JAGUAR'S CLAW

Daredevil Taz Blackwell fights his way through a thick forest of corruption in Yeager’s explosive environmental adventure sequel.

Taz, a former State Department official and high-level negotiator at environmental talks, stays out of trouble in his humble home on lovely Chincoteague Island, off the Virginia coast. After a failed romance and more than a few near-death experiences, Taz spends his time playing guitar, listening to popular music, and drinking whiskey. His roguish lifestyle is abruptly interrupted by two very different people. One is Everton Martins, a senior envoy in Brazilian foreign ministry who needs help fighting fires in the Amazon; he believes that Taz is the only man for the job of creating a wildland fire-response system. The other is an intelligent and mysterious woman with “the crooked smile of a trickster” who appears on Taz’s porch, taking a break from a run, and soon draws him into her life. Taz soon finds himself in a world of cartels and government misconduct and in a tumultuous romance with a woman with a difficult past. Yeager expertly paints picturesque scenes, whether Taz is basking in the calm waters of Chincoteague Bay, speeding through the Chihuahuan Desert, or fighting blazes in the lush Amazon: “The fire had leapt the backfire trench and lit up a stand of huacrapona and oil palms. It had already reached the tops of at least three of the trees.” At the heart of it all is the protagonist, who can seemingly do it all—fight a neo-Nazi in a bar, save a child from rocky waves, lead a helicopter rescue mission, and more. The island locals are lovable small-town folk, and Taz’s back-and-forth with his love interest is snappy and enjoyable. Yeager introduces several complex plotlines, sometimes overwhelming readers with floods of new information. Still, his solid prose shines through and makes for an enjoyable tale.

An often thrilling story of a hero who’s committed to saving the world from environmental destruction.