By Nicholas Evans
Three years after he galloped to the top of the bestseller lists with The Horse Whisperer, Nicholas Evans heads back to Montana for another epic tale about the redemptive powers of love and the interconnectedness of humans and animals.
But if Robert Red-ford intends to turn this one into a movie, he can stow the soft-focus lenses. This time out, Evans portrays an American West that is as brutal as it is beautiful. The story revolves around the ongoing reintroduction of wolves to the wild, a move championed by environmentalists, but bitterly opposed by the ranchers who will have to share the land with them. Caught in the middle are wolf biologist Helen Ross and cattle heir Luke Calder.
Evans's prose drags at times, and he spares no gore in describing the savageness of both men and wolves. But thanks to sharp characters and a tension-loaded plotline, The Loop ropes a reader in. (Delacorte, $25.95)
Bottom Line: Gripping, big drama in Big Sky country
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