ONE MAN'S POISON

Sixth in the offbeat, underappreciated series featuring Oakalla, Wisconsin, newspaper editor Garth Ryland, who's now involved in a Tony Hillerman sort of case--murder, myth, and ecological mayhem combined. With crusty Sheriff Rupert Roberts incapacitated due to chest pains, Garth searches for little Jimmy Parker, abducted by his dad, and finds the child abandoned in a cabin; he also discovers a reclusive retired judge murdered and hidden in a toxic-waste barrel, sees evidence of massive toxic dumping, and glimpses someone following him through seemingly endlessly connected underground caverns. Furthermore, there's a stranger in town--a sullen, silent Indian--who is also following him; the judge's estranged sister appears to be in cahoots with the local bully; and, creepily, everything entwines with an American Indian tale recounted in Folklores of Wisconsin, mentioning the caves, an underground river, and great Indian treasures for, literally, a dynamite ending. Powerful, sensitively constructed morality tale with well-developed characters--both mythic and contemporary.