Bearskin

by James A. McLaughlin
343 pgs

I love it when a new author publishes his or her first book and it's excellent. I'm always hopeful a quality first book portends a whole bookshelf worth of great books yet to come from the author. That's now my hope about James A. McLaughlin after reading his debut novel Bearskin.

Rice Moore is the caretaker on a privately-owned nature preserve in the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia. He hasn't had the job very long, but he's hoping the remoteness of where he now lives and works will allow him to hide from his violent past. But the peace and isolation he thought he'd experience becomes fleeting when he comes across the carcasses of bears, which are missing their paws and gallbladders. He learns that these are worth thousands of dollars on the black market, where the Chinese buy them and use them for medicines.

When Rice begins hunting for the bear killers, he finds he's up against more than just the poachers. His search angers many of the locals, who resent the family who owns the land the preserve is on and forbids them from hunting on it. When he learns that the woman who was caretaker before him was brutally assaulted and raped by a group of men while on the property, he decides to add them to the list of men he's now hunting. And as Rice's hunt for the bear killers and his predecessor's assaulters comes to a head, his past catches up with him and he finds himself being hunted as well.

The first three fourths of the book are a steady lead up to the final hundred or so pages, and it's these pages that made me so excited for what's to come from McLaughlin.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆