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CRY LAST HEARD by Hannah Nyala Pocket Books, September 2004 384 pages $6.99 ISBN: 0743451725

December 11, 11am. Rangers Tally Novata and Laney Greer are on a rock wall in an increasingly colder wind, almost a mile above the valley floor and over two miles above sea level, looking for two climbers supposedly unable to get down by themselves. They get to the reported ledge and find no sign of the climbers. They are ordered to return to base, and since the winds are gusting to 90mph, they decide to go 300 yards to the top of the mountain and come down the lee side. They are climbing and bantering when a rock comes down from above.

Talley is dangling on the rope. She was above Laney, now she is below her. Some essential rope climbing equipment is missing from her belt. She tries to get back to the rock face, despite her injuries, when first a body comes down past her and then, the rope. All she now has is fingers and toes to get back to Laney, who doesn't answer when she calls. By noon, she reaches Laney and finds she has been terribly injured. They are not expected down from the mountain for six more hours. The radio isn't working. Talley must try to get to the top by herself and with only minimal equipment, and get down the other side to get help for Laney.

Both trackers are brought down the mountain by some of their colleagues who got worried when they learned the original call was bogus. All Tally can think of is her daughter, Bess, who is in Las Vegas with her baby-sitter and Tally's brother and sister-in-law. She finds that her daughter is missing. Tally has clung to Bess since her lover, Paul O'Malley, was killed in Australia three years earlier.

The author is a tracker in real life and the scenes on the mountain are heart-stopping. The descriptions of the Tetons in winter are also incredibly vivid. This first person narrative tells of a voyage of self discovery while trying to find out who hurt Laney and kidnapped Bess, and why.

Reviewed by Barbara Franchi, July 2004

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