Midnight Sun: A Novel

Penzler Pick, September 2000: When the Alaska oil boom was in full swing in the late '60s and early '70s, everyone from college students to drifters found their way up north with dreams of working on the pipeline. The work was grueling, but it was a great way to get rich quick. The boom has ended, but the way of life lingers on for the few unable to give up the life of working for six months before heading south for the rest of the year.

In Midnight Sun, Jack and his buddy, Burke, are two of the guys for whom Alaska still exerts a strong pull. When the book opens, they are building houses on an army base. Jack has worked hauling lumber and honing his carpentry skills to get to the point of what he calls "underwhelming mediocrity." On the weekends he and Burke drive north on roads owned by oil companies or the government and fish for salmon and grayling.

Before Jack heads south to Texas, Burke has one more adventure to propose. An acquaintance of his, Duke, is seriously ill and would like to see his daughter Penny again. She was wooed away by a cult some years before, and Duke will pay Jack and Burke $10,000 to rescue her, but they must trek into the interior to bring her out. Jack reluctantly agrees, and the two men battle the Alaskan wilderness, quite unprepared for the harsh conditions and the wildlife they encounter along the way. When they finally reach the camp and locate Penny, they find that their troubles are just beginning. The group she is with is much more than a new millennium cult, and it will take all of Jack and Burke's mediocre skills to survive and bring Penny home.

Elwood Reid has crafted an adventure thriller that explores a unique aspect of American life. He is a master at conveying a way of life in its death throes, the rootlessness of Jack and Burke, and the tawdriness of a boomtown gone flat. --Otto Penzler