Two dead bodies and too many coincidences to ignore—in this outdoors mystery, special agent Sam Rivers must stop a murderous conspiracy. As a special agent for the US Fish & Wildlife Service, Sam Rivers has researched and studied a variety of animals. He’s visiting sixth graders at Hopkins Elementary to share photographs of the Monarch butterfly—and he’s brought along his drug-sniffing wolfdog, Gray, to give students a demonstration of his partner’s remarkable skills. Gray finds a sample drug packet, hidden by Sam, but that’s not all. The wolfdog keeps following his nose, leading Sam to a utility room where they discover the school’s janitor, dead. Local police write it off as a drug overdose, but Sam is no stranger to crime scenes. He suspects foul play. When Sam and Gray come upon a second victim, the coincidences are too great to ignore. Sam starts turning over rocks—and what slithers out is more insidious than anyone could have foretold. Sam’s instincts tell him there’ll be more deaths, but those instincts put him at odds with conventional law enforcement. Armed with his knowledge of the natural world and his wolfdog companion, Sam must uncover answers to questions that few others believe exist. The Denver Post calls Sam Rivers the “predator’s predator.� In Killing Monarchs, natural history writer Cary J. Griffith brings back Sam for his third mystery—a thrilling novel filled with action and suspense.

In this outdoors thriller, the investigation of a bizarre wolf attack leads to evidence of murder, conspiracy, and shocking family secrets. A decades-old promise haunts Sam Rivers, but the wildlife biologist refuses to return home-not with his abusive and estranged father still there. Rivers left the family farm some 20 years ago. He found solace in nature and built a respected career as a special agent for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. His experiences have given him a penchant for understanding predators-a skill he'll need, now, more than ever. After his father's mysterious death, Rivers is lured back to his hometown of Defiance, in northern Minnesota, to fulfill his mother's dying wish. But all is not as it seems. Rivers breaks into his childhood home during a howling winter storm and discovers something sinister. His suspicions are heightened after a bizarre wolf attack on local livestock. The events lead the special agent to a series of clues that could change everything he knows-or thinks he knows-about the town, his family, and himself. With the help of alluring reporter Diane Talbott, Rivers must unravel the wolf kill and learn what really happened to his father-a man Rivers has hated for most of his life. It is a case unlike any he's worked before. His knowledge of frigid winters, wolves, and wilderness will be put to the test, as he tries to solve the case-and stay alive. In Wolf Kill, natural history writer Cary J. Griffith introduces readers to Sam Rivers, the predator's predator, and weaves a masterful tale of danger and suspense in the far north.

In this outdoors mystery, special agent Sam Rivers investigates the unexplained-and very unlikely-cougar attack that killed a wealthy business owner. The sighting of a cougar in the Minnesota River Valley, outside the Twin Cities, is incredibly rare. A deadly cougar attack on a human in this area is about as likely as getting struck by lightning-twice. Yet when wealthy business owner Jack McGregor is found dead, the physical evidence seems incontrovertible. Sheriff Rusty Benson brings in Sam Rivers, a US Fish & Wildlife (USFW) special agent and a wildlife biologist, to examine the scene and sign off on his conclusions. But Sam's experiences have given him a penchant for understanding predators, and he has more questions than answers. Details begin to surface that challenge law enforcement's open-and-shut case. To find justice, Sam must take matters into his own hands. He enlists the help of reporter Diane Talbott and his wolf-dog, Gray, who's in training to become a working dog for the USFW. Gray's nose leads the investigation in unexpected directions. The more rocks Sam turns over, the more motives for murdering McGregor seem to slither out. With no help or support from local law enforcement, Sam and his team are all that stand between justice and those who might otherwise get away with murder. Sam's knowledge of backcountry, cougars, and the criminal mind will be put to the test, as he tries to solve the case-and stay alive. In Cougar Claw, natural history writer Cary J. Griffith brings back Sam Rivers, the predator's predator, and pens a puzzling mystery filled with suspense and intrigue.

Stories from survivors of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness’s epochal weather disaster   On July 4, 1999, in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW), a bizarre confluence of meteorological events resulted in the most damaging blowdown in the region’s history. Originating over the Dakotas, the midsummer windstorm developed amid unusually high heat and water-saturated forests and moved steadily east, bearing down on Fargo, North Dakota, and damaging land as it crossed the Minnesota border. Gunflint Falling tells the story of this devastating storm from the perspectives of those who were on the ground before, during, and after the catastrophic event—from first-time visitors to the north woods to returning paddlers to Forest Service Rangers.   The pre-dawn forecasts from the National Weather Service in Duluth for that Sunday of the holiday weekend predicted the day would be “warm and humid. Partly sunny with a thirty percent chance of thunderstorms.� But as the afternoon and evening settled over the Boundary Waters, the first eyewitness accounts began to tell a dramatic and terrifying story. Five friends camping on Lake Polly watched in wonder as the sky turned green and the winds began to whip. They scrambled to pull canoes on shore and secure tarps when a tree snapped and struck one of them in the head, rendering her unconscious. Three women enjoying their last day of a camping trip near the end of the Gunflint Trail took shelter in their tent as winds increased. Water drenched the nylon walls as trees crashed around them, one flattening the tent and pinning a woman beneath its weight. A family vacationing at their cabin dodged falling trees and strained against straight-line winds as they sprinted from the cabin to the safest place they knew: a crawl space underneath it. They watched in awe as trees snapped and toppled, their twisted root balls torn out of the water-logged earth—as they prayed their cabin would hold.   By the time the storm began to subside, falling trees had injured approximately sixty people, and most needed to be medevacked to safety. Amazingly, no one died. The historic storm laid down timber that would later blaze in the Ham Lake fire of 2007, ultimately reshaping the region’s forests in ways we have yet to fully understand.

In the wilderness, one false step can make the difference between a delightful respite and a brush with death. On a beautiful summer afternoon in 1998, Dan Stephens, a 22-year-old canoeist, was leading a trip deep into Ontario's Quetico Provincial Park. He stepped into a gap among cedar trees to look for the next portage -- and did not return. More than four hours later, Dan awakened with a lump on his head from a fall and stumbled deeper into the woods, confused. Three years later, Jason Rasmussen, a third-year medical student who loved the forest's solitude, walked alone into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness on a crisp fall day. After a two-day trek into a remote area of the woods, he stepped away from his campsite and made a series of seemingly trivial mistakes that left him separated from his supplies, wet, and lost, as cold darkness fell. Enduring days without food or shelter, these men faced the full harsh force of wilderness, the place that they had sought out for tranquil refuge from city life. Lost in the Wild takes readers with them as they enter realms of pain, fear, and courage, as they suffer dizzying confusion and unending frustration, and as they overcome seemingly insurmountable hurdles in a race to survive.

On May 5, 2007, two days into his twenty-seventh trip to the Boundary Waters, Stephen Posniak found a perfect spot on Ham Lake and set about making a campfire. Over the next two weeks, the fire he set would consume 75,000 acres of forest and 144 build