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DEAD GAME, Kirk Russell's third in his series featuring California Fish and Game Warden John Marquez, is even better than his last, and that's saying something. This time Russell squeezes Marquez nearly to the breaking point. He's faced with the dissolution of his Special Operations Unit, he's facing down Russian organized crime as he tries to unravel a sturgeon poaching and caviar smuggling operation, his informant's been kidnapped, his wife and his daughter are fighting, and the FBI keeps telling him to butt out because of the organized crime connection. That's enough pressure to make even the most dedicated agent think that life in retirement might be a blessing, but not Marquez. The book begins at nearly breakneck speed as Marquez takes a call from his Russian informant and listens to what sounds like her kidnapping. From there, we ride with Marquez as he travels the back roads where the San Joaquin and Sacramento Rivers meet as he tries to turn a small time poacher, Raburn, on his middleman distributor, Ludonva, an ex-KGB agent who is making a killing in real estate and black market caviar. When it turns out that caviar is not the only thing being smuggled by the crime ring, the tension becomes unbearable as Marquez risks his life to take down the forces of greed and corruption that threaten not only an ancient species of fish, but also the social order as well. Russell's simple, straightforward prose is perfectly-balanced, dissecting intractable moral problems without once verging on preaching. What he's done in this book is nothing short of breathtaking. Nothing is black and white in Marquez's world. He's an ardent activist who can still distinguish between real evil and petty crime and has enough compassion to cut the latter some slack while pinning the former to the wall. He is passionate about the wilderness and our need for each and every species of creature that inhabits it. And he realizes that the fundamental question at the bottom of it all is one of greed versus nature, a cost-benefit calculus of conservation. When you ride along with Marquez you've got yourself a great guide to the natural world and all the species that inhabit it, all the way to the top of the food chain. Buy this book and hunker down. I guarantee you won't want to leave the house for a while.
Reviewed by Carroll Johnson, September 2005
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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