I drooled over this book in Sandpoint today.
"Archer MacClehan & The Hungry Now"
[BBMB-067] $14.00
By Sandy Compton
181 pages
Softcover, 5.5"x8.5"
keokee.com
Idaho-and-Montana author Sandy Compton puts his ample storytelling talents to play in his brand new novel, Archer MacClehan & The Hungry Now, a page-turning tale populated by a cast of colorful characters who find themselves at odds in the wilderness -- and pulling together for their very survival. As one of the book's characters, botanist turned smoke-jumper Jesse Turnbull, says, "Life is served raw in wild country." That's what she tells her new friend Sara Cafferty - or is she the enemy? - when a backcountry hike that begins innocently enough turns dangerous. Led by larger-than-life backcountry guide Archer MacClehan, the others along for the trek into the Skydevil Wilderness are Sara, a small woman fighting a big temper and her own resurgent love of the wild; and her fiancé, Rob, a guy who knows how to keep his head down. They're looking for a wilderness experience, and they are going to have one. Bringing up the rear as the hike begins is Tom Sevlakovs, an enormously strong man whose pack contains God knows what and weighs nearly as much as Sara. She characterizes him as the "guard dog." She doesn't know how close to right she is. At the head of the line is Archer, the "lead dog." He's nearly unflappable - nearly. Archer has dreams, though; dreams that lead him into dangerous places. He doesn't much like having these dreams. And out in the brush, just out of sight - sometimes - is Number Seven, aka The Hungry Now. He's a bear, a grizzly bear, and his job is to make other species pay attention. Everyone on this hike is going to know that The Hungry Now is very good at his job.
Remarkable for its sharply drawn descriptions of the great grizzly bear and sweeping depictions of magnificent landscapes, Archer MacClehan & The Hungry Now is at once a rousing story of adventure, a drama of relationships and a paean to the wilderness and wild things of the mountain Northwest.
About the author: Sandpoint-based Sandy Compton grew up and still lives down the road, on the border between Montana and Idaho -- living on the edge, as he calls it. He is an avid world traveler, backpacker, skier and lover of wilderness and bears, one of which bit him a few years ago ... but that is another story entirely. Compton has written two other fiction titles, Jason’s Passage and Caleb’s Miracle, and also a forthcoming memoir, Sidetrips from Cowboy. He is a contributor to many publications, including Northwest Travel, Ski, Grit and Sandpoint Magazine and the creator of the syndicated column, The Scenic Route, published monthly in The River Journal.
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