It is also beautifully written by a masterful writer. Knowing a bit about the Adirondacks, I enjoyed Barrett's descriptions of the landscape, smells...the smell of a thousand miles of pines...for instance, and the ever present weather.The characters are sympathetically drawn, even the eventual bad-guy is fully formed. Really this is the kind of luminous book that makes me think that any further writing I do is a complete waste of time. She's that good.