Fair Chase - by Travis Mulhauser (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Revisiting the unforgettable world he created in The Trouble Up North, Travis Mulhauser introduces Delos Harris, who has discovered he's a descendant of the Sawbrook clan, and a battle for rights to the ancestral land ensues in this atmospheric novel about a family whose troubled history is ever more complicated.

There hasn't been a gray wolf in Michigan's lower peninsula in over 100 years, but when one migrates onto the Sawbrook family's vast acreage, the small community of Cutler finds itself in the throes of a panic. A trail of mutilated chickens and barn cats have peppered the area's remote outskirts, and concerns about safety are accompanied by the economic and political cost of an endangered species' uninvited return to northern Michigan. High cost development projects are at stake, and the Sawbrook siblings--Lucy, Buckner, and Jewell--find themselves at odds with locals, wealthy and politically connected property owners, and the state's department of resources.

When a fourteen-year-old runaway, Delos Harris, arrives on the property and claims to be the siblings' second cousin, and to have information about the wolf's exact location, he will become the key to protecting the wolf and the Sawbrook land.

The state wants the wolf moved, the locals and the developers want it dead, and the Sawbrooks see its return as a decisive victory in their battle to preserve their property and the natural world in northern Michigan. But when a poacher is hired to settle the matter permanently, the Sawbrooks must fight to protect each other, their land, and the gritty, undaunted child whose mysterious connection to the wolf will either save them all, or deliver the Sawbrooks to their final ruin.

About the Author

Travis Mulhauser was born and raised in Northern Michigan. His novel, The Trouble Up North (Grand Central/Hatchette), received a starred review from Publisher's Weekly, was an Amazon Editor's Choice Pick, and was an Apple Audio Must Listen selection. His novel, Sweetgirl (Ecco/Harper Collins) was long-listed for The Center for Fiction's First Novel Prize, was a Michigan Notable Book Award winner, an Indie Next Pick, and was named one of Ploughshares Best Books of the New Year.

Travis is the author of Greetings from Cutler County: A Novella and Stories, and received his MFA in Fiction from UNC-Greensboro. He is also a proud graduate of North Central Michigan College and Central Michigan University. He lives currently in Durham, North Carolina with his wife, two children, and dog. He has been published in France, the Netherlands, Brazil, Germany, and the UK, and his novel, Fair Chase (Grand Central/Hachette), is forthcoming in April 2026.