Review: Second Collection I've Bought on the Basis of a Toni Dwiggins Inclusion...
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 04 30, 2014
When you see a collection that already includes an amazing novel you've read, chances are very good (I've learned) that at least one other item in the collection will astound, deeply satisfy or amaze you.Based on the inclusion of the thrilling "Quicksilver" by Toni Dwiggins, I bought Thrilling Thirteen today, and I expect to find at least one other gem within its covers. Let me tell you about the one I've already read.Fascinating, Terrifying, Like Playing with Mercury:When I was a child, my parents were puzzled by the way thermometers kept disappearing in our house. Little did they know that my siblings and I loved to play with the silvery liquid that poured out of them once they were broken! And little did we know that we were playing with a killer...Toni Dwiggins brings that fascination and danger to life in "Quicksilver", a novel that, like her previous novel "Badwater", mingles mining history, eco-terror and deep knowledge of rocks and human frailties. And, yes, there was plenty of toxic mercury released into the environment in the bad old days of gold mining - but the lure of the gold is still strong, as the characters in this novel make clear.Cassie Oldfield herself is not immune to that lure, nor is her partner Walter Shaw. Yet for the forensic geologists, I believe it is closer to "The Spell of the Yukon" as made explicit by Robert W. Service:. There's gold, and it's haunting and haunting,. And it's luring me on as of old;. Yet it isn't the gold that I'm wanting. So much as it's finding the gold.Stunning story, great geology - another winner from Toni Dwiggins!Note: The Dwiggins novel "Badwater" is included in the 6-novel set "Working Girls ... Do It For Thrills", in which the other gem I found (so far) is a stunner called "Sector C", by Phoebe Sullivan.