Luke is gentle and - in his father's eyes - utterly flawed. Buck's son Luke is the logical but unlikely offspring of the driven rancher. Calder is, as one character describes him, '.a real piece of work.' Charismatic, powerful and reasonably devoid of morals, Calder is one of the most likable characters I've ever hated in fiction: his personal power fairly leaps off the page. The alpha male nearly makes off with the grandson of the area's leading ranchers, Buck Calder. The Loop mostly takes place in the fictional town of Hope, Montana where a pack of wolves makes a sudden and savage appearance. And while these characters behave in very understandable and human ways, they do do neither illogical or predictable things: something that keeps the story compelling throughout. They interact in very human ways, leading this reader to believe that Evans is at least as good a student of human nature as he is of that belonging to animals. Evans gives us a good group of believable characters with valid reasons for intruding on our time. The humans are richer this time around as well. They are, in essence, the stars of the story. Rather his story works around and with the wolves. You don't get the feeling you're being fed on hours of dry research. The rich descriptions of the habits of many wild animals - especially wolves - are beautifully written and incorporated. Evans locations ring as true as his characterizations in this book. Rather than being a poor copy of The Horse Whisperer, this new book is perhaps more the book that could have been.īritish born and dwelling Evans no doubt did a lot of research in Montana to make Whisperer work, and none of it has been wasted in this new book. The Loop is tighter, cleaner and an altogether better story than Evans' sentimental 1995 debut. On closer inspection and more thorough reading, however, one discovers that The Loop is no sort of literary nod to an earlier blockbuster.

And once again we're pitting man against beasts: though this time the subjects are canine rather than equine. The bestselling author of The Horse Whisperer has chosen to once again set his story in contemporary rural Montana. On the first approach it's easy to wonder why The Loop wasn't called The Wolf Whisperer.

The loop book nicholas evans