Review: In Velvet by Burt Weissbourd

Summary

The northwest corner of Yellowstone Park is closed for bear management, and Rachel, a bear biologist, is discovering some very startling animal behavior—grizzlies denning in June, swans at their wintering grounds in summer, what appear to be Irish Elk, an extinct species, with huge palmated antlers. There are also horrific mutations in the young—elk calves with no front legs, earless bear cubs, and eaglets without wings. What has gone wrong? Why is this area closed? Who’s covering up these animal abnormalities in the Park?

A non-stop thriller set in some of North America’s wildest country, In Velvet takes you deep into the hearts of a hard case local detective and a Chicago cop as they take on a corrupt sheriff, a pathalogical poacher, and a lethal black ops manager to solve this ghastly mystery and restore the natural order in Yellowstone National Park.

Rating

★★★★✩

Review

In Velvet starts off at a break-neck pace. It really had my heart pounding from the first couple of pages. I practically devoured this one and it was in less than 24 hours! It's not very often that I find a book that starts off so well and actually keeps up the pace (and holds my attention) for the entire book. I'd say in 99% of the novels that start off like this have a dropping off point where I really start to question why I enjoy reading so much but this one didn't. I just had to get that out there. 

Before I jump into anything, I just wanted to make it known that I don't really know anything about Yellowstone National Park. I know, I know ... I should at least know something about it, but unfortunately, I didn't. And in all honesty, I had to Google it just to see where exactly it was because I had absolutely no clue ... I knew it was up north but that was it. Anyhow, the author was so thorough with his descriptions, I really felt like I was actually experiencing the park and not just reading about it. It was almost as if I was reliving memories ... that is how descriptive Burt Weissbourd was. Now, there comes a point with descriptive authors where you really start to lose interest but that never happened to me. Even with the scientific stuff, my interest was totally unwavering. 

The characters ... I fell in love with Rachel instantly. Her love of grizzlies was really endearing and she was actually pretty self aware and honest with herself, which made for an interesting read. She was by far, my favorite character and there were a lot to choose from. A-lot-a-lot. I did find myself a little confused a couple of times, not really remembering who was who with some of the lesser characters but that could have been due to my lack of sleep when pounding through this novel.

Overall In Velvet was intriguing. And terribly frightening. To think that something like this could happen is sad and I truly hope that it never does. After reading this and enjoying it so much, I'll probably pick up another novel by this author and give it a go, if it's half as enjoyable as this one, it won't be a waste of time.

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About the Author

 Burt Weissbourd is a novelist, screenwriter and producer of feature films. He was born in 1949 and graduated cum laude from Yale University, with honors in psychology. During his student years, he volunteered at the Museum of Modern Art in Paris and taught English to college students in Thailand. After he graduated, he wrote, directed, and produced educational films for Gilbert Altschul Productions. He began a finance program at the Northwestern University Graduate School of Business, but left to start his own film production company in Los Angeles. He managed that company from 1977 until 1986, producing films including "Ghost Story" starring Fred Astaire, Melvyn Douglas, John Houseman, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., and Patricia Neal, and "Raggedy Man" starring Sissy Spacek and Sam Shepard, which The New York Times called "a movie of sweet, low-keyed charm." In 1987, he founded an investment business, which he still runs. INSIDE PASSAGE is the first in the Corey Logan trilogy.

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