Killing a Cold One: A Woods Cop Mystery

Every fall in northern Michigan brings a spate of dogman sightings. A radio DJ’s invention, the dogman was created as an attention-getting joke. But millions of Michiganders believe in angels and vampires, werewolves, Bigfoot . . . and the dogman. Late summer, the horribly mutilated bodies of two Native American girls are found in a tent in a remote campground in the Huron Mountains. Grady Service, who wants nothing more than to return to patrolling his beloved Mosquito Wilderness, is called into the case. Strange animal tracks are found, mayhem ensues, a bloody trail of victims begins to accumulate, and the governor, in a political panic, and on her way out of office, orders Grady to hunt down and eliminate the killer--on her office’s dime. Grady Service does not believe in Easter bunnies, Santa Claus, or dogmen, and the "monster" hunt that unfolds in Killing a Cold One builds to a violent finish in some of the Upper Peninsula’s harshest and deadliest terrain. Joseph Heywood's legendary woods cop is called upon to use all of his investigative skills to sort fantasy from reality in order to do what the governor wants.

About the Author :
Joseph Heywood is the author of The Snowfly and Covered Waters (both Lyons Press), The Berkut, Taxi Dancer, The Domino Conspiracy, the nine Woods Cop Mysteries, Hard Ground: Woods Cop Stories, and Red Jacket (A Lute Bapcat Mystery). Featuring Grady Service, a detective in the Upper Peninsula for Michigan’s Department of Natural Resources, the Woods Cop Mysteries have earned its author cult status among lovers of the outdoors, law enforcement officials, and mystery devotees. Heywood lives in Portage, Michigan. Visit the author’s web site at www.josephheywood.com.

Review :
“Since 2001, when Joseph Heywood’s Ice Hunter appeared, the author has mined the geography, history, and endlessly fascinating denizens of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula in ten novels, including the historical Red Jacket and a superb collection of short stories (Hard Ground).This excellent series continues with Killing a Cold One. . . . a masterfully executed story of a hunt for a monster that is all too human and fiendishly clever.” —Alfred Hitchcock magazine   “Service’s ninth case . . . may be his strangest and most dangerous yet.... Heywood knows his geography, history, flora, fauna, and mythology as well as he does the region’s colorful, sometimes deadly inhabitants, and guides readers on an exotic and challenging journey.” —Publishers Weekly Praise for the fiction of Joseph Heywood Red Jacket  (A Lute Bapcat Mystery) “Joseph Heywood has long been a red-blooded American original and an author worth reading. With Red Jacket—a colorful and sprawling new novel with a terrific new protagonist named Lute Bapcat—he raises the bar to soaring new heights.”   —C.J. Box, New York Times bestselling author of Force of Nature “In 1913, Theodore Roosevelt recruits former Rough Rider Lute Bapcat to become a game warden on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula in Heywood’s absorbing first in a new series. Outsized characters, both real (athlete George Gipp before his Notre Dame fame, union organizer Mother Jones) and fictional (randy businesswoman Jaquelle Frei; Lute’s Russian companion, Pinkhus Sergeyevich Zakov), pepper the narrative.”   —Publishers Weekly Joseph Heywood’s Previous Novels “Joseph Heywood writes with a voice as unique and rugged as Michigan’s Upper Peninsula itself.”   —Steve Hamilton, two-time Edgar® Award winner and bestselling author of The Lock Artist and the Alex McKnight novels “A truly wonderful, wild, funny and slightly crazy novel about fly fishing. The Snowfly ranks with the best this modern era has produced.”   —San Francisco Chronicle “A magical whirlwind of a novel, squarely in the tradition of Tim O’Brien’s Going After Cacciato and Jim Harrison’s Legends of the Fall.”   —Howard Frank Mosher, author of The Fall of the Year and others “Heywood has crafted an entertaining bunch of characters. An absorbing narrative twists and turns in a setting ripe for corruption.”   —Dallas Morning News Hard Ground (Woods Cop Stories) "Heywood displays uncommon storytelling versatility in this brilliant collection of . . . tales about the game wardens who patrol Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.... This volume should be read for pleasure, but would do equally well as an instruction manual for aspiring writers."—Publishers Weekly, starred review