Dead Catch

(Paperback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

A murdered conservation officer and a multi-million-dollar poaching businesshow are they connected to Sam Rivers childhood friend

Holden Riggins is an expert outdoorsman and a known poacher. Hes made a small fortune by exploiting natures bounty. So its no surprise when two conservation officers (COs) from the Department of Natural Resources come upon Holdens fishing boat, anchored beside an illegal walleye net.

What is a surprise, though, is Holdens condition: nearly frozen to death on the bottom of his boat. Thats not the COs most shocking discovery. Twisted and tangled within the twines of another nearby net is the dead body of their missing colleague.

After the COs save Holden from the icy grip of hypothermia, the suspected murderer refuses to answer questions. The only person hell speak with is Sam Rivers, a man he last saw when they were 12 years old. Since then, Holden has become a known scofflaw and ex-con, using wilderness and everything in it for his ill-gotten gains. Sam has become a special agent for the US Fish & Wildlife Service, hunting, capturing, and incarcerating criminalslike his childhood friend.

Throughout the states finest walleye lakes, the population of Minnesotas most prized game fish has been unaccountably dropping. Holdens net might explain why. Has he resurrected his illegal netting ring, cashing in on the states $25-million walleye industry Did he commit murder to evade the law One thing is certain: Sam will follow the facts wherever they leadbut is he the one reeling in suspects, or is he just the bait

Natural history writer Cary J. Griffith brings back Sam Rivers for his fourth outdoors-themed mysterya suspenseful novel filled with fast-paced action.

Reviews

Praise for the Series:

Griffithand his very engaging hero, Sam Riversboth know the Minnesota wilderness inside and out.
Brian Freeman, New York Times best-selling author of The Deep, Deep Snow

Cary Griffith is that rare crime writer whos not afraid to be funny and wise even as he keeps us on the edge of our seats. Whats more, hes a gifted chronicler of the natural world... Its time to put his intrepid investigator, Sam Rivers, on every suspense writers radar, and the author himself in the same echelon as the finest crime writers working today.
Peter Geye, author of The Ski Jumpers

Both the beauty and the savagery of our natural world form the heart of a Griffith story.
William Kent Krueger, Edgar Award-winning author of This Tender Land

A deeply satisfying read.
Mary Logue, author of Claire Watkins mysteries and The Streel

Griffith doubles down on his strengths in this series, giving us another vibrant cast of allies, suspects, and a misunderstood predator, while navigating a path between animal rights and human fears of the natural world. I cant wait for Sam Rivers next assignment.
Mindy Mejia, author of Everything You Want Me to Be and Strike Me Down

Sam Rivers and his wolfdog partner, Gray, make a terrific crime-fighting duo!
Margaret Mizushima, author of the award-winning Timber Creek K-9 Mysteries

I want more Sam Rivers!
Wendy Webb, author of The Haunting of Brynn Wilder

Griffith is a fluent student of the Minnesota outdoors. His detailed storytelling makes the rugged landscape come alive, becoming a major character in his writings. And Griffiths popular creation, Sam Rivers, is a striking star, handsome, playful and deeply knowledgeable in his field. Turns out hes not so bad at unraveling the darker side of human nature, too.
Ginny Greene, Star Tribune

Sam Rivers is a welcome addition to the growing list of crime fiction protagonists by Minnesota writers. His love of nature and creatures, even predators, permeates the plot.
Mary Ann Grossman, Pioneer Press

Author Bio

Award-winning author Cary J. Griffith grew up among the woods, fields, and emerald waters of eastern Iowa. His childhood fostered a lifelong love of wild places. He earned a B.A. in English from the University of Iowa and an M.A. in library science from the University of Minnesota.

Griffiths books explore the natural world. In nonfiction, he covers the borderlands between civilization and wild places. In fiction, he focuses on the ways some people use flora and fauna to commit crimes, while others with more reverence and understanding of the natural world leverage their knowledge to bring criminals to justice. In both genres, readers are likely to learn something about our relationship to the natural world and the creatures who inhabit it.

I was 14 the first time I visited the lakes and boreal forests of northeastern Minnesota, says Griffith, and its beauty struck me.

Griffith is also the author of Wolf Kill, Cougar Claw, Killing Monarchs, Gunflint Burning, Lost in the Wild, and Opening Goliath. He lives with his family in a suburb of Minnesotas Twin Cities.