Wild Animals (Paperback or Softback)

Big-time politics brings mayhem to Rozette, Mont., as Reid makes a simplistic point about the evils of civilization and the virtues of wildness. When an ex-president is scheduled to stump locally for Senate candidate Merle Puhl, Detective Ray Bartell thinks being assigned to the Secret Service security detail will be "a lot of fun"-until the campaign takes an intense interest in ex-con Henry Skelton, who may be responsible for the recent bombing of a helicopter. Bartell thinks Skelton just wants to be left alone, an opinion he retains even after his police car explodes following an uneasy chat with Skelton. Associates of the ostrich-ranching Puhl continue to insist, however, that Skelton is a major threat, and the police begin to wonder just whose side Bartell is on. As the tension mounts, it becomes apparent what a bad idea it was to corner Henry Skelton. Reid (The Red Corvette), himself a Montana detective, writes good country-cop talk and draws his characters well-except for the women, who have a hard time understanding all that noble torment beneath the stoic male exterior. The face-off between Bartell and Skelton is gripping, but the government-bashing and romanticizing of wild men is beyond tired.
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