MONARCHS OF THE NORTHEAST KINGDOM

An older woman copes with grief and deer poachers in rural Vermont.

When her husband, John, sets out with his secondhand rifle to investigate drops of blood he found in the snow outside their isolated home in a remote part of Vermont, Anna expects he'll return later that day having found that hunters shot a deer out of season and left it to suffer. But John doesn't come back, leaving Anna to saddle their mule, Charlie, and follow his footprints into the treacherous woods. What follows is a lush, evocative, and tragic tale of convenient lies, intense encounters with horses, deer, bear, moose, and wolves, and well-meaning assistance from an emergency veterinarian, local game warden, and sheriff as Anna struggles with multiple chronic illnesses, learns to make custom saddles for hard-to-fit horses, and confronts poachers on her property. "If you live out of town," she opines, "you have to get used to some killing. That's the way of things. But that doesn't mean you have to like it." Despite her determination and resourcefulness, it may all be more than she can handle, especially when an even deeper, darker secret than the truth about John's death is revealed.

A highly satisfying, delicately woven story about loss, loneliness, life, and death.