Bone Fire

David Baker's well-paced, understated performance suits this story of hard-working, tender-hearted folks in Ishawooa, Wyoming. Characters include Griff, who drops out of college to care for Einar, who has suffered a stroke; Crane Carlson, who is investigating a dead body found in a meth lab and coping with his diagnosis of Lou Gehrig's disease; and McEban, who has lost his wife and is now faced with sending his young ward back to his birth father. Baker uses slight changes in cadence to reflect the emotional depth and tensions of the characters as they face their personal challenges. He intensifies the moments of surprise, hilarity, and beauty as he conjures the author's strong sense of place. S.C.A. (c) AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine

October 5, 2009
Spragg’s disappointing third novel (after An Unfinished Life
), a dry and unsatisfying contemporary western, lacks narrative momentum and a sense of purpose. Griff drops out of college to care for her ailing grandfather, Einar, on his Wyoming ranch. Einar, suffering from a mysterious illness, is unhappy with Griff throwing aside her life for his sake, so he summons home his estranged lesbian sister, Marin, to watch over him. Griff, a gifted sculptor whose works involve clay bones wired into exotic and fantastical skeletons, is also at odds with her alcoholic mother and faces the possibility of a long separation from her boyfriend, a graduate student about to leave to volunteer in Uganda. In a parallel plot, Griff’s stepfather, sheriff Crane Carlson, finds a dead body in a meth lab and receives a dreaded medical diagnosis that inspires him to reconnect with his first wife. Although there are some touching moments, most of the novel is humorless to the point of parody, and the attempt at tying together everything at the end feels forced. Despite all the issues it touches on, the overall effect of this modern western is oddly inconsequential.