Publisher's Synopsis
This is not a novel. This book, like the other eight books of the WARDEN FORCE series, is a collection of short stories, all true, the fascinating and often harrowing experiences of real game wardens pursuing armed violators in wild and remote places. TV shows such as WILD JUSTICE (National Geographic), NORTH WOODS LAW (Animal Planet) and LONE STAR LAW (Animal Planet) introduced the public to the real-life adventures of game wardens and conservation officers, a public hungry for more. And now, for readers, the WARDEN FORCE series provides the most exhaustive and comprehensive work in literature on this little known and often dangerous profession.
Award winning author Terry Hodges was himself a California State Fish and Game warden and supervisor/leader of game wardens for over 30 intense years. He writes with the authority possible only by those who have actually lived the life, who have actually packed a badge and a gun on behalf of wildlife and battled all manner of wildlife-destroying outlaws.
- Trash Can Joe - Wardens pursue an infamous, outlaw hunting-guide who uses donuts to illegally bait bears. Meet "The Black Robinhood."
- Callous Hearts - A rogue band of meth-cooking deer poachers meets with misfortune.
- Rascal's Road to Justice - "The world's greatest duck caller," as a renowned waterfowl violator bills himself, crows that he's too smart to be caught. His education to the contrary soon follows.
- True Remorse - One of the coldest of the cold, cold hearts, pays a heavy price for extreme cruelty to a trapped bear.
- Turkeys - The wardens meet a hardened criminal whose hobbies are turkey hunting and home-invasion robberies.
- A Weekend with "Starsky and Hutch." - A swashbuckling pair of wardens cram a fourth-story, roof-to-roof foot chase in old San Francisco and heroic rescues from burning buildings into a single, memorable weekend.
- The Natural - A young woman proves that she was born to be a Fish and Game warden.
- Dirty Harry and Ape Island - A warden thinks his way out of a jam in this story that features a good-humored Highway Patrol sergeant and an ill-humored monkey.
- Lucky Breaks - A warden demonstrates his substantial tracking skills to put away an outlaw houndsman who traffics in bear gallbladders.
- Lobster Jake - An infamous lobster pirate teams with "The Muppet," a character straight out of a nightmare.
- Cold, Cold Hearts - A California warden, at great risk to himself, flies to Alaska to help state troopers there deal with a team of highly dangerous, cruel and destructive grizzly poachers.
