Hawkeye Daughter By Michael Connelly

“The Hawkeye Daughter” is one of James Patterson’s most popular books. It takes place in the near future in Alaska, when the main character, Taffy, has to go there with her mother as part of a team examining a series of kidnappings. The area has been under a lot of tension since a series of five kidnappings took place there some thirty years ago. One of the suspects in the case is none other than former Alaska Governor turned politician turned businessman, Frank Murkowski. When he realizes that his daughter has been kidnapped, he gets on the case with his lawyer, Bob Grant.

I don’t want to give too much away, but I will. The entire book is set in a small rural community and centers on the daughter and her family. I especially liked how Patterson wrote about the people in her community. He does have a tendency to describe things in very colorful and vivid detail.

The book’s heroine, Taffy, comes from a wealthy family. Her father, Al, works for a company that makes airplane parts. Her mother, Beth, dines at a restaurant run by her brother, Harry. While there, she meets Idahoan Thomas Durwood, who wants to help her raise funds for a Girls Basketball Scholarship. He also wants to get her daughter out of a life of poverty.

Along with Taffy, Durwood captures several other girls who are in need of money to go to college. They form a group and meet up every Friday to do fundraisers. As you might expect, things go smoothly until one Friday there’s a blackout at the restaurant. Nobody is hurt thanks to some quick thinking by Harry and Beth. However, everybody is shocked when the girls discover that their benefactors are going to have to spend money to cover the damages to the restaurant. It seems that someone had taken money from the fundraiser and used it to flood the restaurant.

So, not only does the restaurant lose money, but the family loses their home. Hawkeye Daughter is one of my favorite books because of the way it deals with adversity. In fact, I would have given it five stars instead of three just based on the premise alone.

The bottom line is that this story was a true example of a tragedy that could happen to anyone. The author made it easy for readers to sympathize for the heroine and her family. As a result, there were no contrivances for the author to write in to make his story more appealing to the male reader. This makes this a highly entertaining book for all ages.