No Second Wind

A.B. Guthrie Jr.
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Jason Beard has left college to come back home to Midbury after his father died.He is working as a deputy once again for Sheriff Chick Charleston. The story begins in what people in that neck of the woods call a cold snap, the temperature is about 45 degrees below zero. This is unimaginable cold to me, but it did mitigate my sense of unimaginable heat that the east coast has been experiencing with days of 100+ degrees. I was fascinated by one description of the trouble people have to go through to keep their cars running.

 The people in the town are up in arms about the new hard hats and their families that are coming to town preparing for the passage of a law that will give permission for widespread coal strip mining.

If this happens the land will be destroyed for years and will never be good for ranching or farming again, The incomers are just hoping for jobs which will support their families and resent the way that are being treated like lepers from the town folk. It is only the bitter cold that takes the edge off the hostilities. But not for long, soon there is the death of a newcomer who owns a bar and the sounds of wolves are heard coming ever closer to town and the people on both sides of the mining question fear for the safety of their children.

Sundogs

 Sheriff Charleston is always a man of reason but people in a panic won't listen to reason and are not ready to test the idea that wolves don't go after humans. He also is always on the side of law and order regardless of who he is protecting. Jase Beard is maturing nicely and the weather doesn't seem to bother him, as he walks out in all weather even when the sundogs are showing. This is a cold weather phenomenon seen when the sun is just above the horizon  and there is a cold frost in the air.

Death follows death and soon a resident of the town is found dead. It is likely that both deaths are accidental but when people are up in arms that explanation is never satisfying.

Montana strip coal mine

This is an intriguing story written in the eighties and it is interesting to compare the background of the story with the situation of coal mining in Montana today.  I recommend googling this subject for some interesting information.The sense of time and place is wonderful and I shivered in my boots until the very satisfying conclusion. This rates as one of my favorite series. There are two more in this very short series and I am keeping them for special times.