The Last Ranger

by Peter Heller, Mark Deakins (Narrator)

8 hours, 2 minutes

The best-selling author of The River returns with a lush and vivid mystery set in Yellowstone National Park where a skirmish between a local hunter and a wolf biologist turns violent, and a park ranger, facing his own personal demons, sets out to determine what really happened.

Ren is a park ranger, tasked with duties both mundane and thrilling: breaking up fights at campgrounds, saving tourists from moose attacks, and attempting to broker an uneasy peace between the wealthy vacationers who tromp around with cameras and the locals who want to carve out a meaningful living amid this western landscape.

When Ren discovers his friend Hilly, a biologist and wolf expert, nearly dead in the steel jaws of a wolf trap, he hopes it’s just an accident, but the small red ribbon tied to the stake makes him fairly certain that it wasn’t. What begins as an inquiry into a known poacher soon opens into the discovery of a local group of ranchers who have formed an alliance at odds with both the park and with Ren’s responsibility to protect it.

Rife with surprising humor, populated by a cast of extraordinary characters, each drawn to Yellowstone for their own reasons, Peter Heller once again mines the rich vein where our very human impulses play out against the stunning beauty of the natural world.

Genres: Fiction, Mystery, Nature, Audiobook, Thriller, Mystery Thriller, Literary Fiction

Audiobook

First published August 1, 2023

About the author

There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.


Peter Heller holds an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop in both fiction and poetry. An award-winning adventure writer and longtime contributor to NPR, Heller is a contributing editor at Outside magazine, Men’s Journal, and National Geographic Adventure, and a regular contributor to Bloomberg Businessweek. He is also the author of several nonfiction books, including Kook, The Whale Warriors, and Hell or High Water: Surviving Tibet’s Tsangpo River. He lives in Denver, Colorado.

Reviews

[Liz · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Last Ranger is a beautifully written mystery set in Yellowstone National Park. Ren is a park ranger there. He lives in a cabin within the park and his one neighbor is a wolf biologist. When things turn ugly between the biologist and a local poacher, Ren gets involved.
Peter Heller writes about nature like very few other authors.
“Far off but clear: the strain of a single wolf. Two barks testing the night. Almost like a tuning, the confirming plucks of a string. And then a rising resonant howl that froze the stars in place, and dropped and hollowed like a woodwind, and crescendoed again. The night went taut, like a drum skin, as if the solitary wolf had willed all of creation into a sounding board or bout for his song.”
This is a slow burn of a book. Heller takes his time setting up the story and giving the reader the full scenario. We see the locals who need but don’t care for the tourists, the wolf enthusiasts who enjoy observing and are smart enough to know how to do it safely, the local extremists who think there shouldn’t even be a park, the tourists with more money than brains. I love when an author can sneak in some interesting facts without disrupting the flow of a story. Heller did that multiple times as he spelled out how the animals lived.
The main characters are fully fleshed out. Ren has a definite sense of justice and mercy. Even the “bad guys” have their reasons. The ending worked perfectly.
My thanks to Netgalley and Knopf, Pantheon and Anchor for an advance copy of this book.

[Canadian Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fly fishing and nature to Heller are what yoga and meditation are to others.
“Wilderness Noir” is what Heller does best - his natural environment.

I found this to be oh so slow. Not the Heller style I was expecting. He captures the wolves, bears and even moose, as if I were there myself: hiking hills, overlooking streams; brooks; forests; the beauty. But I wanted- and hoped for -a heart thumping thrill. I didn’t get that with this.

Don’t get me wrong, some shit went down. But not until the last 50 pages and by then I was easily distracted.

I hope this is not The Last Heller, but if he doesn’t pick up the pace and deliver a solid, he will be for me only a 3 hit wonder. Which actually isn’t too shabby.
3.25⭐️as I do love nature.

[JanB · Rating 5 out of 5]

I find Peter Heller’s quiet, contemplative writing incredibly engaging. His books work particularly well on audio, with the incredibly talented and multiple award-winning narrator, Mark Deakins, narrating of all of Heller’s books.

Heller writes well-developed characters with the theme of man vs nature. Ren is a park ranger at Yellowstone who spends his days patrolling the park and often saving humans from themselves.

How many innocent lives have been lost in service to Instagram?”

And he’s not just talking about human lives.

Along with the beautiful descriptions of Yellowstone and Ren’s musings about man and nature, there’s a mystery when an investigation into local poaching begins. Both human and animal lives are at stake. As always, Heller’s characters are well-developed and nuanced, and the author is able to maintain the tension while deftly inserting his message without coming across as preachy.

Heller is one of my favorite authors. A simple but deceptively powerful novel, and highly recommended!

* I received a digital copy of the book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

[Teres · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ranger Ren Hopper has his hands full dealing with Yellowstone National Park campers high on fentanyl and vacationing parents who Instagram their kids with adorable-but-deadly baby moose, thinking they’re in a petting zoo.

Ren is an endangered species: think Henry David Thoreau meets Jack Reacher.

A young widower, he finds refuge in the nature of the park, fly fishing, and his daily visits with a handful of local friends. 

Ren goes trout fishing with such ritualistic focus and devotion, it feels like attending church. You’ll want to grab a rod, plunge into a grove of aspens and join him, fishing an isolated creek deep in the mountains of Wyoming.

Our eponymous ranger is concerned with hunting down a local trapper with a vicious streak, who’s been poaching the park’s wild wolves that were carefully reintroduced into Yellowstone in 1995.

Hilly, a famed wolf biologist and Ren’s neighbor in the park, nearly loses her life after she’s caught in a trap that appears to have been placed intentionally to ensnare her.

There’s also the possibility that a secretive militia-like group that’s hostile to restrictions against hunting on federal land may be involved.

Peter Heller was an outdoor adventure writer before he became a novelist. He writes with the precision and cadence reminiscent of Papa Hemingway’s style, and with dialog as crisp as the mountain air in his settings.

Nature and wildlife lovers, fly fishing aficionados, and anyone with an appreciation for good storytelling will relish The Last Ranger.

So grab a beverage, drop into your favorite armchair, and count yourself among Yellowstone’s annual four million visitors. Ranger Ren Hopper will be waiting to welcome, educate, and caution you as necessary.

[Diane S ☔ · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 "You know," Hilly said finally, " if the earth were a meritocracy and we were rated on how much each species contributed to the well-being of the whole, we'd be f****ed. God would blow his whistle at all the people and yell, EVERYBODY Out Of THE POOL!

"There are few places left on earth where large areas were wholly protected and mostly intact. Whenever and wherever these protections were lifted, these remnants were.always destroyed. Couldn't humans leave the few remaining tattered patches alone? Voracious. Most voracious predator on the planet."

Very much a man against nature scenario set in Yellowstone. Ren is a park ranger, Hilly a biologist who studies the patterns of wolves in the park. Both take their roles seriously. Different individuals, different groups have different reasons to endanger the wolves in the park. How to find them and stop them is the impetus and the challenge on the novel.

I enjoy Heller, enjoy his stories, his clear and concise prose, but this book didn't feel as full as his others. Maybe that's not a good description, maybe simpler than his others but the message was a excellent one.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a phenomenal story.

This book will largely be missed unless you're a fan of Peter Heller, but I hope if you stumble across this review you consider picking it up. I am so glad that I had the opportunity to read and listen to it as I've never read a book set in Yellowstone before. If you're a lover of nature, animals, being outdoors and enjoy a good literary mystery, this is absolutely a book you need to read.

The writing was out of this world, with descriptions of the habitat and animals that live in and around Yellowstone that were so fascinating. Focusing on the people in the book, this small town community of people who support the park as well as the main character, Officer Ren Hopper. He was a remarkable character with the book going back and forth in time between his life as a Park Ranger and some very important life events from his past. You learned a lot about his moral character and how that impacted him in his decisions on the job.

This would be a heck of a book to have as a book club choice - there is so much to dissect and discuss. Highly recommend for anyone who loves a good, all around story.

Thank you so much to Knopf for the gifted arc and prhAudio for the gifted audiobook.

Review Date: 07/27/2023
Publication Date: 07/25/2023

[switterbug (Betsey) · Rating 2 out of 5]

I originally wrote one glib line to express my reaction to Heller’s latest. I’m just so disappointed in the direction this author is going in. He has departed from his earlier literary novels to now write mainstream fiction. I’m not scolding him for that, and I’m grateful that he still cares about character—I mean, it is impossible not to like the protagonist Ren Hopper. And there are still lines of prose that hit the sweet spot for me. But, for the most part, this book feels uninspired, like Heller is possibly writing a Ren Hopper “book series” and this is #1. The story goes from credible to contrived. Every day, it seems, Ren Hopper, a forest ranger at Yellowstone, is saving lives, rescuing children, preventing murders, stopping an extremist group, and longing for his dead wife, in a circling order. It starts to be over the top, and I had so many eye rolls that I got a bookache headache.

This novel deserves 2.5 stars, but I couldn’t see my way to round up. Perhaps if I’d never read one of his superb novels, like THE PAINTER, I wouldn’t be so disenchanted. After all, everyone likes a sorbet book now and then. But he dumbed it down too much in-between his well-drawn characters and periodic pretty prose. Not everyone agrees with me, though. After I read Bruce Katz’s beautiful 4-star review of this book, I felt a bit guilty and thought maybe I missed out a captivating story all because I wouldn’t accept that Heller decided to write a “genre” book. Maybe I am getting too arrogant and disdainful/condescending in my old age.

If you are a Heller fan, I’d be interested in noting your comparison to this one and his past books. If you appreciate genre and aren’t as haughty as me about books sometimes, you may actually enjoy this one. I’m still stuck on the Last Ranger being his first in a series (that’s my inference and I’m sticking to it!). Also, maybe it would stream well on Netflix or Hulu. Don’t take my word/review for this novel. I’m very opinionated! Go see for yourself, and read Bruce’s review against mine. I did appreciate the setting and background of the park, the wolves, the bears, the elk. Although the book seems uninspired, it was inspiring in one way---I am eager to visit more national parks. I went to Yellowstone many years ago, I can hardly remember. But I want to go to ones that have been on my bucket list for years.

[Lorna · Rating 4 out of 5]

"It was the anger in him that scared him. The more time he spent in Yellowstone, the more he wished the people would just go away, leave the bears, the herds of elk, the foxes, the hawks alone. The wolf packs."

"The river ran through open meadows here, mostly wheatgrass and sage, and on the far side they were hedged by woods that climbed steeply. The four hunting wolves had loped in from a fresh kill down-valley, and the rest of the pack had run to meet them. Nineteen, twenty, strung out in the tall grass--the image frozen like a photograph in Ren's mind, a portrait of how the world ought to be--the wolves lean from summer, grays and blacks and buffs, one big male nearly white, sprinting flat out in what looked to be a joyous line beneath a wall of trees."

And so begins the novel The Last Ranger by Peter Heller. This is the story of Officer Ren Hopper, a ranger with the National Park Service in Yellowstone National Park where life and death in nature go hand in hand in this fast-moving adventure story associated with the beautiful and lyrical writing of Peter Heller, and his fully realized characters adding color and depth to this novel. Long one of my favorite authors, I found this book intriguing because of the sometimes contentious debate in my home state of Colorado about the reintroduction of gray wolves in the wild. I think the description on the copy of my book describes this lyrical adventure story best:

"Populated by a cast of extraordinary characters--a famous scientist, a tattooed bartender, a wildlife guide in a slick Airstream--and bursting with unexpected humor and grace, 'The Last Ranger' is a portrait of the American West where our very human impulses for greed, love, family, and community play out amid the stunning beauty of the natural world."

[☮Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a huge Peter Heller fan. I've rated three of his books 5 star wonders, and this is my third with 4 stars. I've listened to all of them on audio and Heller is who introduced me to who I like to call my boyfriend, Mark Deakins, the most alluring audio reader I've experienced. I had the ebook from NetGalley but without Mark Deakins to accompany me, I was just floating facedown in the Yellowstone River trying to stay afloat. I needed rescuing and Deakins came through on the audiobook after a very long wait.

Don't get me wrong -- Heller crafted a beautiful tale as usual, probably the first book I've read that takes place in Yellowstone National Park. Of course it has all those naive tourists you hear about on the news, trying to get themselves eaten by their choice of wolf, bison, or bear. And a sympathetic, heroic Park Ranger second guessing his choice of careers while protecting nature, protecting who and what he loves .But sometimes I'd find my mind wandering and the reading could be a slow journey, despite it's beauty. It culminates in an exciting stand off of sorts, but Heller can, and has done, better than this.

P.S. I really dislike that cover! Would much prefer seeing the real thing over a drawing!

[Rebecca Enslein · Rating 5 out of 5]

Here’s what you need to know about Peter Heller: the way he writes about nature is reverent, beautiful and borderline holy. I can’t get enough of it.

“Rich scents of wet earth, swollen creek water, rain-sweetened grass…The sky looked scrubbed. The few clouds splayed like empty linens blown off a line.”

I am an aggressively indoorsy person and I still cannot help but be enchanted by his words. I love that all of his books that I’ve read (before this, The Guide and The River) take place largely in nature with protagonists that are very comfortable and capable in the great outdoors.

The relationships he weaves between people and animals are masterpieces. This is not my favorite of his books, but that doesn’t mean that I didn’t enjoy the hell out of it. I rounded up from 4.5 stars to 5.

I felt like this one ended abruptly and I would’ve gladly read a couple hundred more pages with this group of characters.

Huge thanks to #netgalley for this ARC of #thelastranger

Getting to read this one early made me so happy!

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is a moment early in The Last Ranger when Ren, the eponymous protagonist, takes his breakfast to the front porch to watch day break over his field of operations: Yellowstone National Park

He ate. Three ravens flew over, just clearing the roof, and croaked a greeting. Below, over the broad meadow sloping to river, he could see a harrier hunting, gliding just over the browse and hovering abruptly, wings beating—flushing mice, probably, or voles. And farther out, across the stream that now ran low and clear, over stones of a hundred colors, blues and greens and burnt reds, a herd of elk grazed, heads down. He knew the wolves would be watching them from the deep shadows at the end of the woods.

It's a moment when the world is wondrously in balance, but you know—because Ren has already shared the many ways tourists and locals clash with each other and with the fierce and fragile life within the Park boundaries—it can't last: something or someone is about to knock it a-kilter.

It's also a moment that illustrates the stirring beauty of Peter Heller's prose. It's like Wallace Stegner and Ernest Hemingway met up for a drink and decided to write a book together: Stegner overriding Hemingway's machismo with vulnerable men who weep real tears; Hemingway paring away the sentimentality with the stark reality of what happens when man decides he knows best and nature suffers as a result (but not without inflicting its own serious blows).

I loved The Last Ranger despite, or perhaps because of its tropes: a noble loner with a broken heart; a scary loner with an ax to grind and a bolt-action rifle to grind with; a beautiful loner who can communicate with wolves. These souls inevitably collide, for as vast as Yellowstone may be, its human ecosystem is interdependent. The wily and resourceful locals dread and depend upon the tourists who treat Yellowstone like the backlot of Paramount Pictures—a stage set they can poke around for their own enjoyment instead of the fragile but heartless beauty it is.

As enamored of the landscape as the author is, a love he evinces through Ren, a mid-thirties park ranger, and Hilly, the wolf biologist who lives in a cabin uphill from his own, he is equally at home in the hearts and heads of his characters. Ren is as familiar as a flannel shirt you've washed a thousand times. We meet an easy dozen of the locals and even just a few words into the conversation, you feel as though you've known them for years.

Let's not forget that this is a mystery. Initially, the crimes center on poaching protected bears and wolves and threats to those who are charged with protecting them. All serious, to be sure, but when Ren comes across Hilly nearly dead from exposure, her leg caught in a bear trap, all hell breaks loose. Ren, despite his steadfast adherence to Park rules and regulations, goes vigilante in pursuit of the man or men who would see Hilly suffer and die.

The plot line that follows the Pathfinders, an anti-government group of ranchers cosplaying as a militia that meets at a local restaurant like Kiwanis but with fake names and 9 mm pistols, is a bit thin. But I also sensed Heller was setting us up for a series with Ren, and the Pathfinders could be mined for future mayhem.

The scene stealers, however, are the wild creatures. There are heartbreaking moments, like the opening scene with the intoxicated tourists, and breathstealing ones, like the parents who nearly sacrifice their toddler to a mad mother moose just for the perfect Instagram capture. But there are many scenes where the fauna are observed with respect and awe. Peter Heller portrays the natural world with grace and with tension, reminding us what we risk and what we lose when we act in our own self-interest.

Wonderfully immersive, beautifully written and hella entertaining. Highly recommended.

[CoachJim · Rating 2 out of 5]

The few clouds splayed like empty linens blown off a line. The gusting rain had torn leaves from the aspen across the creek and flecked the ground with yellow like a flight of songbirds just landed.
The Last Ranger by Peter Heller (Pages 12-13)

I first read this author in his book The River . I was captivated by his lyrical writing. The paragraph quoted above is an example from this book. I enjoyed the poetic descriptions. But he is less talented as a storyteller.

There were a few things I found lacking in the The Last Ranger . The backstory did little to enhance the character or the story. His characters I found very ill-defined. Frequently a character would appear in a scene and I would have no idea who it was. In addition, there were little excursions into other events that felt forced and did nothing to propel the story.

After reading The River I immediately purchased any new release by Heller. This book will be the last one.

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received an advance review copy of this book from Net Galley. Peter Heller is one of my favorite authors and I was excited to read this. I ended up having mixed feelings about this book. I really loved the descriptions of nature that had a strong sense of place, as well as learning a lot about wolves and how they affect the environment. I had a feeling from the storyline of the ranger that the author did not do as much research into the law enforcement piece of the book. This has been my career for over 20 years and while I tried to adapt a "suspend the disbelief" attitude and ignore the parts I felt were not realistic, ultimately I couldn't get past that, especially in two scenes towards the end of the book. In reading the acknowledgements the author writes about his research about wolves but did not list any research into the ranger career or experience. I really wish he would have. The ending felt rushed and I thought the plot was going to explore more of the organized group however it did not. I ended up giving this book 3 stars out of 5.

[♥ Sandi ❣ · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars

Nature and environment - magic prose.

A park ranger in Yellowstone National Park tries to solve a crime and tracks the man who he suspects, all the while trying to protect a biologist wolf-tracker from more harm.

This novel starts off very good and then there is a slow build towards the middle for a few chapters. There is no bombshell ending, just great descriptive prose all the way through and a satisfying ending.

Heller follows in the footsteps of few others when it comes to great prose. I believe this is the best of his books so far.

[Bam cooks the books · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have to say Peter Heller is one of my favorite writers so I was excited to get my hands on his latest novel set in the Yellowstone National Park. Ren Hopper is a park ranger who loves the park and the abundant wildlife but other humans? Not so much.

What I loved about this book were Heller's beautiful description of the park itself and Hopper's emotional reactions to it. As the story develops, we learn his backstory and how that affects his personal relationships to this day. There are many more extraordinary characterizations too--eccentric people who are drawn to the park for opposing reasons: some to protect it and some to plunder it. The reintroduction of wolves to the park several years ago and how those wolves are faring today is a big part of the plot as a female wolf biologist called Hilly goes up against a poacher to protect the creatures she loves. A very realistic novel which highlights the greed and carelessness of man's treatment of our most precious natural resources.

A good nonfiction book about the reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone is American Wolf: A True Story of Survival and Obsession in the West by Nate Blakeslee.

[Bruce Katz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve read and enjoyed other books by Heller so I was pretty confident I’d like it well enough. By the time I put "The Last Ranger” down, though, I knew that I had read something special. Somehow Heller had transformed a story that from a distance sounded awfully familiar and turned it into something new and rich and alive with moral complexity.

Here’s what you see from the distance: A young law enforcement officer with a troubled past finds himself trying to solve what appears to be an attempt on the life of a friend. His efforts at untying the mystery are complicated by a secret group who may be planning an uprising against the government, and by clueless civilians who seem to get in his way at every turn. Based on this description you can probably fill in a lot of blanks on how you think the story will play out, and maybe even indulge yourself by mentally casting the Netflix movie that will be based on “The Last Ranger.”

You wouldn’t be entirely wrong in seeing things this way. Heller is very good at creating action-filled, suspenseful plots about surviving killers in the wild or in a post-apocalyptic world (see “The River,” “The Guide,” “Dog Stars”). But Heller is after something larger in "The Last Ranger," and he hits his mark.

The protagonist of the novel, the singularly named Ren Hopper, is a National Park Service enforcement officer based at Yellowstone. The severely injured friend is a famous (and fearless) wolf biologist named Hilly. This is iconic Peter Heller territory, scene of layered contests: Man vs the Wild, man vs himself, man vs man, rich vs poor. It is a sign of Heller's mastery that we see how powerfully each contest reflects on the others.

Readers who have enjoyed other of his books know how deeply embedded his soul is in nature, and it’s no different in “Last Ranger.” The scents, the physicality of the space Heller is describing come alive in his writing. He seems alert to everything in the wild: every breeze, movement of a leaf, distant sound, shade of light:

Here in the meadow were signs of elk, too. He could smell their particular musk and see where they had tracked the thick grass in a small herd and left piles of droppings. He walked across open ground. The creek twisted through it, taking its time on this wide bench. In the afternoon, he was sure he would share it with other fishers, but now, so early, he had it to himself. He walked to the bleached carcass of a single black cottonwood that had been toppled by storm or flood. It lay parallel to the bank with one broken limb gesturing over the water.

Nature here is rich, alive, teeming. “Red in tooth and claw,” in Tennyson’s formulation, but morally uncomplicated: concepts like Good vs Evil, self-interest vs altruism, nobility, etc., have no meaning in the natural world of predator and prey, in the actions of a mama bear protecting her cubs. Human nature is another thing entirely. Complication — moral and otherwise — lies at the very heart of who we are and how we act. Heller puts the two worlds side by side before us, quietly, letting us discern them ourselves: in wolves tracking their prey so they can eat, and a human predator tracking his. Mama bear protecting her cubs on one hand, and on the other human parents encouraging their young child to get close to a moose and her calf so they can take a picture with their phones. Phrasing it this way makes the juxtapositions sound heavy-handed, I'm sure, but they are not. Not at all.

“The Last Ranger” is engaging at every level, filled with suspense, social commentary, gorgeous language, colorful characters, and depictions of animal behavior that would sit well in a PBS nature show. What most impressed me as I eagerly turned the pages of the book, however, was the manner in which Heller quietly explores how a person’s thoughts and actions are shaped by events in his past. Heller’s hero is a fully formed individual, filled with contradictions and competing urges and desires, and the book captures these complexities in compelling ways. We see what motivates Hopper, what holds him back, what drew him to the wilderness in the first place, what leads him to the decisions he is forced to make.

An example of what I mean: For a while [Hooper] was movement only, and sensation, and a circle of awareness that encompassed the ridges, the mountain, the meadow, and in which his own distinction vanished. Is that what he wished for after all? To vanish? Maybe everyone did. He would think later that the sensation was the closest thing to becoming pure spirit. Which, oddly, brought a sense of fullness and relief. Why, then, did we fight death so hard?

My thanks to Edelweiss+ and Knopf Publishers for providing a digital ARC in return for an honest review.

[Simms · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars, rounding up. This book is a bit of a mish-mash, ostensibly about a park ranger at Yellowstone trying to navigate, as the plot synopsis would put it, "a skirmish between a local hunter and a wolf biologist [that] turns violent," but often feeling like a collection of "day in the life" stories about the national park -- and a pretty misanthropic one, at that. Heller's narrative meanders away from the mystery plot (such as it is) and into episodes in three general categories:

- Nature writing (superb; Heller clearly LOVES writing about the wilderness and does it well)
- Misadventures of the park ranger, usually relating to park visitors being giant idiots (fine for what they are, I guess, but tangential to the narrative)
- Character backstory reminiscences (pointless? They virtually never have any bearing on the present-day plot and frankly I didn't care enough about the main character to be all that interested in the time he was rude to a high school date)

Your mileage may vary with those. The mystery plot, too, was unfocused, as he spends all this time investigating some right-wing-activist group that his suspect isn't even in anymore (spoiler, I guess, but it doesn't matter) and could have or should have just followed the guy around at all times - he's rarely hard to find - and done a better job. The book also has a last-minute romance subplot that features some of the worst romantic writing I can remember.

The book shines in its nature writing, so if that's your jam then check it out. It's a shame that virtually everything else falls flat, but hey - there is a LOT of nature writing in it. Enough to salvage the experience, just.

Thanks to NetGalley and Knopf for the ARC.

[Laura Rogers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Peter Heller, best-selling author of The Dog Stars, The River, and The Guide, is among the best at writing tension. It's visceral. You can feel it from the first page. There are predators and prey, both animal and human. But, there is also a pervasive sense of peacefulness in Heller's masterful descriptions of the magnificence of Yellowstone. His nuanced descriptions of nature, hiking, and fly-fishing are meditative and I loved every word of it. Wolf packs are central to the story and Heller clearly did his research, bringing to mind Barry Lopez's Of Wolves and Men. I wanted to know everything about Ren, the park ranger for whom nature is a salve, and the secondary characters, each amply eccentric and wounded in their own ways.

I loved The Park Ranger, and though I received a drc from the publisher via NetGalley, I have also purchased a personal copy and bought extras to give as gifts this Christmas. Highly recommend.

[Cathrine ☯️ · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 🏞️ 🏞️ 🏞️

[Deborah · Rating 4 out of 5]

We’re back in classic Peter Heller country here, with truly lyrical writing about nature combined with a tense and thrilling mystery. In this one, Ren is an enforcement ranger in Yellowstone National Park, and when a resident wolf biologist and a park-adjacent wolf (and other species) poacher have a violent clash, Ren is determined to get to the bottom of it. This novel deviates a bit from the usual Heller formula, though. His combatants are generally drawn in black and white—that is, the villains are always all villain—but this time, the portraits are more nuanced. The villain is still villainous (who can love a wolf poacher?) but we get some backstory that partially explains why he’s doing it. There are very high emotions on both sides in the park and surrounding communities and plenty for Ren to fear, as a target becomes increasingly clearly drawn on his back. All of this is hewing pretty closely to current reality. Wolves had been extirpated from Yellowstone until their reintroduction a few decades back, as a keystone predator necessary for reestablishing a healthy ecosystem. Feelings indeed run high as ranchers, outraged by the prospect of loss of livestock, shoot with impunity any wolf unfortunate enough to wander outside the protection of the park’s boundaries. In the novel, there’s a powerful secret lobby group driven by the local big ranchers with the goal of getting rid of protection for the wolves. In a totally irrelevant aside, I can’t help but wonder if the Duttons, of the TV series Yellowstone, would have been part of this group.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an ARC.

[Kari Ann Sweeney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to Knopf for sending me an early copy of 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐋𝐀𝐒𝐓 𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐆𝐄𝐑 (Pub 08.01)

I am a big Peter Heller fan. He has this way of using minimal text that makes each word count. I love how he can create such vivid, atmospheric scenery without it being superfluous. He placed beautifully complex characters inside an immersive story alongside a tense, thrilling mystery.

“𝘙𝘪𝘤𝘩 𝘴𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘸𝘦𝘵 𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘩, 𝘴𝘸𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘯 𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘬 𝘸𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘳, 𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘯-𝘴𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘴𝘴…𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘬𝘺 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘦𝘥 𝘴𝘤𝘳𝘶𝘣𝘣𝘦𝘥. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘦𝘸 𝘤𝘭𝘰𝘶𝘥𝘴 𝘴𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘺𝘦𝘥 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘦𝘮𝘱𝘵𝘺 𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘯𝘴 𝘣𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘰𝘧𝘧 𝘢 𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘦.”

SIDE NOTE: Heller’s style reminds me of Kent Haruf, who I also adore. Doesn’t Heller & Haruf sound like a great name for a band/wine/law firm?

[L.G. Cullens · Rating 4 out of 5]

An absorbing, well-written novella drawn out to a novel.

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

It doesn't seem like summer unless there's a new Peter Heller wilderness thriller to read!

While this wasn't my favorite of his (The river still takes first place for me), I did really enjoy that it was set in Yellowstone National Park and followed a lonely, big-hearted Ranger who gave me the best Walt Longmire vibes!

While slow moving at times, I also really enjoyed the focus on wolf packs in this story. Recommended for fans of the tv series Yellowstone and good on audio narrated by Mark Deakins.

Many thanks to @prhaudio for a complimentary ALC in exchange for my honest review!

[Charlene · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is first Peter Heller novel I've read; I will be looking for more. I really loved the very particular setting (the Lamar Valley of Yellowstone National Park) in September with descriptions of the smell of the aspens, the riffles in the river, the cold night wind, etc.

Story and characters are good. It is slower paced than many such mysteries, which was fine with me. Reminded me a bit of the Nevada Barr/Anna Pigeon mysteries; the main character, Ren, is 35 years old, a good man haunted by the loss of his wife. Fishing and hiking are his refuges; the park job and especially its housing suits him well. He is good at his job, too, dealing with tourists, trying to protect the wildlife and park, etc. His closest neighbor is a well known wolf biologist, who has an ongoing, dangerous battle with a local poacher.

Good ending to story -- I would gladly read another book with this Yellowstone ranger as the main character but seems that so far Heller has only written stand alone novels.

[Tamsen · Rating 1 out of 5]

Some spoilers below that are not hidden.

God, I am so conflicted about Peter Heller. For the record: 5 starred Dog Stars, 4 starred The River, 1.5 starred the Painter, and now here I guess another 1.5 stars. I really felt conflicted about this book the entire time, and at the end I thought, no fuck this book.

This is about Ren the Ranger at Yellowstone, who by all counts should have the dream job, but actually he hates this job and he needs to quit it. Heller (and his main character) never acknowledge he should actually quit this job, but I'm telling you all - he needs to leave it behind. National Park Service is all about the visitors and the tourists, and unfortunately you have to put up with a lot of stupid. I don't disagree with anything the main character thinks about the animals vs. humans, which is essentially that this is one of the few unswathed parts of Earth that is protected for the animals (although is it) and that animals do better for our ecosystems and the world than a human ever could, that humans are destructive, greedy predators, and that the life of a worm is worth more than a man. Here I am snapping my fingers and crying out amen.

Despite hating his dream job, Ren the Ranger is a man hero (he is saving babies and children, making arrests, admonishing bad parents and putting away the bad humans) and a sad man widow. He has not one but two sworn enemies at his low paying job, and although he only speaks occasionally and quietly to a few characters in town that he considers his friends, and this isn't the kind of place where you talk about the past, these are deep and true friendships, of people whom he apparently knows every little last item of their life histories. Except for Hilly, the hot biologist who lives next door, kind of, who don't worry will help him get over his sad, sad dead wife (she had health issues AND probably killed herself) and his mommy issues (she's an alcoholic AND a killer) past. It's all a bit eye-roll-y, frankly.

The moral of the story is that humans are shades of gray and that Ren the Ranger is a good human. That men will always find someone to help them get over their sad, sad mommy/wife issues and a strong, smart solo woman will need saving (which you will somehow know how to do just because her truck doesn't come home one night) and then suddenly will surprise you with sex and a ready-if-you're-ready relationship.

I do like Peter Heller. I DO. See other ratings. I don't understand how he can so wildly miss though, and frankly, this was so fucking stupid that I am a little burned from wanting to read another.

One nitpicky thing that drove me fucking crazy:

We would randomly meet a side character; I would basically forget their name - we'd meet them again 50 pages later. I'm sitting there thinking, Jan... Jan... Jan... oh yeah, Jan! RV/campsite owner. Then we'd be given about 30 years of backstory and career history in a paragraph or two, which is weird on the second or third meeting of a character, and then would be thrown back into present day. I found it incredibly disassociating, and I guess I wonder why we weren't given better backstories upon meeting characters. Wouldn't Jan be more memorable 50 pages later if I remember being originally introduced to her earlier in the story, with her strange Broadway singing career > club serving waitress history, and that now she's a competent campground owner with a husband who reads solely Russian authors but doesn't "love them/doesn't find them "lovable"?

Heller does this with everything. We're in the present, then we take five steps backward in Ren the Ranger's memory and then thrown into the present again. The story is often repeated multiple times later on - I don't know how many times Ren drove by the group of wolf watchers and gave us a bit of story or thought on them (always the same EVERY SINGLE TIME, and here are his thoughts on them: the older members of the group are glad to share their experiences with new watchers; the new watchers bring renewed joy to the older members of the group; the group is made up of all kinds of people - wolf watching and enthusiasm knows no age or race or type; etc., ad nauseum until the end of days). We also hear about things piecemeal - he frets about the worst thing he's ever done over and over again, when he lists the things he's ashamed of (I'm not sure if you also remember reading twelve times about that time he pushed his French teacher in high school), and spoiler alert, the worst thing he's ever done is taken a fellow high schooler (who likes weaving as her hobby; this allows Heller to use every weaving metaphor he's ever thought of in this random one paragraph backstory!) out to the dance and then acted distant because his alcoholic mom was rude to him on the phone. Even the worst thing Ren the Ranger has ever done (to a woman, because of a woman) is painted in such a way that he is a Good Man. Vom.

One other nitpicky thing, because apparently I am on a rant here, LOL to the conversations being double lined - I'm pretty sure this book would be 50 pages shorter if all of the double enters had not been entered between people talking.

I will just briefly say that I was concerned about my ability to read this book (I am not good on animal violence), and I did find portions of this difficult and (frankly, almost purposely) manipulative to my emotions. I like wolves and I am interested in the Yellowstone reintegration program, and I hate that their lives are short and sad often. They are also moving and beautiful, and I found the "old wolf effect" that Heller mentions through the biologist as particularly interesting. [The old wolf effect is a phrase apparently used in a research paper - I googled this term and cannot find this "paper" or phrase being used, although I did find other people spouting this theory and I assume it is a real one.]. Basically, the odds of a wolf pack being successful in a hunt or fight are increased 2.5x if an older wolf (6 yo +) is present, theoretically bringing necessary wisdom.

And ending on this weird note - overall rankings 5/5 stars wolves, 4/5 stars for death to all humans sentiment, 1/5 stars for portrayals of women, -12/5 stars for Ren the Good White Man Ranger.

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this like a 5-star, his writing might be my favorite on the planet. In fairness to my other 5-stars, the handling of some plot points veered a little preposterous -- but that didn't stop me from loving it! It's my kind of end-of-summer/start-of-fall read.

[Melodi | booksandchicks · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5
I was super excited to see Heller's new book THE LAST RANGER that takes place in Yellowstone National Park (which is a fantastic park that I've frequented) and to know THE wolves were involved. Those famous wolves that were reintroduced to Yellowstone in 1995 and have since helped the land, animals, animals and fauna in many beneficial ways.

Know this about the book. It is more of a character study and a following of Ren, a park ranger, and the details of his life and the things he encounters as a park ranger. The basics of the stupid people who get too close to wildlife for a photo (people die every year doing this in real life), attending accidents, getting cars to move along when bison are blocking the roadway (not a fun thing when you're way in the back-speaking from experience).

There are a couple storylines that pop in and out of the book that the reader is looking for resolution. The anticipation rises as encounters happen but then dissipate as normal life resumes. I guess I was expecting this to be more of a thriller...but it's not. Once I just embraced following Ren's life, I settled into the book better and appreciated the lucky life he had to work in one of the most famous and beautiful national parks out there! Now I'm considering running up there for a couple nights with the kids just because...summer!

P.S. I could've used more wolf stories :)

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf for the advance e-copy of this book.

[Jessica Woodbury · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have complicated feelings about crime novels with cop protagonists. Heller takes us in a different direction here that I found pretty interesting. Ren is a park ranger, technically in law enforcement, but spends more time on crowd control than anything else. And the longer he does the work, the more he sees careless tourists destroy with little regard for anything, the more he prioritizes the animals above the people. After all, that is sort of his job. It's an interesting point of view and even though Ren has a very cliche tragic backstory, there is a lot to like here. And Heller has a lot to say not only about frivolous vacationers but about fringe far right movements attacking federal land protections.

I enjoyed this a lot, I thought it had a unique and interesting point of view, location, and more for a crime novel. And yet, I couldn't ever quite get 100% on board because I just have trouble accepting that Ren could be a real person, that someone could be as mild and thoughtful and that he never even thinks about looking at the hot lady scientist in the next cabin. (From the way he sees her for much of the book I assumed she was like 60.)

[AndiReads · Rating 5 out of 5]

Peter Heller is the best writer for thrillers in the great outdoors! In the Last Ranger, Officer Ren Hopper works for the National Park Service. His job is normally keeping the peace and overseeing the safety of camp sites, but when his friend Hilly, a infamous Wolf Scientist seems to be prayed upon by a local poacher, he takes his job to the next level. Before he knows it, he is in deep, spying some of the worst secrets in Midwest America. If you like a taut thriller, love the great outdoors or just want to imagine yourself protecting our own national parks, The Last Ranger is for you!
#Knopf #Pantheon #TheLastRanger #PeterHeller

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 Stars!

Another great Peter Heller! I gave it 4.5 Stars rounded up to 5 for GR purposes.

Summary
Ren is a forest enforcement ranger in Yellowstone Park. His days are spent in one of the most beautiful places in the world managing people, keeping them, the park and the wildlife safe.

Occasionally people trap or hunt in the park, which is illegal. There has been one man in particular who has been pretty relentless about it and also a militant group of men who openly oppose the restrictions the park has set in place on hunting, grazing etc. Ren’s close friend, a scientist who studies and tracks the parks wolf population, has a run in with this man and days later has a life threatening accident, which was at the very least caused by illegal trapping and at worst was a murder attempt. Ren immediately begins to investigate how and why this accident occurred.

What I loved
I absolutely adore Peter Heller! His books are a rare mix of a plot with suspense and remarkably beautiful prose. Being set in Yellowstone gave Heller plenty of chance to describe all kinds of beauty. I loved Ren as a character, he is kind of the perfect man; he loves art and reading, yet is a tough outdoorsman. All that plus a very strong moral compass. What’s not to love? I loved all the underlying themes; man vs nature, man vs man, man vs self. So much going on beneath the surface.

What I didn’t love
Really nothing. I very much loved every beautifully written sentence of this book and will impatiently wait for Hellers next book.

Overall
I highly recommend this book to anyone. I loved it and might read it again to see if I missed any details.