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Fault Line
Hardcover editon 2002, St. Martin's Minotaur, New York
Mass market paperback edition 2003, St. Martin's Dead Letter, New York
Book Description
With the Winter Olympics approaching, Salt Lake City is trembling with
excitement-literally. A real life earthquake has torn fissures into the
city's preparations, and now forensic geologist Em Hansen has a rare opportunity
to get some field work in before her home is overrun by tourists and athletes.
But murder can spoil anybody's plans, and when the body of the state
geologist turns up in the wake of the 'quake, the FBI enlists Em's unique
expertise to sort through the rubble.
When the case takes her into the byzantine bureaucracy of the city's
building codes, Em runs headfirst into an assortment of intimidating suspects
and corrupt government officials-and an uncomfortable clue that points
to her own boyfriend, Ray.
On shaky ground as her personal and professional lives collide, Em must
use fascinating geological science to capture a murderer before her whole
life come crumbling to the ground.
Publishers Weekly
"There's plenty of seismic activity in geologist/sleuth Em Hansen's
seventh well-paced outing, following An Eye for Gold (2000).
Not only are the fault lines that underlie Salt Lake City proving to be
active, but the fault lines in her relationship with Mormon cop Ray Raymond
are producing their own fractures.
When a modest earthquake strikes Salt Lake City, its tremors penetrate
through the geologic community, through the developers, builders and inspectors,
and through the city's power structure. But the murder of state geologist
Sidney Smeeth has even greater repercussions.
After her FBI mentor Tom Latimer enlists Em's help, the stage is set
for Andrews to explore the deadly confluence of natural faults and human
ones greed, arrogance and hubris. The result is an uneven admixture of
geology, romance and murder.
Andrews gets honors for her graphic, frightening, and entertaining use
of earthquake science and lore readers may never look at rock formations
with the same innocence. But Em's tortured relationship with Ray hand-wringing,
gut-wrenching and protracted is overdone to a fault.
There are plenty of culprits from an almost Dickensian ogre to corner-cutting
functionaries, but Em follows the trail even when her personal and professional
worlds seem to be on a collision course. Em Hansen is rapidly carving
out a niche for herself as a forensic geologist (she lacks the credentials
to claim that title yet), and may eventually make her field as popular
as that of forensic anthropology or medicine".
(Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.)
The Library Journal
"Forensic geologist Em Hansen
(Bone Hunter) plans to take advantage of being on site when an
earthquake hits Salt Lake City. Unfortunately, the FBI wants her to investigate
the murder of a state-employed geologist that occurs immediately after
the disaster. A fine series".
(Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.)
Booklist
"Forensic geologist Em Hansen lands
in the middle of a 5.2 earthquake in Salt Lake City, but rather than studying
the quake, Em, at the behest of the FBI, must investigate the murder of
a fellow geologist, killed only hours after the tremor.
It's arguable if there really is such a thing as a "forensic geologist,"
but the resourceful and intelligent Hansen makes a terrific series heroine
either way. One quibble about this latest Hansen novel: as the series
progresses, the novels have become less about forensics and more about
straight detection.
What has made the series shine has been the amount of "hard science"
that Andrews, a professional geologist herself, was able to work into
the stories. Now Em seems more like an amateur sleuth who is--by the way--a
scientist. This is still a very good novel--recommend it to Kay Scarpetta
fans--but it would be even stronger if Andrews had restored the series'
original balance of science to sleuthing".
—David Pitt
(Copyright (c) American Library Association. All rights reserved.)
The Houston Chronicle
"Compulsively readable".
The Washington Post
"The most intriguing complexities in Fault Line lie within
Em's own character".
The Dallas Morning News
"An entertaining story... [Andrews] has a winning detective in
Em Hansen".
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