Mountains of the Misbegotten

July 21, 2014
Set in 1914, Heywood’s stirring second Lute Bapcat mystery (after 2012’s Red Jacket) takes the “Deputy State Game, Fish and Forestry Warden” to Ontonagon County, on Michigan’s sparsely populated Upper Peninsula, to locate missing deputy Farrell Mackley. Later, Bapcat receives orders to find and arrest Heinrich Junger (aka Henry Young), a dangerous character he used to know as Hank the Shank, for murder. He must also deal with the trapping and selling of bears. Along the way, Bapcat encounters miners, trappers, entrepreneurs, and enterprising ladies. Besides wonderfully odd characters, Heywood offers strong descriptions of the region’s rugged topography. In one memorable scene, a school teacher leads naked charges into a pool where they are bait for leeches; they later sell the hundreds of leeches they gather to a St. Louis hospital for $1.25 each. Agent: Phyllis Westberg, Harold Ober Associates.