Williston Winthrop’s head is blown off in what appears to have been a hunting accident. The four despicable men in Winthrop’s gun and card club call it in to the sheriff. They’re the only ones who will miss the shady lawyer; Winthrop’s son, Sam Rivers, certainly won’t. Twenty years earlier, Sam had left home after a violent fight with his father, then changed his name and became the kind of person his father would have hated—a wildlife biologist and special agent for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, with a specialized knowledge of wolves. Unfortunately for Winthrop’s schemes, Sam returns home when he learns of his father’s death. He doesn’t know that Winthrop is actually alive and well. Winthrop has plotted with his gun club pals to stage his own death and a wolf attack on his own cattle (by domesticated malamute–Arctic wolf hybrids), all so the club can collect Winthrop’s insurance payouts. Winthrop didn’t count on having a son who can identify wolves and spot his father’s wily maneuvers. Sam was physically abused as a child, and his cruel father’s lessons in surprising the enemy will work just fine to confront Winthrop.
VERDICT Originally published in 2013, the book was reedited by author Mary Logue, and is now the first in a proposed four-book series featuring Sam Rivers. Fans of Paul Doiron’s The Poacher’s Son or the Joe Pickett books will appreciate this descriptive novel with an intriguing plot and well-written characters.
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