Joseph Heywood Books In Order

The Berkut

A classic story of pursuit, of hunters and the hunted, that pits two elite teams against each other both of them brave, resourceful, of great physical prowess, and so fully motivated that only the winners survive.

Ice Hunter

Meet Grady Service: a former Marine, renowned tracker, Conservation Officer, and the
last person any errant hunter wants to cross. In Ice Hunter, the first of a series of
mysteries set in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, Service defends his turf with the tenacity of a
bear and the wisdom of an ancient. He shuns all creature comforts and consumerism and is
most at home stalking the Mosquito Tract, his self designated wilderness and the land protected by his CO father before him. Times are not easy for Service. As this summer season
opens, he gets news that his nemesis, the despicable leader of an incestuous clan of poachers,
is about to be released from prison. But something even more sinister is afoot in the Mosquito
Wilderness something that inspires greed far beyond the hunter going over his limit, something that involves giants of industry and politics including the governor of the State of
Michigan something that too easily renders human life dispensable. Service must call
upon his every reserve to track, stalk, and hunt the Ice Hunter. Full of grit and wilderness
lore, Ice Hunter show off Heywood s extraordinary talents. The first in a thrilling series
that has gained him cult status for his intricate plots and outrageously unforgettable characters, Ice Hunter pulls you in and won t let you go.

Blue Wolf In Green Fire

Upper Michigan Conservation Officer Grady Service has a case on his hands that doesn’t make sense. A series of protests and bombs planted by a group of animal rights activists appears to have culminated in a double murder at a wolf lab, which releases into the wild an extraordinarily rare animal: a blue wolf. To the Ojibwa a blue wolf represents good luck, unless it is captured or killed, and then it is an omen of Armageddon. Service suspects that the murders aren’t what they seem to be when the FBI takes over the investigation and reaches far beyond its jurisdiction. Meanwhile, an elusive poaching ring that has been systematically killing trophy deer set its sights on wolves, of which there is a growing wild population in the Upper Peninsula. Once again, Service must defend his hallowed Mosquito Wilderness in a race against time when it becomes clear that the poachers’ final target is the blue wolf. The novel’s brilliant finale will cement Heywood’s reputation as one of today’s great mystery writers, and the Wood Cops series as the most exciting to come along in years. Full of outrageous, unforgettable characters and steeped in the lives of the Woods Cops, Blue Wolf In Green Fire is also a masterpiece of suspense. It’s a fully satisfying journey into the natural world and beyond, into the terrifying extremes of human nature. 6 x 9 1/4, 352 pages

Joseph Heywood is the author of The Berkut, Taxi Dancer, The Domino Conspiracy, The Snowfly, and Ice Hunter. He lives and writes in Portage, Michigan, and frequents the wilds of the Upper Peninsula.

Chasing a Blond Moon

Once again, Grady Service, the hard boiled Conservation Officer of this superb series set in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, has a weird case on his hands. Strange things are happening to the black bear population. Grady Service can’t pin this phenomenon to anyone or anything until a Korea born professor from Michigan Tech is murdered by cyanide laced figs and two freeze dried bear gall bladders are found among the figs. Service is certain that bear poachers are at work, killing U.P. bears to fuel the Asian market for traditional medicines. The animal parts market is second only to drugs in global profitability: it’s highly organized and the practitioners are ruthless and dangerous. Grady’s nemesis, Michigan’s governor, is ending his final term as governor, but has cut budgets so severely, that there are not enough conservation officers to cover the state. Service finds himself filling in for colleagues, chasing illusive poachers who leave little evidence, and wrestling with the usual cast of eccentric and entertaining characters. And in this novel, there is a new twist in Grady’s personal life: He meets a sixteen year old son he never knew he had. Sexy, suspenseful, and full of action, perfect dialog, and unforgettable characters, Chasing a Blond Moon will confirm Heywood as one of the finest of his day.

Running Dark

In the sixth title in the successful Woods Cop Mystery series, another suspenseful who done it finds Grady Service with an unexpectedly complex, truly rotten, and important case on his hands. This time tainted eggs are showing up in caviar and Service must expose a ring of corruption in state government and perhaps within his own beloved DNR, one that could lead him all the way to the top. Making enemies at every level of the state, Service rousts out the people on the take. Can he get to the source of the contaminated eggs and prove it? Pitting corporate greed against the health of the general public isn t something Service takes lightly. He doesn t rest until there has been full exposure in a case that takes him from the wilds of the Upper Peninsula to the jungles of the state capital, into the maw of the Ukrainian mafia in New York City and onto distant beaches of Central America. For more on Joseph Heywood and the Woods Cop Mysteries, visit the author’s website, www. josephheywood. com.

Strike Dog

In the seventh installment in the acclaimed Woods Cop Mystery series, another suspenseful crime noir finds DNR Detective Grady Service back in action. The discovery of skeletal remains in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula wilderness sheds troubling light on an eighty year old cold case involving racism, gold, and murder. Combine that with a present day eco terrorist whose guerrilla tactics including a gruesome trap called a wolf tree make Rambo look like a cub scout; a thriving crystal meth industry in the Upper Peninsula; and Service s particular brand of grizzled, sexually tense, and action packed police work. Crime and death lurk behind every tree, under every rock, and within every raging river in the most action packed Woods Cop Mystery yet.

Death Roe

In the sixth title in the successful Woods Cop Mystery series, another suspenseful who done it finds Grady Service with an unexpectedly complex, truly rotten, and important case on his hands. This time tainted eggs are showing up in caviar and Service must expose a ring of corruption in state government and perhaps within his own beloved DNR, one that could lead him all the way to the top. Making enemies at every level of the state, Service rousts out the people on the take. Can he get to the source of the contaminated eggs and prove it? Pitting corporate greed against the health of the general public isn t something Service takes lightly. He doesn t rest until there has been full exposure in a case that takes him from the wilds of the Upper Peninsula to the jungles of the state capital, into the maw of the Ukrainian mafia in New York City and onto distant beaches of Central America. For more on Joseph Heywood and the Woods Cop Mysteries, visit the author’s website, www. josephheywood. com.

Shadow of the Wolf Tree

Late spring, 2007. Michigan in economic freefall, state budgets being slashed, politics reduced to nastiness, state jobs being erased, and personnel furloughed without pay. Grady Service, detective for the Department of Natural Resources DNR in the Upper Peninsula, watches as his colleagues leave the department one by one, leaving him without his old support system. Upon being asked by an old friend to look into unspecified problems his son is facing on the shores of Lake Superior, Service has no idea how complicated his life is about to become. All he knows is that the situation involves something his friend calls bleeding sand and that his new partner, Conservation Officer Donna Jingo Sedge, is the oddest young officer he’s ever met, both jealous and suspicious of his role in what she views as her case on her turf. Service and Sedge become immersed in a centuries old mystery they must solve in order to deal with the current and more pressing problem: people willfully looting and tearing up a Native American archaeological site. As past and present intersect, summer lightning ignites a forest fire in northern Luce County, and the blaze quickly covers 20,000 acres. The story moves at breakneck speed as Service, nearing three decades as a Woods Cop, finds that expectations seem to be changing on all fronts, personal and professional, and he is not certain he can live up to them.

Force of Blood

Late spring, 2007. Michigan in economic freefall, state budgets being slashed, politics reduced to nastiness, state jobs being erased, and personnel furloughed without pay. Grady Service, detective for the Department of Natural Resources DNR in the Upper Peninsula, watches as his colleagues leave the department one by one, leaving him without his old support system. Upon being asked by an old friend to look into unspecified problems his son is facing on the shores of Lake Superior, Service has no idea how complicated his life is about to become. All he knows is that the situation involves something his friend calls bleeding sand and that his new partner, Conservation Officer Donna Jingo Sedge, is the oddest young officer he’s ever met, both jealous and suspicious of his role in what she views as her case on her turf. Service and Sedge become immersed in a centuries old mystery they must solve in order to deal with the current and more pressing problem: people willfully looting and tearing up a Native American archaeological site. As past and present intersect, summer lightning ignites a forest fire in northern Luce County, and the blaze quickly covers 20,000 acres. The story moves at breakneck speed as Service, nearing three decades as a Woods Cop, finds that expectations seem to be changing on all fronts, personal and professional, and he is not certain he can live up to them.

Killing a Cold One

Late spring, 2007. Michigan in economic freefall, state budgets being slashed, politics reduced to nastiness, state jobs being erased, and personnel furloughed without pay. Grady Service, detective for the Department of Natural Resources DNR in the Upper Peninsula, watches as his colleagues leave the department one by one, leaving him without his old support system. Upon being asked by an old friend to look into unspecified problems his son is facing on the shores of Lake Superior, Service has no idea how complicated his life is about to become. All he knows is that the situation involves something his friend calls bleeding sand and that his new partner, Conservation Officer Donna Jingo Sedge, is the oddest young officer he’s ever met, both jealous and suspicious of his role in what she views as her case on her turf. Service and Sedge become immersed in a centuries old mystery they must solve in order to deal with the current and more pressing problem: people willfully looting and tearing up a Native American archaeological site. As past and present intersect, summer lightning ignites a forest fire in northern Luce County, and the blaze quickly covers 20,000 acres. The story moves at breakneck speed as Service, nearing three decades as a Woods Cop, finds that expectations seem to be changing on all fronts, personal and professional, and he is not certain he can live up to them.

The Snowfly

In praise of Joseph Heywood’s previous novel ‘The Berkut’: ‘A mesmerizing thriller.’ Los Angeles Times ‘An almost perfectly executed adventure novel.’ Minneapolis Star Tribune ‘Unfailingly compelling.’ Chicago Tribune ‘A literate and compellingly readable thriller that rivals The Day of the Jackal.’ Publishers Weekly ‘He writes better than he has to.’ The New York Times Book Review The Snowfly is a spellbinding novel of suspense, international intrigue, and fly fishing. The holy grail that burns at the core of the novel is The Snowfly, a legendary insect that attracts trout of such size that they couldn’t possibly exist in the world as we know it. Bowie Rhodes is a UPI reporter and a fly fisherman of extraordinary talent. He learns of the myth of The Snowfly early in his childhood: The giant snowfly hatches every seven years, never on the same river twice. It brings to rise only trout that strain the imagination: trout so huge they would have to have lived forty years or more, so wily that they never allow themselves to be caught, or even seen, so hungry for this fly that they will risk exposure to rise for the hatch. The Snowfly is the sacred quest of only the most obsessed trout hunters, and has been seen by no living person, existing only in myth and in a lost manuscript. Rhodes’s hunt for the manuscript brings him to the extremes of humanity the jungles of Vietnam, the subterfuges of Brezhnev’s Soviet Union, a poisoned Canadian wasteland of uranium mines, and deep into his own heart of darkness. The world Heywood creates is broader, more wild, with more mystery lurking beneath the surface waters than our own. Or is it? The Snowfly makes it all seem gloriously possible. Richly imaginative and sexy, this is an irresistible novel for anyone who loves a good thriller and for fly fishermen everywhere.

Covered Waters: Tempests of a Nomadic Trouter

Joseph Heywood’s fishing novel, The Snowfly, received rave reviews, reeling in readers who love great fiction along with those who love to fish. Now we can finally understand the extent of the author’s passion for the sport, and revel in his own admission: he rarely catches any! And yet, Heywood loves to fish, almost more than anything else. In fact, he left his corporate job to retire to a lifetime of fly fishing the waters of his beloved Michigan. COVERED WATERS is a collection of his wanderings and wonderings about fishing and life, and how the two are connected. The book begins just after the author has had a stroke. As he lies in his hospital bed, he looks back on his life and reminisces about his days in the U.S. Air Force, training to drop nukes on the Soviet Union in the Cold War; his experiences in Vietnam; his temporary but intense obsession with bear hunting which ended the moment he finally killed a bear; and, of course, his international adventures in fishing, recounting such hilarious episodes as when he happened upon two women in France engaged in what appeared to be strip fishing wherein each time one caught a fish, the other had to remove an article of clothing. After fishing the world over, Heywood finds that there is no water like home water, and no fishing partners like old friends.