A quick look at Zafris' last two books -- Metal Shredders and Lucky Strike -- might cause you to think she is a metallurgist. Instead, she is a first class writer whose characters are lonely and faded but cheerfully hopeful of finding the jackpot or the "lucky strike" in very unusual ways that seem perfectly normal under Zafris' gentle hand. She is tolerant and nonjudgmental about her strange characters and the life choices they make. The Utah wilderness and radioactivity loom dangerously in the background of this story of bad choices, cautionary friendships, and eventually bravery and compassion.