Murder Most Grizzly

Lauren Maxwell Series #1

by Elizabeth Quinn

Lauren Maxwell, an investigator for the Wild America Society, flies to Alaska's McNeil River Sanctuary after getting an urgent message from her friend Roland Taft, an eccentric biologist and a staunch defender of the grizzly. She arrives to find his grizzly-mauled corpse, but it's soon clear that this was no random bear attack. . . .

Genres: Mystery

211 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published December 1, 1993

About the author

I write as Elizabeth Quinn, but my name is Beth Quinn Barnard. I've made my living writing news and novels, and teaching journalism, fiction, and composition since 1976. A graduate of Skidmore College and Boston University, I've lived in Grants Pass, Oregon, since 1983 with my husband, Jeff Barnard, a reporter with the Associated Press. Our children, Nate and Nellie, are grown,but we made sure they were Red Sox fans before we set them free. I like to read, travel, hike, cook, ski and raft. I sing alto in a local community chorus and am having a blast remodeling our home room-by-room.

Reviews

[Angie · Rating 2 out of 5]

It is very evident that this is a 1st book. Simple plot, characters who make stupid move, etc. It really rates a 2.5 stars. Don't know if I would read another in the series.

[Donna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book a bit cheesy but I did enjoy reading about Alaska. This wasn't just a book that said it was set in Alaska and then used a bunch of made-up places. This book mentioned real places, buildings, and roads; places that I've been to. It really bugged me when it mentioned the bear researcher that was mauled by a bear, especially when I read that this guy never carried a gun. People just don't do that in Alaska but something niggled in the back of my mind and reminded me of one particular guy who did just that. I did some googling and remembering. The book seems to be referencing the late Timothy Treadwell who loved bears so much he couldn't bear to even use pepper spray on them so he wouldn't carry it or a gun. In the end, he and his girlfriend were killed by a hungry bear in 2003. The spooky part is this book is copyrighted 1993. I read that Timothy spent 13 summers in Katmai National Park schmoozing with the bears and other wildlife. This means that this author could have known of him and predicted the ending. It's sad but... it seems to have come true. Sometimes you can see the end coming for someone and you can't do anything about it.

[LJ · Rating 2 out of 5]

MURDER MOST GRIZZLY - Okay
Quinn, Elizabeth - 2nd in series

The cold blue, salmon-rich water and vast green terrain of Alaska's McNeil River Sanctuary make it perfect bear country. Lauren Maxwell, Anchorage based investigator for the Wild America Society, has flown there after getting an urgent message from her friend Roland Taft, an eccentric biologist and staunch defender of Ursa arctos horribilis, the savage grizzly. What she finds is the bloodstained ground of a fresh kill—and enough of a body to know Roland won't be meeting her then, or ever.

The evidence clearly shows that a grizzly killed him, but too many unanswered questions convince Lauren that this was no random bear attack. She suspects that Roland made a deadly enemy of Kirby Rogers, the sanctuary's macho, pro-hunting administrator, and may have run afoul of powerful business and oil interests. But proving that Roland's death is murder means going deep into the wild to search for clues. And a woman naturalist—even one who, carries a .45-caliber Colt automatic in her backpack--- may become Alaska's next endangered species as she pushes her intelligence and strength to the limits on the trail Of a killer..the two-legged kind.

I love books set in Alaska, but this didn't do much for me. It was okay, but not great.

[Dawn (& Ron) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3-1/2 stars. Would have preferred more interaction with, and to learn more of the native Alaskan culture. This is not on the same level as a Kate Shugack.

Ron