Killing Monarchs - (A Sam Rivers Mystery) by Cary J Griffith (Paperback)

About the Book

"As a special agent for the US Fish & Wildlife Service, Sam Rivers has researched and studied a variety of animals. He's visiting sixth graders at Hopkins Elementary to share photographs of the Monarch butterfly-and he's brought along his drug-sniffing wolf-dog, Gray, to give students a demonstration of his partner's remarkable skills. Gray finds a sample drug packet, hidden by Sam, but that's not all. The wolf-dog keeps following his nose, leading Sam to a utility room where they discover the school's janitor, dead. Local police write it off as a drug overdose, but Sam is no stranger to crime scenes. He suspects foul play. When Sam and Gray come upon a second victim, the coincidences are too great to ignore. Sam starts turning over rocks-and what slithers out is more insidious than anyone could have foretold. Sam's instincts tell him there'll be more deaths, but those instincts put him at odds with conventional law enforcement. Armed with his knowledge of the natural world and his wolf-dog companion, Sam must uncover answers to questions that few others believe exist"--

Book Synopsis

Two dead bodies and too many coincidences to ignore-in this outdoors mystery, special agent Sam Rivers must stop a murderous conspiracy.

As a special agent for the US Fish & Wildlife Service, Sam Rivers has researched and studied a variety of animals. He's visiting sixth graders at Hopkins Elementary to share photographs of the Monarch butterfly--and he's brought along his drug-sniffing wolfdog, Gray, to give students a demonstration of his partner's remarkable skills.

Gray finds a sample drug packet, hidden by Sam, but that's not all. The wolfdog keeps following his nose, leading Sam to a utility room where they discover the school's janitor, dead. Local police write it off as a drug overdose, but Sam is no stranger to crime scenes. He suspects foul play.

When Sam and Gray come upon a second victim, the coincidences are too great to ignore. Sam starts turning over rocks--and what slithers out is more insidious than anyone could have foretold. Sam's instincts tell him there'll be more deaths, but those instincts put him at odds with conventional law enforcement. Armed with his knowledge of the natural world and his wolfdog companion, Sam must uncover answers to questions that few others believe exist.

The Denver Post calls Sam Rivers the "predator's predator." In Killing Monarchs, natural history writer Cary J. Griffith brings back Sam for his third mystery--a thrilling novel filled with action and suspense.

Review Quotes

"Griffith's third Sam Rivers mystery, Killing Monarchs, moves with the speed of a bullet train. A gripping tale of greed and vengeance... not to be missed."

-Jeffrey B. Burton, award-winning author of The Finders, The Keepers, and The Lost

"Killing Monarchs is an exciting, thrilling, and suspenseful page-turner! [It] hooked me from the first page, and I couldn't put it down. I highly recommend this series!"

--Kathleen Donnelly, author of the award-winning National Forest K-9 series

"Cary Griffith is that rare crime writer who's not afraid to be funny and wise even as he keeps us on the edge of our seats. What's more, he's a gifted chronicler of the natural world. These qualities are all abounding in Killing Monarchs, Griffith's best yet. It's time to put his intrepid investigator, Sam Rivers, on every suspense writer's radar, and the author himself in the same echelon as the finest crime writers working today."

--Peter Geye, author of The Ski Jumpers

"Cary Griffith has laid out another fabulous tale, based on solid knowledge of the natural world, with a provocative sense of the deviousness of humankind."

--Mary Logue, author of The Streel and The Big Sugar

"A gripping thriller highlighting the ironclad bond between man and his best friend, Killing Monarchs had me turning pages all night long."

--Brian Malloy, author of The Year of Ice and After Francesco

"A chilling thriller you won't want to put down. Sam Rivers and his wolfdog partner, Gray, make a terrific crime-fighting duo!"

--Margaret Mizushima, author of the award-winning Timber Creek K-9 Mysteries

"Sam Rivers is one part teacher and two parts crime solver. Killing Monarchs floats like a butterfly and stings like a scorpion. Prepare to be schooled."

--Mark Stevens, author of The Fireballer and The Allison Coil Mystery Series

"Killing Monarchs, the third Sam Rivers mystery, is a rollicking and hugely satisfying ride."

--C. Matthew Smith, author of Twentymile

About the Author

Award-winning author Cary J. Griffith grew up among the woods, fields, and emerald waters of eastern Iowa. His childhood fostered a lifelong love of wild places. He earned a B.A. in English from the University of Iowa and an M.A. in library science from the University of Minnesota.

Griffith's books explore the natural world. In nonfiction, he covers the borderlands between civilization and wild places. In fiction, he focuses on the ways some people use flora and fauna to commit crimes, while others with more reverence and understanding of the natural world leverage their knowledge to bring criminals to justice. In both genres, readers are likely to learn something about our relationship to the natural world and the creatures who inhabit it.

"I was 14 the first time I visited the lakes and boreal forests of northeastern Minnesota," says Griffith, "and its beauty struck me."

Griffith is also the author of Wolf Kill, Cougar Claw, Gunflint Burning, Lost in the Wild, and Opening Goliath. He lives with his family in a suburb of Minnesota's Twin Cities.