Alex is understandably shaken by this event. She is tired of Boston and it seems that her relationship with her boyfriend is kaput. When she calls an academic colleague and is offered a position conducting wolverine research in Montana, she jumps at the opportunity. Once on site, she realizes that the land trust that she is working for is a polarizing issue for the small community of Bitterroot.
This is where things start to go wrong for me as a reader. The hunters, the ranchers, the sheriff, all seem to be actively hostile to Alex. Small communities can be like that, but these people aren't mustache-twirling bad guys, as they all seem to be depicted here. Plenty of them love wildlife, just not the same way that vegetarian city conservationists do. So that frustrated me. One or two truly hostile people is believable, but every man in town? I just don't think so.
Then, the author made Alex into someone who'd been trained in survivalist skills by her mother. A wildlife researcher needs outdoor skills for sure, but to also be very proficient with firearms and know her way around dynamite? That stretched my credulity even further. But wait, there's more! An absolutely bananapants wildlife smuggling ring, hiding in the mountains of Montana? Possible, but not probable, especially when some of the animals they are holding is revealed. From there on, this just spirals into Jack Reacher levels of unreality. Nevertheless, I kept my nose in the book right to the end to figure out who all the villains were. Alex is a one-woman wrecking crew, who later gets an admiring note from the pyscho (remember him, back at the beginning?) who has been watching over her since she prevented one of his burial sites from being developed.
As I said, bananapants. I don't think I'll be reading further in the series. By the way, if actual wolverine research interests you, pick up The Wolverine Way. It's all the factual goodness without the nuttiness.
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