in public places, there's a level of bravado that makes this killer less sick and creepy, more dangerous and edgy.
Jesse's rapidly drafted in as a Deputy Sheriff to help investigate the killings, and there's obviously going to be pressure from on high, with the town relying on tourist traffic, and tourist hang-outs being amongst the killer's preferred stalking locations. The tension at the end of the book is ramped up quickly with a dangerous battle to save the girl, a nice little twist and a follow-up hefty dose of a happy ending. By that stage that didn't make me want to cringe, and overall, this book was extremely entertaining. I hope the publisher's entering STORM PEAK in the Best First Crime Novel category of the Ned Kelly awards this year, it would be very interesting to see how it goes.
May 15, 2013
Storm Peak by John Flanagan is a story that follows the path of two officers trying to track down a dangerous killer who leaves no clues except those he wants to be left behind. The main character is an Ex-Denver police detective Jessie Parker. He is back home in Colorado to spend the winter working on a ski patrol team and mostly just trying to lay low. The other character that occurs the most throughout the story is his partner Lee Torrens. She is an old flame of his who asks for his help on the murder cases happrning in the town.
Overall I just thought this book was alright. It really didn't stand out to me as a great read, but it wasn't awful. I think one of the main things that got to me is that, Flanagan is a great young adult writer, but in effort to make this an adult novel, he overdid it a bit. The language in this book is a little excessive. It's not that I mind it, but more of the fact that it almost sounds fake at times because of the random insertion of an F bomb or something similar. It seems to me like during his writing he forgot he was supposed to be writing for adults so decided to make one chapter really mature to compensate for the lack of adult content in the previous three.
Because of the partnership forged between the two characters it really emphasized frienship. There were many situations where the two couldn't have made it out alive if not for eachother. For example "She finally understood, Jesse was trying to give her an unobstructed shot, without his distraction she never could've made a clean kill without hitting Abby" (389). Their friendship really grows throughout the book and leads to them getting a little more than friendly towards the end. Which leads into another reason why I didn't enjoy the book too much.
I picked this book because I thought it would be alot of suspense and mystery and have a very great plot line. When in reality the entire time he's just trying to get his partner to think of him as more than friends. Flanagan seems to pick the most intense scenes to throw in a bit about him flirting and it just completely ruins the entire moment, "The bloody hand was pinned up in the door of the dumpster, like someone had pinned it there instead of letting it fall with the rest of the body, turning Jesse caught sight of Lee bent over the edge of the dumpster, and he couldn't help but admire her curves" (109). I just really didn't enjoy him crashing intense moments with scenes like that. All in all, the book was decent but I defenately wouldn't reccomend going out of your way to find a copy!
Overall I just thought this book was alright. It really didn't stand out to me as a great read, but it wasn't awful. I think one of the main things that got to me is that, Flanagan is a great young adult writer, but in effort to make this an adult novel, he overdid it a bit. The language in this book is a little excessive. It's not that I mind it, but more of the fact that it almost sounds fake at times because of the random insertion of an F bomb or something similar. It seems to me like during his writing he forgot he was supposed to be writing for adults so decided to make one chapter really mature to compensate for the lack of adult content in the previous three.
Because of the partnership forged between the two characters it really emphasized frienship. There were many situations where the two couldn't have made it out alive if not for eachother. For example "She finally understood, Jesse was trying to give her an unobstructed shot, without his distraction she never could've made a clean kill without hitting Abby" (389). Their friendship really grows throughout the book and leads to them getting a little more than friendly towards the end. Which leads into another reason why I didn't enjoy the book too much.
I picked this book because I thought it would be alot of suspense and mystery and have a very great plot line. When in reality the entire time he's just trying to get his partner to think of him as more than friends. Flanagan seems to pick the most intense scenes to throw in a bit about him flirting and it just completely ruins the entire moment, "The bloody hand was pinned up in the door of the dumpster, like someone had pinned it there instead of letting it fall with the rest of the body, turning Jesse caught sight of Lee bent over the edge of the dumpster, and he couldn't help but admire her curves" (109). I just really didn't enjoy him crashing intense moments with scenes like that. All in all, the book was decent but I defenately wouldn't reccomend going out of your way to find a copy!
November 6, 2017
Sheriff Lee Torrens and deputy Jesse Parker are faced with multiple brutal murders at the local ski resort, and the killer leaves no trace of ever being there. I liked the book very much as I was constantly turning the page, wanting to see what was going to happen next. The book described every situation very well so you constantly had an image in your head of what was happening, this was a very easy book to get lost in. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes mysteries and am going to move on to Jesse Parker Mystery #2 now.
June 11, 2012
I gave it three stars because Flanagan writes well, and I mostly enjoyed the book, but not quite as much as I feel I should have.
A serial killer is stalking the skiing town of Steamboat Springs, and Jesse Parker, a new deputy, and his boss, the female sheriff, have to stop him. They also have a personal history they need to deal with. And I know it's just me, but I get tired of reading sections from the killer's point of view, so that's one reason I didn't rate it higher.
Although I did not dislike the characters, I didn't warm up to them as much as I would have expected. One of the things I really did like was Flanagan's mastery of setting. I never thought about it much in the Ranger's Apprentice series, but here, when someone stepped outside, they immediately noticed the cold, or the snowflakes dotting their coat, or the flashing, bright sunlight. It really was Colorado in the winter. And it wasn't forced, it just flowed in with the story.
One caveat: this is the second or third time I've read a book where a character wasn't "phased" by a situation. The word is "fazed" people, look it up! If you're phasing, you are going through cycles, like the moon! Sorry, editing is important.
The other thing I noticed was the sex scenes. They were tasteful enough, and all that, but I noticed the difference between males writing about sex, and females writing about sex (yes, I have been reading too many romances lately!) And it's really funny, one of those things that's obvious, but you just don't think about. When men write about sex, they describe the female's body, responses, etc. When women write about sex, they describe the man's body, actions, etc. Now both of them do mention their own sex, too, but look at the focus, it's really kind of funny, and I'm going to be watching for this in the future.
A serial killer is stalking the skiing town of Steamboat Springs, and Jesse Parker, a new deputy, and his boss, the female sheriff, have to stop him. They also have a personal history they need to deal with. And I know it's just me, but I get tired of reading sections from the killer's point of view, so that's one reason I didn't rate it higher.
Although I did not dislike the characters, I didn't warm up to them as much as I would have expected. One of the things I really did like was Flanagan's mastery of setting. I never thought about it much in the Ranger's Apprentice series, but here, when someone stepped outside, they immediately noticed the cold, or the snowflakes dotting their coat, or the flashing, bright sunlight. It really was Colorado in the winter. And it wasn't forced, it just flowed in with the story.
One caveat: this is the second or third time I've read a book where a character wasn't "phased" by a situation. The word is "fazed" people, look it up! If you're phasing, you are going through cycles, like the moon! Sorry, editing is important.
The other thing I noticed was the sex scenes. They were tasteful enough, and all that, but I noticed the difference between males writing about sex, and females writing about sex (yes, I have been reading too many romances lately!) And it's really funny, one of those things that's obvious, but you just don't think about. When men write about sex, they describe the female's body, responses, etc. When women write about sex, they describe the man's body, actions, etc. Now both of them do mention their own sex, too, but look at the focus, it's really kind of funny, and I'm going to be watching for this in the future.
August 21, 2013
In elementary school, I absolutely loved the Ranger's Apprentice series by John Flanagan. Thus my expectations were high for his new, more adult-oriented series. Unfortunately, Storm Peak did not live up to this high standard. Storm Peak follows the story of fictional detective, Jesse Parker, in his pursuit of a serial killer in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. Skiers are being brutally murdered on the slopes of a famous ski resort, and the town is losing visitors left-and-right. Parker teams up with sheriff Lee Torrens to catch the killer. One of the disappointing aspects of the novel was despite having many leads throughout the first two-thirds of the story, Parker and Torrens never gave the killer any close calls. Instead they arrested two others who ended up not being related to the murder. Readers never got the feeling the investigators were anywhere close to capturing the murderer until the final fifty pages of the book. This made the majority of the book boring. In addition, when Parker and Torrens finally located the killer and became trapped in a standoff, I never feared for their lives. In my opinion, there was this sense of confidence in the "good-guys" that left not doubt in readers minds that anything would occur other than a successful capture. The entire story just wasn't very believable, and I don't plan on reading the second book of the series.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 12, 2011
First of Jesse Parker mysteries set in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. Get writing, Mr. Flanagan; I want the next one! The locale was a real plus for me, since I'm moving there in a couple of months. But it was a great book even without that connection. The two main characters -- the female sheriff Lee and the male ex-cop Jesse -- were extremely well written. The descriptions were so well done that I feel as though I was watching a movie as I was reading. The only thing that keeps this from being a 5 instead of a 4.5 in my rating is that the very last scene, after all the tension leading up to it, seemed a bit like an attempt at comic relief. If Flanagan had stopped the story one page earlier, I think it would have been just about perfect.
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