Buckular Dystrophy

Woods Cop #10

by Joseph Heywood

The 10th installment of the beloved Woods Cop Mystery series! The traditional firearm deer season in Michigan lasts two weeks, a time in which the most hunters are afield during the year and the time when most things happen. Game wardens cannot count on having any life but work during this period, and in this case Grady Service, who takes longtime violator and archrival Limpy Allerdyce on as his partner for deer season runs into the most bizarre string of big cases involving deer that he has ever encountered. Buckular Dystrophy is the term coined by Conservation Officers to describe the condition whereby people cannot help killing deer, not for sport or food, but for other reasons – an addiction of sorts, and unlike other addictions, one not medically organized, but just as real.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Mystery Thriller, Adventure

352 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 2016

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

[Dee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well we've been waiting a while for this book to come out. Joe Heywood who has spent many a deer season with the Dept. of Natural Resources officers in Michigan certainly illustrates the degree to which poaching can take place. For all sorts of self-centered reasons, people can justify that it is OK to kill deer out of season, more than allowed, and for hides or racks, but not meat! The woods cop, game warden or whatever title you give him is out there making sure people are not breaking laws and doing things safely, so they don't shoot each other. However, the people in this country as authoritarian as they can try to make their politics, really have very little respect for authority. Each man/woman seems to think they personally are the best authority! Grady Service in this novel has to deal with several of these types when truly in most of the situations, he is the authority. Couple of fellow readers, don't like the role of Limpy Allerdyce in this book. Some of the characters in the book are on that same page. However, Grady feels there is a good chance Limpy is reformed from his previous law-breaking years and that it is only smart to make use of his skills. Seems to work in this story. In real life.....? maybe, maybe not.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it as usual. Having been in the UP I know the locals HATE wolves with an unreasoned intensity. It was nice to see a somewhat balanced look at the issue as part of a sub plot.
I bought the book mentioned in the bookstore in Marquette on a recent roadtrip!
Love the UP, not sure I have the guts to retire there. Mosquitos in some areas were intense. Thankfully black flies had passed.

Anyway love this whole series! Good balance of facts you learn from and storyline.

[Chris Conley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another exciting, intelligent romp with Grady Service and, now, his new partner, Lumpy Allerdyce. These stories of a conservation officer in the upper peninsula are always action packed, full of fascinating facts about wildlife and brimful with intersecting lives and crimes. Joseph Heywood really knows his way around a good story.

[wally · Rating 3 out of 5]

finished this one yesterday the 14th of september 2019 good read three stars i liked it kindle library loaner have read at least one other possibly more from heywood. the dialect of some of the characters is difficult to decipher. the kindle could not translate some...croatian...i believe...and have not tried otherwise online to do so. the old buck violator assisting the lead character has a dialect all his own and some of that was fun to read, twisted words and multiple meanings. apparently much of the action is based on the fabled "real" events although i doubt one game warden was involved with all of them. the fashionable ideology is that we're to love the wolves, accept their presence in the wild, and sit around the campfire in comfortable sweaters as we get in touch with our inner infant. i have a problem with "scientists" killing moose, multiple moose, on isle royale...this...after the island's wolf numbers drop to two due to inbreeding, unexplained deaths at the bottom of a mine shaft, migration over frozen water of the big lake during winter, and a number of other factors...so they trap wolves in other places, bring them to the island, and watch. all in the name of science. wonderful. and then they kill moose, many of them, "scientists"...so the wolf won't starve. there's not an individual alive who could do that without having the full force and weight of the federal and state government coming down on him. no misogyny there. took me twenty plus years before i looked up the word for "hatred of men" having been inundated with the word for hatred of women during my golden years at university twenty years before. seems like a golden opportunity to "study" the wolf, how the wolf learns to hunt the moose...they follow them until the moose tires, one grabs it by the nose and hangs on...until the moose tires and drops and then all pile on. or they get kicked in the teeth. say if the moose has some energy. but "scientists" can kill moose on a island national park because the government can and will do whatever the hell it pleases and no one will accept a separation of science and government. though we know it can be a marriage made in hell. sieg heil!

in the end, this story is more fashionable ideology, as i doubt one "violator" could have as much impact on an area as alleged in the story.

[Steve Payne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Service spends most of this book just being a cranky, narrow-minded, self-righteous ass. In walks Limpy to save the day. I don't doubt that many of these major case (and minor case) scenerios haven't actually existed. I don't really understand Service's relationship with Friday.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is presented as a novel but is really more like a series of short stories about people's craziness during deer season in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. As always, the characters were fun and a bit silly. I was glad that there was not as much violence as in previous books.

[Lori · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite Grady Service book just for the Sally Storyline. Not thrilled with the ending but Limpy is a great character and the prison intimidation scene was great. Highly recommend the whole series

[Terrance · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoy the Woods Cop series, but this one felt a little rushed and disjointed

[Beth Schwab · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've this author and main character. I hope there are more to come.

[Christine Braybrook · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a strange but still very interesting book by Joseph Heywood. It was all about deer tags, missing deer from around the counties, and more great stories about Grady Service and friends.

[Jim Graczyk · Rating 4 out of 5]

The only issue I had with this book was interpreting the "UP Slang"

[Lane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another good Woods Cop story. An interesting read as it is several short stories hooked together that show what a hunting season is like.

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another fun adventure of Grady Service. I love reading books that involve areas I'm familiar with and as usual only the names have been changed.

[Deborah · Rating 1 out of 5]

I only read the first three chapters of this book. Between the boring story and the incredibly foul language, I decided not to read any more.

[Linda Barger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another interesting story about

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoy this series about a U.P. conservation officer. This book covers the two weeks of deer season and various poaching schemes impacting the main character.

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm a big fan of Joseph Heywood and this series. That said, I didn't love this one. It was all about hunting, as you would gather from the wry title, and covered the entire span of the Michigan gun deer hunting season ( which is around 2 weeks, I think, but seemed endless in this book.) The main character of this series is Grady Service, a CO (conservation warden) in the UP, and he usually deals with murderers and major crimes in the course of his job. Not so much in this one, but the crimes were pretty ugly anyway. Let me admit that I hate anything to do with hunting, but acknowledge it has a proper place in animal management and ecology. This book, though, dealt with one sicko after another---actually herds of them--who slaughtered massive numbers of deer (almost all of them illegally) for greed, profit, or in one case, just the joy of killing. Sadly, there really are a lot of violators like this...this wasn't just fiction. And although the subject matter itself was unpleasant for me, I also missed the action sequences and battle of wits Grady has with the villains in the other books. In this one, the violators were mostly witless, and page on page of irritating dialogue covered the interrogation of these miserable miscreants who lied, denied, and obfuscated to a maddening degree. I suspect much of this was only slightly exaggerated versions of real arrest records. Grady's a good cop though, and had a smashingly successful season catching these loons, thanks in no small measure to a recurring character, Limpy Allerdyce. He is a perfectly brilliant character and he and Grady have been at loggerheads since the inception of the series. He's a wily old violator, in fact, a convicted felon, thanks to Service. But he has a good heart and a genuine fondness for Grady. And for me, he was the salvation of this book as he teamed with Grady to find and stop those afflicted with the "buckular dystrophy" of the title. This all leads to a pretty ironic ending, which, predictably, I wasn't very happy with either. Sigh.

[Grey853 · Rating 2 out of 5]

I confess a bias against hunting for anything other than food. So, this book is like a big kick in the teeth. Service, the main character, is tasked with keeping the deer hunting season legal. Time after time he's up against hunters breaking the rules, people taking countless deer for profit or for just pleasure. They're killing for sport, wasting the meat, going for the trophies. It's a disgusting practice, and this book details far too much of it.

I found it difficult to finish. The part that makes it most horrific is when Service is interviewing a suspect who talks about raising kittens to about 2 months of age and then feeding them one by one to the coyotes for fun. I mean, that's one sick mentality, and far more graphic than I like to read about.

It doesn't help that Service takes a convicted, but reformed poacher with him to help on his rounds. The problem is that the man's dialect is so strong, I can hardly tell what he's saying.

So, this is not my favorite book, not because it isn't written well, but because of the subject matter and the use of dialect.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like this series and this book is my favorite so far. Heywood's focus on Conservation Officer Grady Service allows him to describe the wilds and wonders of the UP, put forth the puzzle/suspense of a police procedural and the edge of a military/spy thriller.
I really like the Limpy Allerdyce/ Grady Service partnership. Initially it was difficult to decipher Limpy's dialect, but it was always engaging and funny. The dialect was a brilliantly depicted an uneducated, ex con, scorned by society, who's very fit, functioning at a remarkable level and even altruistic.
I hope this book exaggerates the number of game violations in the UP. It was notable how many groups had illegally harvested more than a dozen animals. It was also notable how many of these groups were part of a criminal enterprise.
It's interesting to have a rich Grady. As I compare Grady to Lucas Davenport, it occurs to me that blue collar rich is different than white collar rich, in novels, as well as life.

[Leslie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love the Woods Cop books and couldn't wait to get this one. I waited for my vacation to read it, which was tough to do. It took a while to get into it and figure that there wasn't just one, primary mystery going on, but several, as he tells about the days leading up to firearm deer season, and each day of the 15 day season. I did like it, but not as much as some of the other books in the past. I was happy to see some of the characters back. I was surprised by the cliff hanger at the end, and now will have to wait another year until the next book is published to find out what will happen!

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

Always enjoy the woods cop books. This is not one of the best, but it was entertaining. Strays a bit from the usual format in that there is not one big case as the centerpiece of the story. It tells of a particular deer season which stood out because of an avalanche of weird cases all at the same time. One thing I enjoy about reading a series like this is following all the lesser characters as they progress through their lives and the relationships change over time.

[Catherine Woodman · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book with a really terrible name, and there really is not a murder mystery to solve--it follows Grady Service throughout the deer huntinig season in the UP--but it is a very solid installment in the series. Grady is his usual sanctimonious self, who is going about enforcing the law whether it makes sense to him or not, and the troubles that he encounters as he does so.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

The latest (10th) in the "Woods Cop Mystery" series by Joseph Heywood. One of my favorite series ever. The main character is a Conservation Officer named Grady Service. The books are very authentic because Heywood has been allowed to ride with Michigan Conservation Officers. The hardest part for me is waiting for the next book to be published.

[Barb Flory · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have greatly enjoyed this series, but this one wasn't as good. The thing I enjoy the most is one character he created named Allerdyce. He is classic U.P. and the dialogue with him is wonderfully entertaining.

[Isabel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sensational! The best in a great series.

[Bartmart · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good read. Typical Joe Pickett who done it. His friend Nate is back

[Hrn1947 · Rating 4 out of 5]

By far the best story yet. Really liked the epilogue as it was at the end. Sometimes everything doesn't get wrapped up, but in this case it almost all was. Looking forward to the next installment

[Vanessa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good to visit with Brady Service after his absence of several years.

[Minerva King · Rating 2 out of 5]

I couldn't get into this story. I'll try again with another book in the series.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great job of capturing Limipy Allerdyce's patois and humour, but this story got awfully complex.