Dead Game

By Kirk Russell

Book Overview

Third in the series of crime novels featuring what "Booklist" called "far and away the most inventive new detective hero," California Fish and Game warden John Marquez's latest investigation begins with Marquez on the phone to a confidential informant as she's mysteriously abducted. Marquez and his understaffed teamwhich is slated for shutdown by top brasssearch frantically for the informant in their remaining weeks, while also pursuing sturgeon poachers (who may have something to do with the kidnapping) and tangling with both the Russian mob and the FBI along the way. And you thought your job was tough."

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0811850781
• ISBN13: 9780811850780
• Release Date: September 2005
• Publisher: Chronicle Books (CA)
• Length: 377 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 5.8" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

You'll never think of caviar the same way again

This is a great read, set a present-day thriller in the delta of California's Sacramento River. Russell gives us a powerful sense of place, confjures up a whole new breed of creey bad guys, and raises our environmental awareness without sounding like Al Gore on a bad day. The first thing I did when I finished the book was to make a reservation for brunch at the Ryde Hotel--mentioned twice in Dead Game--so I could head out to the delta and experience again the sights, sounds and smells Russell evokes in his book.

Russell's on his game here

This one's a keeper--clearly Kirk Russell's best novel yet. Among many evolutions that take place in this third story of what I hope will someday be a dozen John Marquez mysteries, we finally get the full measure of the hero himself. Yes, Marquez is a tough guy with a tender streak, a hopeful cynic--he's all these contradictions and complexities. But there's more. In this story, Marquez reveals a lot more about his fears and sense of unrealized potential, uncertainty about his capacity as a husband and father, worries about his own future, so intertwined with the Fish & Game's Special Ops Unit. In short, he reveals himself to be a lot like us. Disclosure: as a long-time San Francisco Bay environmental advocate, I confess to a certain and unabashed bias for Russell's yarns, and Deadgame especially. He's gotten it right about the plight of the Delta sturgeon (and frankly, the whole Delta). His descriptions of the dichotomous beauty and fragility of the Delta are evocative, well-researched and compelling. Reading this book, I kept flashing back to an earlier SF Bay champion who told us of "another world there among the Bay's brackish reaches"...Jack London himself. Bravo! Memo to Kirk Russell: send us more, and soon.

best of the series

If you have enjoyed reading the other Marquez novels you will certainly not want to miss this read. Author Russell has brought the tension level to a new level in this story. No wasted moments spent reading this book, in fact it was hard to put it down at all. If you arent familiar with the Marquez books any will stand alone but this is my personal favorite with it's sharp delivery and fast paced action.

fine fish and wildlife police procedural

California Fish & Game Special Operations Unit Warden John Marquez is concerned with the poaching of sturgeon in the Sacramento/San Joaquin River delta. Someone was killing the sturgeon to "extract" the eggs to make caviar and is unconcerned about collateral damage to other fish. However, Marquez does not have the manpower to stop the poachers as his unit has shrunk down to three while the criminals have gotten smarter, bigger, and more energetic, and the FBI steps in and out looking for sound byte poser cases only. Still he tries using informants to help him catch the crooks such as former sturgeon poacher Abe Raburn who Marquez pressures into testifying against former KGB agent Nikolai Ludovna, who came to the states allegedly as a realtor, but is the caviar poaching kingpin. Abe proves uninformative perhaps out of fear of retaliation. Russian-born field guide Anna Burdovsky agrees to help, but she vanishes without a trace following a meeting with specialty food storeowner Don August, who Marquez believes sells illegal caviar. With potential problems at home, Marquez concentrates on expediting Anna from danger though he fears he is too late. The key to this fine fish and wildlife police procedural is the different personalities that make up the sturgeon poaching crowd as readers will understand the economic motivations of poachers, sellers, storeowners, users, law enforcement officials, and informants. The story line is somewhat typical of the undermanned and under-equipped cops struggling to defeat superior forces while knowing a victory today just means a new criminal takes over the territory. DEAD GAME is a fabulous tale that entertains the audience while also educating readers with how complex the environmental-economic issues are. Harriet Klausner