Impasse

March 9, 2015
This labored adult revenge thriller from YA author Buckingham (The Terminals) pits woefully unprepared lawyer Stuart Stark against the unforgiving Alaskan wilderness. After a lost case derails Stuart's career, he and another attorney, Clay Buchanan, form Buchanan, Stark and Associates in New Bedford, Mass. The ambitious and unscrupulous Clay seizes an opportunity to shunt Stuart off to Alaska on an adventure that strands Stuart in the wild instead of delivering him to a cozy cabin. Clay then charms Stuart's wife, Katherine, into wooing new clients for the firm. Stuart nearly dies before being rescued by a trapper named Blake, and he spends the next several months figuring out what happened. Blake's tutelage in survival transforms Stuart physically and mentally, while Clay manipulates Katherine into a willing tool. Stuart's unexpected return to civilization and his discovery of Clay's treachery set the stage for his poetic revenge on both wife and partner in atale that offers only predictable developments and stock characters.

February 1, 2015

Stuart Stark is an understandably cautious man. Fired from the Bristol County, MA, DA's office for botching a case that allowed a murderer to go free, he now practices civil law with Clayton Buchanan, who is willing to overlook not only the finer points of the law but ethics as well. When the two men come to an impasse over their fee in a liability case, Clay decides risk-averse Stu needs an adventure to rediscover his manhood. But what was supposed to be a joint hunting trip to a remote cabin in Alaska turns into a terrifying ordeal when Stu, dropped off alone in the interior with winter coming on and no cabin in sight, soon realizes that the float plane is not coming back. VERDICT Older readers may recall Frederick Manfred's Lord Grizzly, based on the real-life frontiersman Hugh Glass, left for dead after a grizzly bear attack. Buckingham (Demonkeeper; The Terminals) spins an equally tense but thoroughly modern thriller of survival and revenge in which a man is forced to confront both deadly peril in the wild and a sadistic manipulator and unfaithful wife at home. Highly recommended for those who enjoy men's adventure tales.--Ron Terpening, Univ. of Arizona, Tucson

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 15, 2015
New Bedford lawyer Stu Stark's life and career are in the sewer. He lost a big case and then his job, and the media gleefully gave his humiliation front-page, prime-time space. Now he's trying to survive in a little law firm in an old building where the elevator doesn't work. His wife had thought she was marrying an alpha male and doesn't conceal her disappointment. His friend and partner belittles him at his own birthday party. Experienced readers will get this far in Buckingham's entertaining novel and know that the worm is about to turn. Stu accepts an offer to revive his manhood by spending a week in Alaska. Doesn't work, at least at first. City boy is rescued from death by a whiskery old trapper who gives him water and lots of little-guy wisdom. The making of Iron Stu is relayed in chapters intercut with an account of the treachery back home, and we have a good idea that once Stu is back, the revenge will begin. It's wonderful fun to watch. A fine, diverting read.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)