The Case of the Missing Game Warden
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- $5.99
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- $5.99
Publisher Description
In mid-December 1956, veteran Northern California game warden Norman Bettis confronts a gang of commercial duck poachers and disappears-patrol car and all. Thirteen years later, rookie game warden Henry Glance sets out to solve the mystery of his disappearance.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Callan (the memoir The Game Warden's Son) makes his fiction debut with a labyrinthine series launch. In 1956, veteran game warden Norman Bettis vanishes during his investigation into a gang of commercial wildfowl poachers in California's Butte County. Three years later, two 11-year-old boys riding their bikes in the countryside outside Temecula, Calif., hundreds of miles to the south, learn of Bettis's disappearance after they help the local ranger capture a couple of goose poachers. One of the boys, Henry Glance, grows up to become a game warden. When his first assignment is to Bettis's former patrol territory, a position that has been left open for 13 years, Henry is in the perfect position to try to solve the mystery of the missing warden. He eventually uncovers a surprising connection between his boyish adventure with the goose poachers and Bettis's fate. Clichéd characters and too much background detail that slows the plot mark this as a novice's effort. The promising setup and a likable lead, though, suggests Callan can do better next time. This could be the start of a fun, original series.