This book is called a “wilderness thriller”. It sounds like a weird category, but it really describes the vibe of this book! Jodi Luna is our main character. I like her name. I have a really hard time connecting with a character if they have a dumb name. That’s probably really shallow on my part, but what can you do? Jodi basically quit her cozy life being a published poet in the city of Boston to return to the wilds of New Mexico where she grew up. Her uncle is retiring as the head game warden, and she’s taking over.
You can tell that she really cares about animals and the environment, which I appreciate in a character. She finds an asshole poacher on her first or second day on the job, and she gets a nasty feeling about him that he’s more than just an asshole poacher. Then girls start going missing. There’s a lot of backstory / side-story related to Jodi’s daughter / former boyfriend / brother / uncle. I guess that’s just story story? Anyway, character development is important! I like all the characters you’re supposed to like in this story, which is no small feat. I’ve read so many books this year where I just hated everyone.
There is some discussion of poaching of a wolf that I found disturbing, and a dog gets tranquilized, but is OK. Just a heads up for all my animal lovers out there. I mean there’s also hunting of humans and kidnapping, but I feel like that’s par for the course for most of the books I read. 4 stars, immediately pre-ordered the next book in the series
