fuonlyknew

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of A Daily Rhythm.

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My Tease for this week is from

Grizzly Trade

by Dale Brandenburger

My Teaser from page 65  and page 117  in the Paperback.

From Page 65

“You don’t have to yell. People are starting to think my name is Goddammit Ronnie. ”

From Page 117

“You know what they say about getting an Alaska man!”

“The odds are good, but the goods are odd,” both women said simultaneously, and raised their cups in a toast.

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My Review

Drawing on his experience as a fisheries biologist for the Department of Fish and Game in Alaska, the author has concocted a mixed cocktail of hilariousness.

Grizzly Trade is about the fictional town, Alkoot, Alaska, and the eclectic cast of characters that reside in the tiny town.

If you’ve watched documentaries about Alaska and towns like this, you’ll be able to grasp how isolated it is, how tough and eccentric the people are that choose to live there.

You’ll be following Tim Branson, a reporter looking for the big scoop, rubbing elbows with poachers, meth heads, a horny state trooper, a money hungry cruise ship captain, and many others,  as he digs into the bear poaching and the toxic contamination of the salmon fishing grounds.

You’d never meet a less likely duo than Tim and Red, a Viet Nam vet, as they team up. They are truly the odd couple. I thought they were more alike than they realized and was hoping they’d become true friends.

Tim daydreams of conversations with a big time reporter, Jimmy Breslin. In them, he finds that big scoop, the one that transports him to the top and out of Alkoot.

Red, a Viet Nam vet and loner, just wants to be left alone. He’s not good at socializing and often ends up in trouble when he does, winding up in jail and paying more visits to his parole officer. But he can’t ignore the mutilated bear carcasses. Someone has to pay.

It seemed like every chapter had me bumping into more colorful characters. I even ran into some llamas!

As the deadly duo investigate the poachings and find a connection to the toxic contamination, the whole town becomes involved. Neighbor against neighbor. Ugly secrets get revealed, tempers get hot, and Alkoot could be headed for a melt down.

I applaud the hardy souls who reside in towns like Alkoot, struggling to carve out their place in such a rugged wilderness. The author’s descriptions of the town and surroundings are vivid, sprinkled with his own knowledge and his characters are brought to life. They are real, genuine, in every little facet.

While tough issues are the focus of this story, I can tell the author doesn’t take himself too seriously, as I laughed out loud frequently.  I even snickered while reading this at the doctor’s office, getting some raised eyebrows from other patients.

It’s a rip tear, rib tickler ride from beginning to end and, if you like to laugh and love the great outdoors, you won’t want to miss reading Grizzly Trade.

5 Stars

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Synopsis

Escape to the last frontier and find out what life on the edge is really like. Sliding seamlessly between poignancy and laugh-out-loud fun, GRIZZLY TRADE is a raucous romp through the Alaskan wilderness. Red just wants to be left alone in his Alaskan retreat, but when the taciturn Viet Nam vet starts to find dead bears in the forest with their paws hacked off, he is forced wage war once more, and this time he intends to win. Tim Branson is a gregarious small-town reporter, looking for a news story that sizzles. Despite their differences, they are forced to become allies when a methamphetamine addict and an unemployed lumberjack start selling bear gallbladders and paws on the Asian aphrodisiac market. While trying to track down the poachers, Red and Branson discover toxic chemicals dumped on the pristine salmon fishing grounds. Accusations fly and the entire town takes sides. Tim’s job and Red’s sanity are at stake as they try to find the connection between the bear killings and the environmental disaster. As they follow the money trail, the unlikely duo must deal with an array of eccentric characters, including a lethal ornithologist who enjoys arson as much as he enjoys bird watching, an aphrodisiac-gobbling cruise ship captain with a woman in every port, and an egotistic state trooper who couldn’t pour warm piss out of a boot if the directions were written on the heel.

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