THE NIGHT WOODS

A spate of murders in Vermont is somehow linked to The Odyssey.

Despite her experiences in the military police, Mercy Carr finds pregnancy the scariest thing she’s ever faced. But her condition doesn’t keep Mercy and her Belgian Malinois, Elvis, from hiking through the woods to visit Homer Grant and his bloodhound, Argos. Homer, a linguist who plays Scrabble for money with Mercy once a week, isn’t in his cabin, but a dead man is, along with pages of The Odyssey strewn all over. Finding Homer badly wounded in the woods, Mercy fashions a makeshift sledge the dogs can pull to higher ground, where there’s cell service. She texts her husband, Troy, a Vermont game warden, who arrives in a helicopter with help. Certain that her friend Homer is no killer, she plans to investigate, much to the horror of her mother. The dead man, Dr. Leon Vallance, had joined Homer to work on a new translation of The Odyssey. Then Troy and his Newfoundland tracker dog, Susie Bear, find the body of a missing man dead in a swamp in nearby Artemis Park, a large private game preserve stocked with exotic animals, including dangerous wild boar, run by and for the wealthy. This death attracts interest from both the government and Mercy, who thinks clues can be found in The Odyssey. She becomes a target while heavily pregnant, with only Elvis and her young cousin for support in a wild chase, as she seeks to escape a determined killer who’s only part of a much bigger plot.

Cerebral clues and high adventure combine in an exciting character-driven brain teaser.