Baited

It's 2004, the summer of Glacier Park's grizzly bear DNA study. In the Cut Bank Valley, Clancy Dyer dashes through the aspen to roust her coworker Ezra, but instead she finds his shredded tent and a horrible smell. Ezra has disappeared. Meanwhile, District Ranger Mack Savage speeds toward the valley's car campground in response to his rookie ranger's report of unusual bear behavior. Mack has been dating Liz Ralston, the biologist conducting a groundbreaking DNA study. Saboteurs have wrenched her materials and she suspects both park personnel and a local climber. Frustrated with Mack's inability to protect her study, Liz has hired a Blackfeet tribal member and local packer who she knows carries a pistol and a grudge. Meanwhile, she may not be above taking her own revenge. Set amidst Glacier's fierce beauty, Baited grapples with grief, multiple suspicious deaths, differing beliefs surrounding the protection of Glacier's grizzly bears, the park's fraught relationship with the adjacent Blackfeet Reservation, and especially how to reconcile one's love and affection for a person who has committed a reprehensible act. Told primarily from Clancy and Mack's points of view but with some of the other characters taking center stage as needed, in particular the Native American stories that help shape the novel. The writing abounds with beautifully rendered passages and vivid thumbnail descriptions that make Glacier Park's majestic wilderness a character in itself.

About the Author :
Colleen O'Brien earned her MFA in Creative Writing from The University of Montana. She taught English at Blackfeet Community College in Browning, MT and worked summers for the park service for several years. Her stories and essays have appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies. She and her husband own and operate small businesses in the hamlet of East Glacier Park, MT. She lives with her family near Glacier Park. Baited is her first novel and was earlier awarded the Michael Kenneth Smith Fellowship at Porches Writing Retreat in Virginia.

Review :
Colleen O'Brien casts a wicked, believable spell of deceit and heartbreak, a burn of a tale that begins to bubble and hiss, and then rapidly boil over. Imagine taking a walk in the dark woods with friends who have heartbreaking and monumental secrets to tell. Now imagine those friends are in Montana and the intertwine of their communal stories will take you to the edge of a precipice. Like all good mysteries, this story will catch you up. Baited is an intricately plotted masterpiece. A stunning, edge-of-your-seat drama. An exquisite all night read. -- Debra Magpie Earling " . . . it's the author's ability to bring the breathtaking beauty of Glacier into full focus that makes this a novel to savor. O'Brien's love for and deep understanding of this magical place is evident on every page." --Marc Beaudin, Big Sky Journal "A page turner that begins with the suspicious disappearance of a Montana ranger. Complicated relationships and complex characters fill out the storyline of this suspenseful novel." -- Amy Sweet, Beartooth Books, Red Lodge, MT "An engrossing whodunnit with turns and switchbacks like a trail leading deep into Glacier National Park's grizzly-filled backcountry. Baited is a mystery in which the only things more powerful and unpredictable than nature expressing itself via fire, flood, and apex predator are the emotions and motivations of a gritty collection of characters. 'Glacier is a powerful place, ' a ranger cop comments, '. . . it culls the riffraff.' With prose sharp enough to make you feel the pine needles, Colleen O'Brien evokes what is so forebodingly captivating about one of Montana's most dangerous landscapes. For lovers of the state's literary forebears, imagine Ivan Doig--if he wrote noir." -- Goodreads, Nate Schweber "Glacier Park is described beautifully in both its scenic wonder and the people who work there. What I appreciated most, however, is that the characters are so multi-dimensional. ... The story is also layered in questions about park and wildlife preservation. ... Most of our sales of Baited are word of mouth recommendations from our booksellers and customers who have purchased the book." -- Mildred Whalen, Cassiopeia Books, Great Falls, MT "If Debra Magpie Earling thinks that a book is worth reading, then we read it. ... We read it in three long sittings, each more riveting than the last. You may experience a sleepless night or two, unable to put the book down, but it's worth it." -- Distinctly Montana "Obrien has penned a lively, sure-footed novel that reads with the propulsive power of a whodunit yet still manages to deftly traverse the tricky terrains of gender, class, race, and community. Set in a small mountain town nestled up against the grandeur of Glacier National Park, Baited explores the wildness around us--and the wildness within." -- Joe Wilkins, author of The Entire Sky and Fall Back Down When I Die