What do you think?
Rate this book
Rachel Porter #8
Blue Twilight
An agent for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Rachel Porter takes a new assignment in the wilderness of northern California, a location where a biologist searching for a rare, possible extinct blue butterfly has mysteriously vanished, and now Rachel finds herself investigating another disappearance tied to a deadly world of fanatical collectors. Original.
304 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published September 1, 2004
5 people are currently reading
83 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
November 9, 2019
I enjoy Speart's books. I have 2 more on my Kindle to read which will make 11. One of the things that exasperates me is that the main character essentially never uses gloves or a camera during her wildlife-related investigations. However, the main character is entertaining. This book deals with several issues including illegal collecting of butterflies, runaway girls, and addiction. If you enjoy Nevada Barr's books, then Speart is a new author to try.
Read
April 22, 2015This mystery, with a Fish & Wildlife investigator on the track of illegal butterfly dealers in northern California, seemed like it should have appealed to me much more than it actually did. Somehow I never really took to the narrator and her friends, and the villainous butterfly collectors were all too creepy (even if in various different ways) for my taste. I was willing to finish the book and find out what was going on, but I can't imagine that I'll ever want to read it again. Perhaps I should have been warned by the fact that Nevada Barr praised the author, as I really disliked the only Nevada Barr book I've read.
August 26, 2017
One of my favorite series
August 9, 2011
I guess every writer has to have a dud book, and this one is Speart’s. I have enjoyed her Rachel Porter, US Fish and Wildlife agent series since its inception for its compelling mysteries and wry humor, but this one fell far short of my expectations. While everyone enjoys the back story of the continuing lives of the characters in a series, it is generally enjoyed as a backdrop, not the driving force of the book. Basically, this book didn’t have much of a story, jumping from one idea to another, then sloppily knotting them all together at the end.
The story begins with Rachel coming to from a terrifying daydream in the middle of a self-defense class in her new home city of San Francisco. She moved there with her FBI agent boyfriend, Jake Santou, and gay transvestite friend, Terri Tune. They’re renting apartments from an old Chinese woman, Mae Rose Chang, who makes an attempt to teach Rachel to cook before simply disappearing from the story altogether. Rachel starts out chasing down a butterfly poacher and checking out his lair before moving on to investigate a complaint of a missing biologist in Mendocino, which is supposedly the only known habitat of the rare Lotis blue butterfly. Rachel senses there might be a connection between the missing biologist and the butterfly dealer she busted, so she makes a trip to Mendocino.
She puts all that on the back burner when another gay friend, Eric, shows up, in search of his runaway daughter, Lily. There’s a bunch of stuff thrown in about San Francisco’s underground vampire community that goes nowhere, and enough pro-alternative lifestyle remarks so as to be a blantant advertisement. There’s no doubt about which direction the author’s politics lean, which could be a turnoff for any reader who disagrees with them. When the search for Lily turns up a tattoo artist with a connection to the Lotis blue butterfly, it’s a bit of a stretch, but some kind of thread was needed to tie all these loose ends together.
Rachel always seems to be one step away from finding Lily, and always manages to stumble onto evidence about the big, evil butterfly dealer she’s after at the same time. She apparently enjoys road trips, whimsically zipping between San Francisco and Mendocino on a daily basis (6 hours round trip with sidelines about the Redwood Forest) until the conclusion. Two other things bothered me. Rachel drives an Explorer, yet needed a tow truck to pull her out of the forest when she went off the road, and then she just drove off and kept driving for days without doing any repairs to the vehicle. Also, Rachel never does anything, she begins to do everything. While I’m complaining, the first murder didn’t even occur until almost page 200, and then bodies piled up like crazy in the last chapter. Additionally, I didn’t laugh or even smile at anything in this story, whereas Rachel Porter mysteries are usually full of chuckles.
I highly recommend Jessica Speart as an author, but I can only recommend this book to fans of the series who don’t want to miss a piece of Rachel’s story. This book was a giant disappointment to me, and I fervently hope it is merely indicative of a temporary slump, and not a major downturn for this otherwise very enjoyable series.
The story begins with Rachel coming to from a terrifying daydream in the middle of a self-defense class in her new home city of San Francisco. She moved there with her FBI agent boyfriend, Jake Santou, and gay transvestite friend, Terri Tune. They’re renting apartments from an old Chinese woman, Mae Rose Chang, who makes an attempt to teach Rachel to cook before simply disappearing from the story altogether. Rachel starts out chasing down a butterfly poacher and checking out his lair before moving on to investigate a complaint of a missing biologist in Mendocino, which is supposedly the only known habitat of the rare Lotis blue butterfly. Rachel senses there might be a connection between the missing biologist and the butterfly dealer she busted, so she makes a trip to Mendocino.
She puts all that on the back burner when another gay friend, Eric, shows up, in search of his runaway daughter, Lily. There’s a bunch of stuff thrown in about San Francisco’s underground vampire community that goes nowhere, and enough pro-alternative lifestyle remarks so as to be a blantant advertisement. There’s no doubt about which direction the author’s politics lean, which could be a turnoff for any reader who disagrees with them. When the search for Lily turns up a tattoo artist with a connection to the Lotis blue butterfly, it’s a bit of a stretch, but some kind of thread was needed to tie all these loose ends together.
Rachel always seems to be one step away from finding Lily, and always manages to stumble onto evidence about the big, evil butterfly dealer she’s after at the same time. She apparently enjoys road trips, whimsically zipping between San Francisco and Mendocino on a daily basis (6 hours round trip with sidelines about the Redwood Forest) until the conclusion. Two other things bothered me. Rachel drives an Explorer, yet needed a tow truck to pull her out of the forest when she went off the road, and then she just drove off and kept driving for days without doing any repairs to the vehicle. Also, Rachel never does anything, she begins to do everything. While I’m complaining, the first murder didn’t even occur until almost page 200, and then bodies piled up like crazy in the last chapter. Additionally, I didn’t laugh or even smile at anything in this story, whereas Rachel Porter mysteries are usually full of chuckles.
I highly recommend Jessica Speart as an author, but I can only recommend this book to fans of the series who don’t want to miss a piece of Rachel’s story. This book was a giant disappointment to me, and I fervently hope it is merely indicative of a temporary slump, and not a major downturn for this otherwise very enjoyable series.
February 27, 2017
This book with a female agent from US Fish and Wildlife agency, is set in San Francisco with coastal fogs, Chinatown and a vampire nightclub for scenery. There's also a redwood forest, coast roads and marshy areas out of town.
The theme is rare butterflies, in particular a blue butterfly thought to be almost extinct. Avid collectors of rare butterflies are speeding this process along and they care nothing for protected nature areas or illegality of sales. Anyone who wants to collect and kill such beauty for the sake of owning it, has to be a bit creepy, and so it turns out as we learn more about these people. Why couldn't they stick to stamps?
Our agent Rachel Porter has a boyfriend injured on FBI work who has more than the usual number of flaws, and he wouldn't be my choice, is all I'm saying. She also has a best friend who's a gay man transvestite, for interest, and he feels at home in SF. Another friend has a teen daughter who has run away from home, he thinks to SF, and he's come to search for her. Rachel moves around with her work and has previously looked at larger creatures so everyone else in the story seems to know more about butterflies than she does. Never occurs to her to open a butterfly book, like the ones on my shelves. The end of the story is high-tension and worth the journey.
My concern is that Rachel never once uses a camera or other method of recording the hoards of evidence she uncovers, and while she claims to have taped someone's conversation she knows the gadget has no tape. What with having no backup or witness, police, agent or otherwise, she constantly places herself in danger, finally tells collectors who she is and then doesn't expect that they'll destroy or sell the evidence by the time she returns. Nothing she does would stand up in court so far as I can see and the evidence would be gone if she came back with a warrant. No wonder she never gets promoted.
Other mystery books which may interest readers of this series include Nevada Barr's books about Anna Pigeon, a National Park Ranger; Christine Goff's tales of birders; Rebecca Rothenberg's intelligent botany crime stories; Sarah Andrews' books about a female geologist.
The theme is rare butterflies, in particular a blue butterfly thought to be almost extinct. Avid collectors of rare butterflies are speeding this process along and they care nothing for protected nature areas or illegality of sales. Anyone who wants to collect and kill such beauty for the sake of owning it, has to be a bit creepy, and so it turns out as we learn more about these people. Why couldn't they stick to stamps?
Our agent Rachel Porter has a boyfriend injured on FBI work who has more than the usual number of flaws, and he wouldn't be my choice, is all I'm saying. She also has a best friend who's a gay man transvestite, for interest, and he feels at home in SF. Another friend has a teen daughter who has run away from home, he thinks to SF, and he's come to search for her. Rachel moves around with her work and has previously looked at larger creatures so everyone else in the story seems to know more about butterflies than she does. Never occurs to her to open a butterfly book, like the ones on my shelves. The end of the story is high-tension and worth the journey.
My concern is that Rachel never once uses a camera or other method of recording the hoards of evidence she uncovers, and while she claims to have taped someone's conversation she knows the gadget has no tape. What with having no backup or witness, police, agent or otherwise, she constantly places herself in danger, finally tells collectors who she is and then doesn't expect that they'll destroy or sell the evidence by the time she returns. Nothing she does would stand up in court so far as I can see and the evidence would be gone if she came back with a warrant. No wonder she never gets promoted.
Other mystery books which may interest readers of this series include Nevada Barr's books about Anna Pigeon, a National Park Ranger; Christine Goff's tales of birders; Rebecca Rothenberg's intelligent botany crime stories; Sarah Andrews' books about a female geologist.
February 8, 2015
An interesting mystery that combined several stories; a runaway girl, missing wildlife agent and illegal collecting of butterflies. The author really showcases the trade in butterflies and emphasizes how vulnerable some species are. The main character is dealing with several issues, moving to a new city, a boyfriend with some prescription painkiller issues, a friend with romance problems and long held guilt over a runaway sister.
Well written, good characters, and the author does a great job of describing the locale and wildlife issues.
Well written, good characters, and the author does a great job of describing the locale and wildlife issues.
June 26, 2018
The eighth book in the Rachel Porter series by Jessica Speart. Rachel is a fish and wildlife agent who often gets caught up in her investigations of endangered species. In this book, Rachel is working in northern California on a case involving butterflies. Fun and entertaining.
November 14, 2013
Definitely a page turner. As a butterfly enthusiast, I did cringe a bit whenever a cocoon was mentioned--she seemed to use chrysalis and cocoon interchangeably. But I would read other books in the series.
March 29, 2008
I liked this book it's very interesting and inspires me. and it has a lot of mystery :)
August 1, 2011
Another good Rachel Porter book. Great Ending. Some I figured out others.. Nope.
July 21, 2011
A good mystery that teaches you a bit about California butterflies and has a heck of a plot twist to end the story!
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews