Red Jacket

Lute Bapcat #1

by Joseph Heywood

Woods Cop mystery author Joseph Heywood takes readers to an era when people had to be as hard as the lives they lived. Meet Lute Bapcat, orphan, loner, former cowboy, Rough Rider, beaver trapper, a man who in 1913, with the enthusiastic recommendation by Theodore Roosevelt, himself, becomes one of the Michigan’s first civil service game wardens. His territory: The Keweenaw Peninsula, the state’s industrial center. Featuring a stunning array of characters, fascinating historical detail, and Heywood’s trademark writing about life and work in Michigan’s wild, Red Jacket asks Lute to confront an explosive, bloody labor strike; a siege-like sabotage, including a sudden rash of decapitated, spoiled deer; poisoned trout streams and well water; and unusual deforestation—all apparently designed by mine owners to deny nature’s bounty to the strikers, and thereby to break the union. The strike’s violence culminates in the Italian Hall disaster, during which a man allegedly yells fire in a small building with several hundred people inside. In the panic, 73 people are crushed or die of suffocation, the majority of them the children and wives of striking miners at the hall for a Christmas party.

 

Even with good people dying, the Michigan governor refuses to take sides. Should Lute Bapcat?

Genres: Mystery, Historical Fiction, Fiction, Historical, Crime

432 pages, Hardcover

First published September 6, 2012

About the author

See also Joe T. Heywood

Joseph Heywood is the son of a career USAF officer. His dad was from Rhinecliff, New York on the Hudson River in Dutchess County, and his mother is from Mize, Mississippi in Sullivan County. His mother’s maiden name was Hegwood and she had only to change one letter to convert to her married name.

He is a 1961 graduate of Rudyard High School in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula (Chippewa County). Played football, basketball, baseball, and ran track.

1965 graduate of Michigan State University (BA-Journalism). Joseph played on the Michigan State Lacrosse Club for three years, crease attack, tri-captain in 1965. He was in the last class of mandatory ROTC for land grant universities and predictably chose the Air Force.

In 1965, he married Sandra V. Heywood (1943-2002) of East Lansing. Five children, one dog. Widower.

1965-1970, USAF Instructor Navigator, KC-135 tanker, honorably discharged as captain. Vietnam veteran. Air Medal with 6 Oak Leaf Clusters.

Graduate studies, Western Michigan University, 1974-75, completed course work for MA in English Literature; no degree.

Joseph worked for The Upjohn Company [now Pfizer], 1970-2000, retiring as vice president for worldwide public relations.

He walks every day in all weather conditions, and have hunted and fished Michigan since 1958, mostly alone.

Joseph Heywood's Woods Cop mysteries are based on the lives of Upper Peninsula conservation officers, and for going on seven years has spent about one month a year on patrol with officers, in all kinds of weather, all times of day and under sundry conditions. He worked in all 15 Upper Peninsula Counties as well as in another 15-16 counties BTB (Below the Bridge).

In preparation for work with COs, he often hikes alone at night (flashlight for emergencies) using only ambient light. He has spent nights alone in jungles and on mountains. Has canoe-camped in Michigan, Missouri and Arkansas, over the years he has had one close encounter with a wolf (six feet away in tag alders on the Iron River), and with a cow elk and her calf (in Idaho). Too many close meetings with black bears to count, no injuries.

He loves to take photographs while walking, hiking and fishing, and use some of the pix for his paintings.

Joseph always carry a ruck with emergency equipment, compass, etc. even for short sorties on foot in the U.P. It’s too easy to get under cedars and old growth in an overcast and get hopelessly turned around. He does not use a GPS. "When it comes to lost in the woods there seem to be two categories of people: Them that have been and them that will be. Iron ore deposits can make compass navigation interesting…."

The Upper Peninsula is not just a setting and base for Joseph Heywood but serves as a character in many of his novels. "When I write, I try to take readers to places and events in the U.P. they might not have occasion to visit or experience on their own. For me, the U.P. is a natural jewel and I am always surprised by how little people from BTB know about it."

"The day we arrived in the U.P. to report to Kinross Air Force Base (later renamed Kincheloe, and since decommissioned) my mother cried as we drove up the several-mile two-lane to the front gate; looking at all the woods passing by, I had a feeling I was coming home."

Reviews

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Michigan author Joe Heywood, the author of the "Woods Cop Mysteries" took a new direction, although still involving a Michigan Game Warden, this one is set in Michigan's Keweenaw Peninsula (known as the Copper Country). Lute Bapcat was a "Rough Rider" under Theodore Roosevelt. He returned to the U.P. after the war where, then President, Theodore Roosevelt made him a game warden in the Copper Country. The historical, bitter miners' strike in the Copper Country began soon after. The strike became violent with deadly sabotage, slaughtered deer, deforestation, flooded animal dens, and poisoned trout streams and wells. The characters are well-developed and full. Some famous figures (besides the president) such as George Gipp before he went to Notre Dame and union organizer Mother Jones are part of the story. The short chapters, most representing one day in the story make the book move very quickly. I am a Joe Heywood fan (he signed my copy) and I was a little unsure at the start of the book about being able to get into the story, but those fears were put to rest quickly. By the way, the protagonist's unusual surname is the result of being an orphan, and they name the orphans according to their former family's religion. Bapcat = Baptist-Catholic. The orphans are allowed to choose a suitable surname before they leave, but Lute had run away when he was only twelve and just assumed it was his proper last name.

[Steve Payne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've read several of the Woods Cop series but this was totally different. Very short chapters, numerous characters introduced for seemingly no reason and a very unsatisfying ending. Lute is tenacious and smart but uneducated. He is continually frustrated by both his lack of education and slow progress on their cases. Zakov is very educated and intelligent. He's really more interesting than Lute. Widow Frei is an enigma, both cold and calculating and then hot blooded and caring. The history of copper country is really the star here though. I learned about the Italian Hall disaster and Copper County strike of 1913. The rich want to be richer and don't want the poor to have anything. And people look down upon others that don't talk, think and look like themselves. Some things never change.

[Shawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this very much, but I suspect that if it weren't for my great interest in the Keweenaw area and its history, my interest and enjoyment would have been considerably less. Given the place and the date, I knew what the main event would be and pretty much how things would turn out if the story stuck at all closely to the history. Still, I would certainly recommend to anyone with an interest in the place and time.

[Robert Delanoy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing history and fiction intertwined . Great dialogue and background about the Kewanaw peninsular of Michigan. I found no other provides the color of the UP in this period

This book had great dialogue and described life in Michigan upper peninsula during the copper mining boom as well as the miners strike. Well worth the read. If you’ve been to Houghton you’ll hear the voices.

[Margo Zieske · Rating 3 out of 5]

Slow reading in parts. Many accurate historical facts. Liked Zakov. Takes place in Keweenaw Pennsulia during the Copper Mining Days. Main Character Lute Bapcat becomes a Game Warden in a new territory not used to the rules of hunting. Takes place about 1913.

[Lois · Rating 3 out of 5]

What a mishmash of nationalities in the U.P. during 1913! Hope Lute pursues an education so he can get the references that his Russian friend spouts.

[Mark · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not worth reading. Why? A longer review appears at www.cloquetriverpress.com. Peace.
Mark

[Darel Krieger · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very enjoyable book. Story was good and the characters were interesting. Really like stories that deal with the early 20th century time period. Recommend!

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great narrative but confusing ending with many incomplete inner stories

[Zinta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sure, I’ll admit it. I’m a Woods Cop groupie. You know, that gritty mystery series by Joseph Heywood about Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, Grady Service and his sharp wit and expert moves through the woods, catching up with the eccentric bad guy(s). So now there’s Lute Bapcat—and author Joe Heywood is still in good form picking odd names. There’s a story to this one, this odd name, but that’s in the book pages for your own reading.

Is Lute Bapcat a predecessor of Grady Service? Who knows where this new series will go, or if it might connect to the woods cops of today, but I rather hope so. Bapcat has his beginnings as one of Michigan’s first civil service game wardens. The story opens fast in 1898 with Colonel Theodore Roosevelt shouting for his sharpshooter. That would be President Teddy, and the man with the sharp eye and precise trigger finger—Lute Bapcat, Rough Rider, beaver trapper in the Keweenaw (the peninsula off the Upper Peninsula, stretching its crooked finger into Lake Superior) and cowboy.

In the early 1900s, the Keweenaw was a bustling industrial center with its fortune-making copper mines. Today, the area is quiet, drawing mostly only tourists and history buffs, and some of the mines are now open for tours. Having lived in the Keweenaw myself for a while, I have long been fascinated with the history, imagining the lives that were lived out in those old mining towns, and the lives that were lived out in the dark, far below the ground, in those mile-deep mines. Bapcat gives us a window to see into that time and brings Michigan U.P. history to vivid life.

Heywood’s trademark is always to bring a colorful cast of characters to the pages of his novels, and he does so again in Red Jacket. Along with Bapcat himself, a loner from Copper Harbor, now pushed back into a messy civilization of corrupt village leaders and mine owners, there is his love interest, Widow Frei, suspiciously something like a Madam in town and who requests regular payment on Bapcat’s “debt” by visits to her bedroom; the hilarious Pinkhus Sergeyevich Zakov, who becomes Bapcat’s sidekick and “wife”; George Gipp, the ballplayer from Laurium (you’ll recognize him from “one for the Gipper” fame); and Big Annie, a character based on history who played an important part in the bloody miner strikes, and many, many others.

The characters are placed within well researched historical events: labor strikes that escalate into horrific violence that finally conclude with the Italian Hall disaster in Calumet, where 73 lives, mostly women and children, family members of striking miners, were lost. An arc and monument from the Italian Hall can still be found in Calumet (once called Red Jacket) today. And part of the mystery trail is traversed by one of the newest contraptions of the time—a Model T from a man named Henry Ford in Detroit.

Bapcat and his sidekick Zakov try to bring some order to the Keweenaw as countless deer are found decapitated and rotting in the woods, and water streams are poisoned, killing fish and making well water undrinkable. All of this is meant to force the miners to return to the mines or die of starvation, but survival in the mines means coping with inhumane conditions. The Michigan governor seems to be turning a blind eye, while the local law enforcement is riddled with corruption.

Heywood is as sharp as ever in his storytelling skills. His sense of humor is ever present, and his characters come alive in Technicolor, a movie playing out before the reader’s mind’s eye. The dialogue is always realistic and spare and often laugh-out-loud funny. Although there was a midpoint in the story where I thought it might be edited back a bit with a bog of historical detail, it didn’t take long before I realized I would be making the switch easily enough from a Grady Service groupie to Lute Bapcat fan. Heywood remains my favorite author when I crave a good mystery, set in northern wilderness. Just enough hints were laid out for future stories in this new series, and I am eager to follow the trail.

Joseph Heywood is the author of The Snowfly, Covered Waters, The Berkut, Taxi Dancer, The Domino Conspiracy—and the eight novels comprising the Woods Cop Mystery Series. Featuring Grady Service, a detective in the Upper Peninsula for Michigan’s Department of Natural Resources, this series has earned its author cult status among lovers of the outdoors, law enforcement officials, and mystery devotees. Heywood lives in Portage, Michigan, but spends much of his time riding with the real woods cops in the Upper Peninsula. For more on Joseph Heywood and the Woods Cop Mysteries, visit the author's web site at www.josephheywood.com.

[Drew Eaton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lute Bapcat has some weird, negative self talk at times about how he wished he was more learned/schooled and at times admits that he doesn’t know a lot of words or stories in conversation. I think it’s relatable at times honestly, but more than anything it’s just weird nuggets of thought scattered through what I thought was a super interesting, action-packed story!! It makes it a lot better if you know the area.

[Ed · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Lute Bapcat mystery by the author of the Woods Cop series. The Woods Cop is Grady Service a game warden in contemporary U.P., Michigan. Lute Bapcat is one of Michigan's first game wardens and the book takes place during his initial year, 1913. The novel has introduced some interesting characters and I'll be surprised if it isn't expanded into a series (the inconclusive, hanging finish begs for a sequel). My rating reflects two drawbacks to this book: it takes place in 1913 which is somewhat earlier than I prefer reading about - if you like historical mysteries, add 1/2 star; and, Lute, now 35, achieved 7th grade in school and frequently expresses puzzlement at his Russian friend's vocabulary and/or comments about history or geography - OK, I get it but stop after 4 or 5 iterations.

Lute Bapcat mystery - In 1913, Theodore Roosevelt recruits former Rough Rider Lute Bapcat to become a game warden on Michigan's Upper Peninsula in Heywood's absorbing first in a new series. Outsized characters, both real (athlete George Gipp before his Notre Dame fame, union organizer Mother Jones) and fictional (randy businesswoman Jaquelle Frei; Lute's Russian companion, Pinkhus Sergeyevich Zakov), pepper the narrative. Lute's extensive duties inevitably bring him into the conflict between powerful copper mining companies and their immigrant work force in Houghton and Keweenaw counties. As a strike looms, someone is orchestrating a campaign to slaughter deer, poison streams, flood animal dens, and cut fruit trees-to deprive strikers of food sources. Violence is inevitable, and Lute and Pinkhus watch as tragedy unfolds despite their valiant efforts to prove who's behind the vicious destruction.

[BRT · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was an odd glimpse into the history of a place I've made my home for almost 20 years. The Copper Country is no longer in it's heyday, but now I realize that many parts of it are frozen in time. About halfway through the novel, I began to experience a slight disorientation driving around, where I would feel a sudden shift and could see what things were like back then. I was also a little nervous going in because he would be mentioning the Italian Hall disaster. The opinion of the day seems to be to blame the "greedy corporations", perhaps fueled by the resurging popularity of the Woody Guthrie song and the current political climate. There never was and has never been any definitive evidence of the cause of the disaster and countless books, documentaries, and histories have been written about it. People do love to form their opinions though, along the lines of their personal beliefs. I think I agree with many locals who just want to leave it as a tragedy that should be mourned for the grievous losses rather than speculation on who, what, where. The author provided a possible alternate theory for the cause, but left it open. My only criticisms of the book is that the protagonists seemed to move around, A LOT, and the relationship of the main character kind of petered out at the end. Perhaps a sequel is in the offing?

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

Joseph Heywood takes a step back in time, but applies the same formula to this book that he does to his woods cop series. Lute Bapcat (a truly silly sounding name, but it's explained in the story) becomes the first "woods cop" for the Keweenaw Peninsula in 1913. (Well, second, technically, but the first disappeared after one month.) Unfortunately for Lute, he comes in right at the height of a copper mining boom when the miners are about to launch an extended and violent strike. Naturally, everything he gets into is complicated and directly tied to this struggle between the miners and the mine operators. The story is convoluted and hard to follow at times, but I enjoyed it mostly because I consider the Keweenaw my "home away from home". I could always picture his location, even though it was taking place in a different time when things likely looked very different up there. The story uses a number of real characters and events from the period, some of which I recognized, others I was not so sure about. It's an interesting historical piece which I would recommend to anyone who has an interest in that area or the copper mining boom.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lute Bapcat is a former miner, cowboy, Rough Rider and trapper. At the request of his hero, Col. (ex-president) Roosevelt, Bapcat becomes a game warden for the northern counties on the Keweenau Peninsula in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Bapcat immediately gets involved with perhaps too many underdeveloped characters, each of whom speaks in a way no one could have back in 1913 or maybe any other time. The story climaxes in what was the Italian Hall Disaster, a tragic affair that Heywood dispatches with in two pages. The book ends with Heywood clearly setting up another in what could be a series of books featuring Bapcat. More than one may be Heywood's intention; one is enough for me. Two stars, rather than one, because I like Teddy Roosevelt and I never knew about the Italian Hall Disaster.

[Sherrie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm giving this book a 3, because I feel like I should give it two ratings. I am a fan of Heywood's Woods Cop series, but this one just didn't do it for me; I struggled to finish it. I didn't care for the plot, and found it hard to get involved with the characters. It also suffers from Stephen King Ending Syndrome--that is, it reads like the author got tired of writing, and said "This is the end". From a personal perspective, that earns a 2.

However, From a reviewer's detached POV, I felt this book was well written. It is set in the Upper Peninsula in the very early 1900s, and while the story is fiction, many of the events in it are not. I am not a big fan of historical fiction, and that probably colored my personal opinion. But I think for people that are fans of offbeat mysteries that also like historical fiction, this book could be a winner. That's a 4.

Hence, the 3 rating!!

[Katherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Joe Heywood introduces a new character - Luc Bapcat - who is recruited to be one of the first forest rangers in Michigan. He takes up this post in the Kewenaw Peninsula of Michigan, in the copper mining area about the time of the first strike against the copper mine owners, 1913. Babcat, charged with protecting the wildlife, is after the people who are killing deer and leaving them to rot and other destruction of habitat. Luc's challenges include the problem of a large, remote area to cover.

This is an interesting time in Michigan's history - the mine labor movement came late to the upper peninsula. The new book was recently released.

[Jim Fromm · Rating 5 out of 5]

I didn't see this coming.

This is a darn good read. I started reading because I was born in the Upper Peninsula. I stopped twice because my eyes got tired. That went on for an entire day until I finished the book. What a cast of colorful characters! Many of their great grandchildren still reside in this troubled pristine wilderness. That Mr. Heywood could bring them to life is nothing short of magical. This is a good fast moving plot and an semiaccurate historical description of mining life in the U.P. at the turn of the last century. The rugged west pales when compared to the realities of the mining and lumber camps of Michigan, Wisconsin,and Minnesota. Loved it. Ill be reading more of Mr. Heywood.

[Linda Barger · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have enjoyed all of the Woods Cop books that I have read, but it was a pleasure to read the start of this new series. I love the UP and enjoy reading about the places that I am familiar with, combine that with the fact that I love history and this book was a winning combination for me. To those of you that are sticklers though, be forewarned that Heywood plays fast and loose with historical facts to make the story more interesting.

I would really give this book 3 1/2 stars and would have liked to see history a bit more strictly adhered to. I will be checking the facts on some events of UP history myself, mostly because this book has piqued my interest in them again.

[Dee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Being a big fan of Joe Heywood's Woods Cop stories, I had to read this first of his new series. It takes place in the early 20th century, in the upper peninsula of Michigan during the copper mine strikes. The story tells the beginning of the Conservation Officers. Because of the great historical detail and the finesse of the mystery writer as in his other CO stories, I think this is his best book. Lute Bapcat himself,though fictional, is historical as you learn of his young life and how he becomes a CO.

[John Donovan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A couple of weeks ago I picked up an autographed copy of Red Jacket at Grandpa's Book Barn in Copper Harbor--and devoured it, just the way I've done with every book in the Grady Service series. Heywood has done it again: vivid characters and a complex plot, a deep sense of social justice, and natural dialogue that keeps the book speeding along. The relationship between Bapcat and Zakov is going to be fun to watch through subsequent books in the series. Red Jacket is a great read, doubly so for those of us with a fondness for the Keweenaw.

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice start to what promises to be another fine series of mysteries based around the life of a game warden from Heywood. The dialog and action itself is well done, but there is a whole lot of background on each character and locale which dominates the story and makes it drag (or tempts one to skim . . .). I'm sure it will be time well spent for future installments, but it made this a bit of a tiresome read.

[Neesha · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did enjoy this book, although not as much as Heywood's Woodscop series. The characters are beautifully developed as usual. Heywood sure doesn't like tying things up in a neat bow at the end of his books, and this bugs me a little--more prominent in this book that the Woodscop books. I really enjoyed the character of Zakov, he adds a lot of wit to everything.

[Steve Voiles · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this to be a slow read. I kept at it because of the great information about unions and copper mining in the early 1900 and the origins of conservation officers when there were essentially no rules for exploitation of the natural world. Glad I read it, but not as gripping as his other books I have read.

[Bruce · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book. It had so much potential but never went anywhere. Just a series of scenes - something happens, (disaster, crime, discovery) meet a quirky character, (who usually then just disappears from the story) then go home and do it again the next day. The characters never develop and the book basically just ends with no real resolution of anything.

[Judy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lute Bapcat is a former Rough Rider who becomes a game warden in 1913, just in time to become involved in the conflict between striking miners and the mine owners. Not only is this a good suspense novel but one can learn some history while reading it also.

[Charlie · Rating 3 out of 5]

The writing was worth your time, but please do yourself a favor and set it aside before you reach the Italian Hall disaster (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_...)! No, not for how devastating it is, but you deserve better endings than this one.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Historical fiction of some of the first game wardens in the UP. Heywood creates interesting characters and writes very well about the UP Wilderness. It's denser and not quite as thrilling as his Woods Cop series, but well worth it for the history you pick up.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good book with great historical details. The ending disappoints, it ends with a whimper not with a bang!

[Dennis]

Met Mr. Heywood at a book signing in Gaylord. Interesting conversation with him. And again could not put his book down. Look forward to his next book.