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The Trap
Robin Lamont, author
On a rare vacation out west, animal rights investigator Jude Brannock fulfills a lifelong dream of seeing wolves in the wild. The wonder of the moment is shattered when she learns that a wildlife trapper has been murdered and the main suspect is an ALF member and a man she once loved. Jude’s search for the real killer takes her undercover where she collides with a government agency that is methodically destroying the wildlife she is determined to protect.
Reviews
Set in Stanton, Idaho, Lamont’s solid second Kinship whodunit (after 2013’s The Chain) succeeds in making animal rights investigator Jude Brannock into a plausible homicide sleuth. When someone shoots federal Wildlife Services agent Craig Eberhardt and places him in a leghold trap, rumors suggest that the killer was an animal rights activist. Jude’s boss at the animal rights group called the Kinship is concerned that the murder will bolster those federal legislators who want to strengthen the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act. The revisions include criminalizing the covert operations that are the Kinship’s focus. To protect the organization, Jude goes undercover in Stanton, posing as a representative for a travel company. The neighborhood is openly hostile, with one restaurant promising hunters a free pizza for every dead wolf. Jude’s encountering an old flame, who may be implicated in Eberhardt’s death, complicates her inquiries. Inspired by real-life investigative journalism into an obscure agency, this page-turner is peopled with well-developed characters. (BookLife)
