Tensleep: An Em Hansen Mystery - Softcover

Geologist Emily Hansen, working as a mudlogger in the Tensleep Sandstone oilfield near tiny Meeteetse, Wyo., is sorely troubled by the seemingly accidental death of head geologist Bill Kretzmer and the subsequent killing of his prot‚g‚ Willie Sewell, who had suspicions of his own. Inexplicable things are happening at the drilling operations, too, all of it overseen by vulgarly nasty company engineer Ed Meyer and his quiet sidekick Merle Johnson. Em investigates some disquieting minor occurrences: horses' hoofprints in strange places; a missing drill bit used as a doorstop for her primitive, on-site trailer; tank trucks moving without lights in the wee hours; papers vanished from Kretzmer's Denver office. It all comes together in a way that nearly kills a doggedly persistent heroine. Oil-drilling operations and the rough-mouthed, rough-living characters who do the work get robust treatment here, but with the same sweet edge that enriches Em's spiky character and gives subtle nuancing to geologist Andrews's unhackneyed, accomplished first novel. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

This debut, set at a Wyoming oil-drilling site, introduces a refreshing and less-than-voluptuous heroine ("plain" and "lumpy" she calls herself), but the narrative stumbles irretrievably over dropped bits of inadequately explained drilling lore. Em Hansen works as a mudlogger among a mostly coarse crew of working men. Though she suffers the ill will of the majority, Em is doggedly attached to her work, which apparently involves recording data about mud samples, even as the arrival of a coolly elegant woman geologist increases the sexism quotient. The first death claims Em's mentor Bill, a careful man whose car skids out of control; next to go is young Willie, apparently crushed to death by wild horses. Although remaining an outsider among the crew, Em sets out to investigate the cause of the deaths, which may be linked to the oil field's profitability. The surfeit of oil-drilling lingo, the men's hostility and Em's continuing emphasis of both her unattractiveness and her excluded status combine to sabotage the novel's promise.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.