Synopses & Reviews
In the sequel to
Red Jacket, former Rough Rider turned Michigan game warden Lute Bapcat sets out to find a deputy warden who has disappeared from Ontonagon County, one of the Michigan Upper Peninsulas most lawless places. Merely hours into his search, Bapcat is shot by assailants unknown. After a miraculous rescue and recovery aided by mysterious caretakers, Bapcat uncovers a plan by powerful locals to capture and sell bears to zoos around the country, an act akin to theft in Bapcats mind. The game wardens determination to break the scheme ratchets up when it seems his missing colleague may have authored the idea and employed the help of an outlaw called Red Hair, who had been raised in the same orphanage with Bapcat. Red Hairs gang of thugs have long terrorized the region. Bapcat must use all of his woodcraft to brave the Trap Hills and Porcupine Mountains to face the criminals at the old Nonesuch Mine. Zakov the Russian—Bapcats eccentric game warden partner—is brought in to help with the hunt, which causes Bapcat to reevaluate his personal values. In classic Heywood style, an extraordinary band of Upper Peninsula characters collects around intrepid woods cops.
Review
Red Jacket (A Lute Bapcat Mystery)“Joseph Heywood has long been a red-blooded American original and an author worth reading. With Red Jacket—a colorful and sprawling new novel with a terrific new protagonist named Lute Bapcat—he raises the bar to soaring new heights.” —C.J. Box, New York Times bestselling author of Force of Nature
“In 1913, Theodore Roosevelt recruits former Rough Rider Lute Bapcat to become a game warden on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula in Heywood’s absorbing first in a new series. Outsized characters, both real (athlete George Gipp before his Notre Dame fame, union organizer Mother Jones) and fictional (randy businesswoman Jaquelle Frei; Lute’s Russian companion, Pinkhus Sergeyevich Zakov), pepper the narrative.” —Publishers Weekly
Joseph Heywood’s Previous Novels
“Joseph Heywood writes with a voice as unique and rugged as Michigan’s Upper Peninsula itself.” —Steve Hamilton, two-time Edgar® Award winner and bestselling author of The Lock Artist and the Alex McKnight novels
“A truly wonderful, wild, funny and slightly crazy novel about fly fishing. The Snowfly ranks with the best this modern era has produced.” —San Francisco Chronicle
“A magical whirlwind of a novel, squarely in the tradition of Tim O’Brien’s Going After Cacciato and Jim Harrison’s Legends of the Fall.” —Howard Frank Mosher, author of The Fall of the Year and others
“Heywood has crafted an entertaining bunch of characters. An absorbing narrative twists and turns in a setting ripe for corruption.” —Dallas Morning News
Hard Ground (Woods Cop Stories)
"Heywood displays uncommon storytelling versatility in this brilliant collection of . . . tales about the game wardens who patrol Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.... This volume should be read for pleasure, but would do equally well as an instruction manual for aspiring writers."—Publishers Weekly, starred review
Synopsis
Joseph Heywood’s second historical Lute Bapcat Mystery, in which former Rough Rider turned Michigan game warden Lute Bapcat learns that the deputy warden from Ontonagon County has gone missing. Bapcat, shot just as he sets out on his search, must navigate one of the Michigan Upper Peninsula’s most lawless places, home to a gang of poachers and animal trackers wanted for multiple murders, assaults, and other outrages.
About the Author
Joseph Heywood is the author of The Snowfly and Covered Waters (both Lyons Press), The Berkut, Taxi Dancer, The Domino Conspiracy, the nine Grady Service Mysteries, Hard Ground: Woods Cop Stories, and Red Jacket (A Lute Bapcat Mystery). Featuring Grady Service, a contemporary detective in the Upper Peninsula for Michigan’s Department of Natural Resources, and Lute Bapcat, a Rough Rider turned Michigan game warden in the 1910s, Heywood's mystery series have earned its author cult status among lovers of the outdoors, law enforcement officials, and mystery devotees. Heywood lives in Portage, Michigan. Visit the author’s web site at www.josephheywood.com.