THE VIOLATORS

Fish and Wildlife undercover agent Reed Erickson (The Deer Killers, 1990) is off to Yellowstone to nab whoever's been killing eagles and selling headdresses made from their plumage to wealthy collectors. No mystery about who that is: Reed leans on taxidermist Hap Thompson, who fingers bullying, cash-poor rancher Max Clausen and vicious outfitter Buck Greelap as the killers and rebellious Lakota Brian Coyote as the manufacturer. And Reed doesn't have any trouble landing a job as handyman with Brian's quarter-Lakota cousin Lonnie, taking her to dances and to bed, meanwhile talking himself into one of Max's ``special hunts.'' But after he squeezes Brian to keep up the pressure on Max, Brian tells Lonnie he's a fed, and Lonnie tells Max, who arranges a showdown mano a mano on a stormy mountaintop. Unsurprising even in small details, like Reed's continuing domestic troubles and Max's Neanderthal political convictions. Recommended audience: ecologists looking to get outraged all over again.