Die-Off

September 16, 2013
In Russell’s solid fifth mystery featuring Lt. John Marquez (after 2011’s Redback), the former DEA agent turned Northern California game warden doggedly follows the trail of shadowy figures who are systematically violating environmental laws. At the same time, Marquez investigates a new lead in the brutal murder of a pair of campers that occurred two years earlier, in the process arousing suspicion himself. Connections gradually emerge between the cold case and the planned ecological crime, a scheme to render environmental-impact lawsuits over water rights moot by dumping a devastatingly invasive fish species into Northern California’s rivers. Marquez is a sympathetic, meticulous, and resolute investigator, but other characters tend to speak in overlong expository lumps and gnomic retorts as Marquez questions them, and the villains’ motives never quite become believable. Still, the setting is portrayed with care, and the chance to root for an animal-saving, nature-loving detective is a pleasant respite from the weary cynicism of typical police procedurals. Agent: Lukas Ortiz, Philip Spitzer Literary Agency.

November 1, 2013
A nefarious plot to kill off native species is just one of the cases a California Fish and Game officer must crack. Lt. John Marquez is on the trail of Rider, a large-scale trafficker in live animals and animal parts who may be hiding in northern California or Oregon while he plies his lucrative business. An anonymous female caller offers a tip to the murders of two young women, friends of Marquez's stepdaughter, who were brutally slain near the Klamath River while campaigning for dam removal. The caller claims that the murder weapon can be found buried near the White Salmon River, where the Condit Dam is about to be blown up. The gun is found before the area is flooded, but his involvement lands Marquez in trouble with Rich Voight, a homicide investigator who deems Marquez a person of interest in the murder case, and his boss, the politically ambitious sheriff who wants him arrested to generate publicity for his re-election. When a truck carrying fingerling fish overturns near the Sacramento River, the driver dies in the hospital and the fish are identified as northern pike, a rapacious species that would kill off the native salmon and trout. Marquez has been getting calls from Hauser, a scientist who works for ENTR, a corporation he claims is secretly raising the pike in a long-term effort to control Western water supplies. But Hauser can't or won't provide evidence. Marquez puts his life in danger by refusing to back away from investigating the old murder, the well-hidden hatcheries, and the secretive, coldhearted animal trader--all cases that may have links to past and present crimes. Marquez's fifth (Redback, 2011, etc.) is chillingly descriptive and packed with suspense, secrets, violence and nonstop action.

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November 1, 2013

Enigmatic and highly principled, John Marquez is no ordinary law officer. Notorious for tackling the most powerful criminals, he works undercover for the California Fish & Game's Special Operations Unit. Currently Marquez is hunting down a rogue group that is seeding the major rivers of Northern California with predatory fish (northern pike) guaranteed to decrease the populations of salmon and other native fish. Plus, he has unfinished business with high-level animal traffickers who tried to off him in the past. But his primary responsibilities are shoved aside when he is given a tip about the weapon used to kill two female environmental activists in an unsolved cold case that involved his stepdaughter. Long-standing feuds with law enforcement agencies ratchet up Marquez's vulnerability but open his eyes to how his cases might connect. VERDICT Russell's densely plotted ecomystery requires an appreciation for environmental crises. It helps to have read the four earlier titles (Redback is the most recent), but newcomers can still enjoy. Cooked at a slow simmer, the story explodes in the second half, demanding readers' full attention. For C.J. Box, Stephen Legault, and Jeanne Matthews fans.

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