"You ain't no damn game warden, are ya?" the poacher snarled. I looked him straight in the eye and lied. "Game warden . . . ? I ain't no game warden!" The poacher paused, mulling over my answer, and added quietly, "Then why you askin' so many questions?" Thus begins the story of R. T. Stewart's career as an undercover wildlife law enforcement officer with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Division of Wildlife. For nearly two decades, Stewart infiltrated poaching rings throughout Ohio, the Midwest, and beyond. Poachers Were My Prey chronicles his many exciting undercover adventures, detailing the techniques he used in putting poachers behind bars. It also reveals, for the first time, the secrets employed by undercover wildlife officers in catching the bad guys. Poaching--the illegal taking of wild game--goes on every day in the United States and throughout the world. Millions of dollars change hands annually from the illegal sale or trade of antlers, hides, horns, meat, feathers, fur, teeth, claws, gall bladders, and other wild-animal parts. As a result, wildlife populations suffer-- including endangered and threatened species--and legitimate, law-abiding sport hunters get a bad reputation. R. T. Stewart dedi- cated his professional career to stopping such slaughter by actu- ally living with poachers for months or even years. "In essence, being an undercover officer involves living a lie," quips Stewart. "You're always pretending to be someone you're not." Undercover law enforcement is dangerous work and, as a re- sult, extremely stressful. Stewart recalls one particular case during which he realized he was too deeply undercover and came close to forgetting his real identity. Many undercover officers have crossed the line to become the very person they initially swore to stop. In Poachers Were My Prey, readers look over R. T. Stewart's shoulder as he deals with the temptations offered to an undercover officer, including money, sex, and drugs, and watch as he gets the job done and brings the poachers to justice. Poachers Were My Prey will be enjoyed by readers interested in law enforcement, wildlife, preservation, hunting, fishing, and the outdoors.

In "Wildlife Wars," Terry Grosz serves up fascinating stories-alternately hair-raising, hilarious, and heart-wrenching-from his 30-year struggle to protect wildlife in America. A natural storyteller, Grosz writes about the remarkable characters he met-on both sides of the law-as he matched wits with elk poachers, salmon snaggers, commercial-market duck hunters, and a host of other law-breakers. Best of all, though, these stories are so remarkably entertaining you won't want to put them down. Wildlife Wars is the winner of the 2000 National Outdoor Book Award, Nature and the Environment Category.

In this explosive debut novel, W. Aaron Vandiver takes readers into the South African Bush, with its stunning landscapes, its dazzling and deadly wildlife, and its dark underbelly of violence. Against this dramatic backdrop, Under a Poacher's Moon tells an unflinching story of two people who fight desperately to save Africa's wildlife, sometimes with tragic unintended consequences, as they search for passion and meaning in a dangerous and unpredictable world. Anna Whitney travels to Mzansi, a remote safari lodge located deep in the wilds of South Africa, hoping to get as far away from home and her troubled life as possible. The perilous beauty of the land captures her imagination, but when she hears the haunting late-night cries of an injured rhino, her escapist fantasies collide with brutal reality. She and Chris, a safari guide wrestling with his own secret demons, find themselves embroiled in a war on Africa's wildlife. They are pulled into a struggle that brings them face-to-face with shocking acts of violence, rogue officials, armed gangs, vicious wild predators, and their own deepest fears. It is a conflict that threatens to destroy them, or lead them toward a new and better life together.

This compelling nonfiction work takes the reader into a convoluted eight month infiltration of a group of squalid criminals trafficking in wildlife by two undercover game wardens. Latham doesn't hold back on the language in this book nor does he downplay the vile acts that occurred against both the human and wildlife victims in this twisted tale. If you think poachers are just a bunch of good old boys out for a bit of meat, this true story is bound to reshape your opinion. Books written about undercover wildlife trafficking investigations are rare --this one will keep you on the edge of your seat.

Poachers discovered the bodies. Slaughtered. Mauled. Partially devoured. Carolina McKay has never squared off with a killer this vicious. Sober and a licensed Private Investigator, for the first time in her adult life Carolina has found what she's been missing... Hope. But it's not long before the past comes calling. Her ex-partner, Hank Kolazarek, is now Sheriff of small town Hopkins, Ohio where human remains were found in the woods. The work of a madman. Outmatched, Hank needs Carolina's help before more people die. Walking the streets of Hopkins is a man who blends in, is respected, even admired. But his psyche is cracking. His delusions worsening. With each passing day he becomes less man and more animal... With each tick of the clock his hunger grows... When the killer takes one of her only allies, Carolina must break through his facade and uncover his true identity. But with the stress threatening her newfound sobriety, will she crumble, allowing even more victims to fall prey to the hunt? A page-turning thriller packed with suspense. Fans of Karin Slaughter, Dan Padavona, Karin Slaughter, and Lisa Gardner will love Carolina McKay.

It's December 1997 and a man-eating tiger is on the prowl outside a remote village in Russia's Far East. The tiger isn't just killing people, it's annihilating them, and a team of men and their dogs must hunt it on foot through the forest in the brutal cold. To their horrified astonishment it emerges that the attacks are not random: the tiger is engaged in a vendetta. Injured and starving, it must be found before it strikes again, and the story becomes a battle for survival between the two main characters: Yuri Trush, the lead tracker, and the tiger itself. As John Vaillant vividly recreates the extraordinary events of that winter, he also gives us an unforgettable portrait of a spectacularly beautiful region where plants and animals exist that are found nowhere else on earth, and where the once great Siberian Tiger - the largest of its species, which can weigh over 600 lbs at more than 10 feet long - ranges daily over vast territories of forest and mountain, its numbers diminished to a fraction of what they once were. We meet the native tribes who for centuries have worshipped and lived alongside tigers - even sharing their kills with them - in a natural balance. We witness the first arrival of settlers, soldiers and hunters in the tiger's territory in the 19th century and 20th century, many fleeing Stalinism. And we come to know the Russians of today - such as the poacher Vladimir Markov - who, crushed by poverty, have turned to poaching for the corrupt, high-paying Chinese markets. Throughout we encounter surprising theories of how humans and tigers may have evolved to coexist, how we may have developed as scavengers rather than hunters and how early Homo sapiens may have once fit seamlessly into the tiger's ecosystem. Above all, we come to understand the endangered Siberian tiger, a highly intelligent super-predator, and the grave threat it faces as logging and poaching reduce its habitat and numbers - and force it to turn at bay. Beautifully written and deeply informative, The Tiger is a gripping tale of man and nature in collision, that leads inexorably to a final showdown in a clearing deep in the Siberian forest.