08 Oct / Once There Were Wolves by Charlotte McConaghy [in Booklist]
*STARRED REVIEW
Charlotte McConaghy returns for another spectacular woman-and-nature thriller, finding a pitch-perfect accomplice in prolific Saskia Maarleveld. After chasing birds from the water in Migrations, McConaghy plants in the Scottish Highlands where the reintroduction of wolves – utterly disappeared by hunters since the late 1800s – might help restore “an ecosystem in crisis.”
Inti Flynn is one of three biologists (and one vet) assigned to the project, arriving onsite with her twin sister, Aggie. Originally from Australia, raised partially in Canada, the twins’ last stopover was Alaska, where horrific, near-fatal trauma rendered Aggie mute. Inti, with mirror-touch synesthesia, is similarly damaged, experiencing the terror as if it were inflicted on her. Being out in the wilds might help her heal, but the efforts are not without local detractors, who fear for their sheep flocks. Bodies begin to fall – both wild and human. Inti might be the only possible savior.
Maarleveld—New Zealand-born, U.S.-domiciled – reads with effortless fluidity, enlivening characters with various backgrounds, switching accents, adapting mannerisms, ages, gender. The single complaint gets directed to the production crew, whose careless, clumsy insertions of after-the-fact phrases and sentences become aurally painful interruptions throughout. The author and narrator earned their stars, and they – and listeners, too – deserve better.
Review: “Media,” Booklist, October 1, 2021
Readers: Adult
Published: 2021