The Snowfly

By Joseph Heywood

Book Overview

One legendary insect--enormous, white, and exceedingly rare--attracts trout of such size that they couldn't possibly exist in the world as we know it. But in Heywood's classic novel, such things can and do exist.
Protagonist Bowie Rhodes, UPI reporter and expert fly fisherman, had learned of the snowfly early in his childhood. It hatches every seven to ten years, never on the same river twice, bringing to rise trout so huge they would have to have lived forty years or more; trout so wily that they never allow themselves to be caught--or even seen; trout so hungry for this fly that they will risk exposure to rise for the hatch. The snowfly is the sacred quest of the most obsessed trout hunters, existing--it seems--only in myth and in a lost manuscript.
Rhodes's reporting brings him to such sites as the jungles of Vietnam, the labyrinth of Brezhnev's Soviet Union, and a poisoned Canadian wasteland of uranium mines. His hunt for the manuscript, meanwhile, takes him deep into his own heart of darkness.
Richly imaginative and sensual, the world of The Snowfly has more mystery lurking beneath the surface waters than our own. Or does it?

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0762786957
• ISBN13: 9780762786954
• Release Date: May 2013
• Publisher: Lyons Press
• Length: 560 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.6" x 5.4" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

great reading.

The Woods cop mystery series is great reading. I can't wait for the 7th book to be released. Joseph Heywood should consider turning his works into a HBO miniseries or for that matter a big screen movie series (aka Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings). I hope he continues with the Woods Cop Mysteries.

A Unique Blend of the Outdoors and Whodunit Mystery

Joseph Heywood's excellent second volume addition to his Woods Cop series! Especially for those who love the outdoors as seen from the sportsman's perspective, police investigation mystery enthusiasts, and most particularly those who have a personal knowledge of various locations and the culture in Michigan's Upper Pennisula (U.P.).While some readers may find Heywood's character development and geographic references esoteric unless they've read the first Woods Cop series novel "Ice Hunter", this text does stand on its own and offers several exciting plot twists, excellent drama, and is satisfying in that the finish is not predictable. Using the slant of law enforcement from a conservation officer's (a.k.a. game warden's) perspective makes this book a very unique offering.

Change of Pace

This is a nice change of pace for readers of mysteries,because it is about a Michigan game warden, and he worksin that "far off" world of the Upper Peninsula. This isa nice introduction to the rather different life of agame warden, who sometimes has to work like a regular cop,but who also has to give priority to the well-being ofthe wild animals he is to protect.And how many game wardens, let along cops, get to work ontracking down poachers whose ranks include professionalkillers of protected animals, foreigners, IRA terrorists,and whose enemies include tight-lipped FBI agents andNative Americans?This guy has a maze of enemies whose relationships equalthose of a soap opera, and he has to sort through them likethe best of our detectives.The story revolves around a mysterious explosion at anunusual federal animal research lab on the shores of LakeSuperior, where 2 people are shot at close range, but where,at the same time, 5 timber wolves escape. And when our gamewarden arrives, he finds the place guarded by FBI agents,with help from the Fish & Wildlife Svc and other strangepeople. Plus, as he pokes around, he bumps into an Ojibwaygame warden, who shouldn't even be there, but our guy, GradyService, hears about a very unusual "blue wolf" which is amongthose escaping animals.This is a nice, intricate mystery involving a large number ofpeople of all kinds, and it all takes place in the beautiful,and sometimes lonely, U.P. of Michigan about the time deerhunting season is to begin. It makes for a complex set ofcharacters, and this hero's march through the wilderness,both natural and political, makes good reading.

Don't Know What I Expected.

I'm not a fisherman at all so, when I read the first chapter of the book, I was really disappointed. It seemed I had a boring story of how a boy came to fish trout. I kept going though, because I had nothing else to read, and discovered a great book. It's not a book about fishing - it's about a man that fishes. There's a difference. A wonderful, complex story that shows you can have a life and an obsession. The story was the combination of the two.

The Snowfly was fantastic!

What an incredible story. I could not put it down. There needs to be more books like this, intermingling flyfishing with life and such. The author showed great diversification with this story; murder, travel, sex, humor, death and of course.. discussing and defining that "troutbug" so many of us get.Thanks Mr. Heywood.