He lives and writes in Portage, Michigan, and frequents the wilds of the Upper Peninsula. (6 x 9 1/4, 352 pages) Joseph Heywood is the author of The Berkut, Taxi Dancer, The Domino Conspiracy, The Snowfly, and Ice Hunter. It''s a fully satisfying journey into the natural world and beyond, into the terrifying extremes of human nature. Full of outrageous, unforgettable characters and steeped in the lives of the Woods Cops, Blue Wolf in Green Fire is also a masterpiece of suspense. The novel''s brilliant finale will cement Heywood''s reputation as one of today''s great mystery writers,and the Wood Cops series as the most exciting to come along in years. Once again, Service must defend his hallowed Mosquito Wilderness in a race against time when it becomes clear that the poachers'' final target is the blue wolf. Meanwhile, an elusive poaching ring that has been systematically killing trophy deer set its sights on wolves, of which there is a growing wild population in the Upper Peninsula.

Service suspects that the murders aren''t what they seem to be when the FBI takes over the investigation and reaches far beyond its jurisdiction. To the Ojibwa a blue wolf represents good luck, unless it is captured or killed, and then it is an omen of Armageddon. A series of protests and bombs planted by a group of animal-rights activists appears to have culminated in a double murder at a wolf lab, which releases into the wild an extraordinarily rare animal: a blue wolf.

Upper Michigan Conservation Officer Grady Service has a case on his hands that doesn''t make sense.

Fire and Ice by Dana Stabenow