The Return of the Spanish Lady
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| The Return of the Spanish Lady | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Nicolette Scott is an archeologist whose knowledge of early airplanes has gained her kudos as an expert, a reputation for ignoring authority and a job at the Smithsonian. Shortly after she begins there, she is thrilled to be included in the museum's latest project. A large pharmaceutical company is equipping an expedition to a remote region of Alaska, where during World War II a Japanese plane was shot down.It's a gamble, but the money is provided, and if the small group of experts could locate the plane and somehow bring it back to Washington, it would be a coup - and a boost for Nicolette's career.Not long after the search begins, the plane is indeed found, but the move would be risky - it has started disintegrating in unusually "warm" weather. Instead of returning in moderate triumph, Nicolette is dismayed to discover that there is a darker reason for the company's generosity. The expedition's real goal turns out to reach all the way back to the great Spanish flu epidemic of 1918-1919, grimly nicknamed "The Spanish Lady," which killed millions around the world.The virus of this flu still exists in its few victims who happened to be preserved in constantly frozen ground. The expedition's backers had recently learned that three World War One veterans searching Alaska for gold had died of the disease near their crashed plane, and it is their bodies that is the real goal of the expedition.Nicolette is shocked.The only reason she can see for the search, the willing expenditure of money, and the odd cast of characters is an ominous one, and she soon discovers a plot that equals the threat of global atomic war.Unless she can defuse it - and the effort could easily mean her death - the lives of the innocent members of the expedition will be forfeit and the lives of hundreds of millions will be at stake. AUTHORBIO: Val Davis studied anthropology and archaeology at the University of California at Berkeley and now lives in Northern California.
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Nicolette Scott is an archaeologist with an unusual expertise: she tracks down old airplanes, a specialty that's landed her a new job at the Smithsonian and made her just the right person to take part in a privately financed expedition to unearth a rare Japanese plane shot down in Alaska during World War II. That the financing comes from a pharmaceutical company doesn't seem particularly strange to Scott--her only concern is whether she got the job due to the influence of her father, an archaeologist who's not interested in any ruins less than a thousand years old. In Nicolette's fourth adventure (after Track of the Scorpion, Wake of the Hornet,and Flight of the Serpent), the first part of the expedition goes smoothly, despite warnings from a shaman-like Alaskan park guide that the spirits of the dead don't want the pristine wilderness of the Hammersmith Bear Sanctuary disturbed. And neither, it turns out, do the bears themselves, whose attack on Scott and her party reveals the real agenda of the benefactors who've funded the "dig." They want the remains of gold prospectors who died near the site of the plane crash of a now-extinct strain of influenza, the Spanish Lady of the title. It's an implausible setup, which might have worked in the hands of a writer more skilled at explication of her characters. But the Alaskan landscaped is nicely realized, and the flashbacks to New York at the outset of the flu epidemic of 1917, which killed millions of people, manage to add some flesh to an otherwise thin story. --Jane Adams
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| Reader Reviews Below Sorted by Newest First | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 10-26-04 | 3 | (NA) |
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If the "amateurish" comment meant this was not solve-the-whodunit material, I agree -- it's good bedtime, or escapism, reading. I don't think it should be classified under either Mystery or Suspense.
However -- the historical basis combined with modern elements made for an interesting plot. Some good characterization and steady unfolding of the storyline kept my attention until the end, and of course, "Life is too short to read a badly-written book." ~ T.M. (Review Data Last Updated: 2007-09-07 13:58:39 EST)
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| 10-26-04 | 3 | (NA) |
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If the "amateurish" comment meant this was not solve-the-whodunit material, I agree -- it's good bedtime, or escapism, reading. I don't think it should be classified under either Mystery or Suspense.
However -- the historical basis combined with modern elements made for an interesting plot. Some good characterization and steady unfolding of the storyline kept my attention until the end, and of course, "Life is too short to read a badly-written book." ~ T.M. (Review Data Last Updated: 2008-06-03 02:26:46 EST)
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| 10-25-04 | 3 | (NA) |
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If the "amateurish" comment meant this was not solve-the-whodunit material, I agree -- it's good bedtime, or escapism, reading. I don't think it should be classified under either Mystery or Suspense.
However -- the historical basis combined with modern elements made for an interesting plot. Some good characterization and steady unfolding of the storyline kept my attention until the end, and of course, "Life is too short to read a badly-written book." ~ T.M. (Review Data Last Updated: 2008-11-19 03:02:44 EST)
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| 01-22-03 | 1 | 1\1 |
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I have rarely read a more absurdly amateurish book. In the hands of, say, Nevada Barr, the same story would have leapt off the pages. However, we have a book chock full of the inexplicable and the unexplained, cliches, improbabilities, two-dimensional stereotypes, characters acting out of character, ... in fact, to be brief, thoroughly poor and unskilled authorship.
(Review Data Last Updated: 2007-06-30 04:46:11 EST)
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| 04-02-02 | 5 | 3\4 |
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I'll give this book the benefit of the doubt and rate it as 5 stars, as I have not read it. But the plot is interesting: a biopharmaceutical company launches an expedition to retrieve (in secrecy) the viral remnants of the 1918 influenza outbreak. The place: the frozen landscape of Alaska. The target: deceased gold miners from the period.
The plot was so enticing in fact that I used it myself in an earlier book. If you'd like to read a carefully researched, and much longer version of this story (at 662 pages) check out Ninth Day of Creation, ISBN 0967571294. Most likely Davis just had the same idea as I did, though I seem to have got to print earlier. Personally, I think an outbreak similar to 1918 is just a matter of time, so the information contained in the "Spanish Lady" genome is valuable, and will remain so. I might also point out that between me beginning and finishing my book, the genome was in fact located at the Armed Forces Institute in the wax-preserved autopsy material of 1918 victims. The results of the genetic sequencing of this material should be completed within the decade... Leonard Crane, author of Ninth Day of Creation (Review Data Last Updated: 2007-06-30 04:46:11 EST)
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| 04-01-02 | 5 | 3\4 |
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I'll give this book the benefit of the doubt and rate it as 5 stars, as I have not read it. But the plot is interesting: a biopharmaceutical company launches an expedition to retrieve (in secrecy) the viral remnants of the 1918 influenza outbreak. The place: the frozen landscape of Alaska. The target: deceased gold miners from the period.
The plot was so enticing in fact that I used it myself in an earlier book. If you'd like to read a carefully researched, and much longer version of this story (at 662 pages) check out Ninth Day of Creation, ISBN 0967571294. Most likely Davis just had the same idea as I did, though I seem to have got to print earlier. Personally, I think an outbreak similar to 1918 is just a matter of time, so the information contained in the "Spanish Lady" genome is valuable, and will remain so. I might also point out that between me beginning and finishing my book, the genome was in fact located at the Armed Forces Institute in the wax-preserved autopsy material of 1918 victims. The results of the genetic sequencing of this material should be completed within the decade... Leonard Crane, author of Ninth Day of Creation (Review Data Last Updated: 2006-07-07 04:52:25 EST)
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| 04-12-01 | 4 | 1\2 |
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See story summary above.
I enjoyed this mystery thriller. The locations in Alaska and the flashbacks to NYC all helped to bring a little more substance to this story. The characters did come of as a little shallow in my opinion. I also think a little more history could have been wrapped in the story. As with any fiction novel, I rarely read the whole jacket summary, for it gives away far to much information and leaves few surprises. I get the protagonists name and read the first couple sentences and that's usually all. Recommended. (Review Data Last Updated: 2007-06-30 04:46:11 EST)
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| 04-11-01 | 4 | 1\2 |
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See story summary above.
I enjoyed this mystery thriller. The locations in Alaska and the flashbacks to NYC all helped to bring a little more substance to this story. The characters did come of as a little shallow in my opinion. I also think a little more history could have been wrapped in the story. As with any fiction novel, I rarely read the whole jacket summary, for it gives away far to much information and leaves few surprises. I get the protagonists name and read the first couple sentences and that's usually all. Recommended. (Review Data Last Updated: 2006-07-07 04:52:25 EST)
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| 02-25-01 | 4 | 2\2 |
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Nick Scott is back for another round of her favorite airplane archeology (bet you didn't know such a thing existed!) in THE RETURN OF THE SPANISH LADY. Author Val Davis sets up a nicely suspenseful scenario, but the cover blurb gives away everything, so I never had a chance to figure things out with Nick. Don't read the cover blurb!!!
I might have rated the book higher, if the cover hadn't taken away all the suspense. The 1918 characters were well done, and I liked those parts best. And if you haven't read TRACK OF THE SCORPION, the first Nick Scott book, you should do so, as this is a very nicely written and unusual series. (Review Data Last Updated: 2007-06-30 04:46:11 EST)
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| 02-15-01 | 5 | 4\5 |
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The E-Group, a powerful pharmaceutical company, offers to fund an expedition to the Aleutians to try to recover a shot down Japanese World War II plane, The Val. The National Air and Space Museum and its patrons would benefit if the Aichi D 3A 1 aircraft has survived weathering and can be recovered. The Smithsonian assigns Assistant Curator archeologist Nicolette Scott, known for her knowledge of airplanes, to represent them on the expedition.
Unbeknownst to Nicolette and her superiors, the E-Group has a more sinister agenda then recovering an old plane. Nick and other individuals on the trek are their expendable ticket to gain entrance to a natural wildlife range with an endangered species population residing there. THE RETURN OF THE SPANISH LADY is a very good medical thriller with clever twists, but the publisher gives away the key plot on the back cover, ruining much of the suspense. Nick is an intriguing archeologist and much of the support cast such as the WW II vet Wes Erickson, the Smithsonian staff, and a Hammersmith grizzly bear seem genuine. The villains appear too amoral to be real, but move the tale forward. Still, avoid the back cover, wear warm layers of clothing and enjoy a fun thriller filled with excitement Harriet Klausner (Review Data Last Updated: 2007-06-30 04:46:11 EST)
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| 02-14-01 | 5 | 4\5 |
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The E-Group, a powerful pharmaceutical company, offers to fund an expedition to the Aleutians to try to recover a shot down Japanese World War II plane, The Val. The National Air and Space Museum and its patrons would benefit if the Aichi D 3A 1 aircraft has survived weathering and can be recovered. The Smithsonian assigns Assistant Curator archeologist Nicolette Scott, known for her knowledge of airplanes, to represent them on the expedition.
Unbeknownst to Nicolette and her superiors, the E-Group has a more sinister agenda then recovering an old plane. Nick and other individuals on the trek are their expendable ticket to gain entrance to a natural wildlife range with an endangered species population residing there. THE RETURN OF THE SPANISH LADY is a very good medical thriller with clever twists, but the publisher gives away the key plot on the back cover, ruining much of the suspense. Nick is an intriguing archeologist and much of the support cast such as the WW II vet Wes Erickson, the Smithsonian staff, and a Hammersmith grizzly bear seem genuine. The villains appear too amoral to be real, but move the tale forward. Still, avoid the back cover, wear warm layers of clothing and enjoy a fun thriller filled with excitement Harriet Klausner (Review Data Last Updated: 2006-07-07 04:52:25 EST)
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