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Rachel Porter, Fish and Wildlife Agent has been posted to Montana, the land of grizzly bears and Blackfeet Indians, to fill the position recently vacated by the former agent, who had been eaten by a bear and other critters. Only one fully clad leg was ever found. Porter drives to the site of the massacre, trying to fnd something that the previous investigators may have missed. Rachel's landlord, Hal Ornish, accompanies her on this, her first foray into the wilds of bear county. Even after postings in several parts of the US, Porter is still a New Yorker, pining for the special brand of civilization to be found there. On the way back to the apartment, Hal has Rachel take a detour to the lovely home of Sally Starlight Crossbow, a former exotic dancer, once married to a Blackfeet man, and whose son was killed in Kuwait during Desert Storm. Sally asks Rachel and Hall to stay to dinner, but before they start a pickup truck drives up. Matthew Running, the native Wildlife agent, feels that Justin Crossbow died trying to save him from their commanding officer, and tries to keep and eye on Sally. Between them, they are technically breaking the law. Sally keeps raptors caged on her property. Rachel is ready to arrest her, when she is taken to the cage and finds that the birds are all missing a wing. Someone had shot them and they would not be able to exist in the wild. After dinner, Rachel sees a suspicious movement in the pickup and discovers to starving bear cubs in a cage in the truck bed. Rachel has to change many of her ideas. Matthew and Sally have a cage in the woods where they keep orphaned bears until the cubs are ready to fend for themselves outside. Keeping raptors or bears is illegal, but these people are doing it for all the right reasons, and when Matthew tells her 18 bears that he knows of have been killed on the rez, she thinks it's more important to find the person who is dispatching the bears than to report the infraction. Rachel meets more strange characters, including members of the local militia and finds that more than bears lives are at stake, all the while trying to keep her sharp mouth in check so she doesn't get in trouble again, after all, where else can they send her. This is a fine series. Rachel Porter is a New Yorker, an ex-actress, and Jewish. She has a mouth and a sense of honor and justice that tend to get her in trouble with her superiors. The supporting characters, are, as usual with this author, an interesting bunch of people, some of whom you wouldn't want to meet in the dark. The previous titles in the series are Gator Aide, Tortoise Soup, Bird Brained, and Border Prey. . Each book in the series treats a different endangered species in a different part of the US, and each one is distinct as to plot and characters. The writing is smooth and deceptively simple, but these books make you think.
Reviewed by Barbara Franchi, October 2002
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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