Tamarack River Ghost: A Novel
As Apps continues the Ames County series (Cranberry Red, 2010), journalist Josh Wittmore, fresh off his confrontational assignment to expose feedlot abuses in central Missouri, returns to his Wisconsin home town in Ames County, where things along the usually tranquil Tamarack River are about to liven up. Rumor has it that Nathan West Industries plans to install its largest hog-processing plant on the abandoned golf course at river’s edge. It will be Josh’s job to cover the story and its impact on this rural Eden. He may not, however, have a place to write about what he finds. The digital age is about to wrest the venerated Farm Country News from its old-school owner and place it into the hands of a ruthless businessman who cares more about ad revenues than skilled reportage. Factor in a burgeoning love interest, the by-the-book county conservation warden, and the occasional sighting of the legendary Tamarack River Ghost, and you have a masterfully crafted story that vibrantly captures weighty issues of environmental protection, family farming, and contemporary communications. --Carol Haggas