Tahoe Ice Grave (An Owen McKenna Mystery Thriller)

McKenna must truly be a superhero. Even though the moral of his narratives are a comment on the state of society, Borg’s writing is predictable in the genre of who done its. This novel was somewhat entertaining, but unrealistic to anyone who has spent time navigating Sierra Nevada winters. I think it’s time I left Owen McKenna behind and look for another righter of wrongs.

Great read. Spoiler alert.This one starts with Thos Kahale. Kahale is Native American on his mother Janeen's side and Polynesian on his dad Jaspers side. Kahale was the champion surfer for three years till a broken leg knocked him out of competing. He now runs a wine distributing business. A business that took off much to his surprise.Right now Thos is naked and is swimming out into Lake Tahoe. He feels guilty for the deaths of three people. His sense of honor tells him this is the only way to make amends. He's almost to the point in the lake he wants to be at. He's been fighting hypothermia but the bullet entering his skull is what kills him. His body will be found days later.Owen McKenna and his girlfriend Street Casey are at Owen's cabin sharing wine, cheese and a baguette. Street is recovering from the physical and psychological damage she suffered when she was kidnapped last fall. Owen and Spot have stayed with her every night since it happened. Street is going it alone tonight. This is when she mentions the murder victim found in Lake Tahoe at Rubicon Point.This is when Owen tells her that he stopped by his office and had a message from the victims mother. She wants to talk to him about her son's murder. Seems Deputy Diamond Martinez a friend of Owens and Streets gave her his number.Owen does in fact see Janeen Kahale and gets the information he needs to begin his case. He also meets Jerry Roth her next door neighbor. A man with a damaged leg and a crutch. A man who is far more than he appears to be. A fact no one will find out till much later.So begins one damned fine read.This one has Owen, Street, Spot, Diamond, a trip to Hawaii, a pilot named John, a helicopter crash, Jasper, Thos's father, the Kahale legacy, a cave on a cliff, and Owen and Street who survive the crash, a pilot named John who doesn't, a return to Tahoe, a man with long hair and a beard who's one step ahead of Owen, a Phillip who is a nephew of Thos's, a Phillipe who lives with his grandmother Janeen, a Phillipe who is one closed off weird kid, a kids with a secret, murder, attempted murder, an Owen who has himself one hell of a case, a Spot who befriends Phillip, a cave called the Ice Grave, Mark Twain, a manuscript he wrote and gave as a gift, Captain Cook and another gift, this one to the Kahale family and Owen MacKenna doing his best to figure it all out, survive and save the day.Five Stars

I've only recently discoved Todd Borg's works, with this being my second, but I've visited Tahoe many times and enjoy not only the stories in this series but learning more about the area as well. The plot in Ice Grave is notably more complicated than in Blowup, a bit too much perhaps, but the pacing and characterizations were an improvement; not that the previous book was bad by any means though. As a bonus, Owen takes a trip to Hawaii with Street, for work of course, and there's some interesting Polynesian information as well. There are SPOILERS below:There were a few minor points that stood out to me, but they didn't take away from my enjoyment of the book. Although Ice Grave is only my second Borg book, I've noticed a tendency to not follow fairly obvious lines of thought while investigating, at least what should be obvious to an ex-SFPD officer and private detective. For example in this story, even if the back cover didn't give away the connection to Hawaii, it seemed pretty clear that's the direction the investigation would take by the second chapter when the last name of the deceased was phonetically stated. Also, while the details provided on SCUBA diving in this story were accurate for the most part, there are other relatively common options available to increase time at greater depths, besides using deep submersibles, that weren't even hinted at here. Finally, I felt the helocopter crash was a bit contrived; propellors are a lot more durable than the story lets on, at least regarding a piece of wood small enough to be tossed by someone balancing from the side of a cliff.Despite those basically non-issues, Ice Grave was a mostly believable story with a very interesting plot, particularly for me the points concerning Twain. I usually reserve five-star reviews for truly exceptional things, but the last ten chapters or so in this book impressed me enough to warrant bumping it up a notch. I would also be remiss to not mention how fun and quick reads the books of this series have been thus far, and I would definitely recommend them to anyone who likes mysteries, or are fascinated with the Tahoe area and would like a literal tour in each novel.

Nothing and no one is what they seem. And the environments in which it all happens are so varied, it was hard to keep up with wardrobe needs.

Good story but there were too many unanswered questions at the end. I won't spoil it for anyone else, but the revelation of the "bad guy" had me shaking my head....it wasn't realistic and there was no explanation. However....I'm working my way through Todd Borg's books and enjoying them. He seems to have been influenced by the Spenser For Hire books and that's not a bad thing. You have the dainty but intrepid girlfriend, the dog (I like Spot better than I did Spenser's pooch), a minority sort of sidekick (I preferred Hawk), and a pretty good relationship with the local police. Toss in a few unusual characters, a lot of Chamber of Commerce horn blowing for the beauty of Tahoe, and you have these books. Dialog is reminiscent of the Spenser books without the language, which I appreciate.I'm now working on the next one, Kill Shot, and am leaning heavily on giving it five stars. Altho Ice Grave wasn't his best work, in my opinion, it's well worth reading to keep up with things in the series.

Love this series of books. Scenery is described very vividly, characters are interesting and endearing and the plot, although relatively straightforward, keep you guessing.

Thoroughly enjoyable, beautiful descriptions of the area, very real characters and an unusual plot line. I keep going back for more

Good story as all of these books are . They have good story lines and keep the teader in suspense

Awesome series!