A Murder of Wolves
Joe Big Snake Person and his partner, Barney, are Montana sheriff’s deputies working undercover for a government antiterrorist unit, trying get the goods on a group looking to buy black-market computer chips. Their bodies and egos bruised by a beating taken at the hands of the guys they were supposed to be setting up, Joe Big and Barney aren’t too thrilled when they’re asked to look into the mysterious deaths of a few mules, but when it turns out the cause of death might be a new bioweapon, our heroes realize they’re caught in the middle of what could become a full-blown war. Joe Big and Barney are appealingly offbeat characters, their good-ol’-boy exteriors concealing tough-as-nails interiors, and they’re surrounded by a heaping handful of equally intriguing supporting figures (who, in some cases, aren’t at all what they appear to be, at first glance). The story is well constructed and often doesn’t move in quite the direction the reader might expect. The author is a bit of an unknown, despite this being his third book, but after closing this one, his readers are likely to want more. --David Pitt