Death Roe: A Woods Cop Mystery (2008) - Plot & Excerpts
#6 in the Woods Cop series. Piscova, and it's president Quint Fagan, are generating huge profits by selling contaminated salmon roe as red caviar for the cruise ship trade. Piscova has bribed its way into a monopoly in Michigan and is diluting Michigan roe with chemically contaminated New York roe to increase profits. Grady Service gets involved when he finds that Piscova is also buying roe from illegally snagged salmon. The novel effectively portrays Grady's frustration with the roadblocks he encounters in unpeeling the levels of municipal corruption involved. As lighter spots in the narrative are the strange IRS investigator involved and the arrival of Grady's granddaughter.Woods Cop has an unexpectedly complex case on his hands. Tainted eggs are showing up in caviar and Service must expose a ring of corruption in state government and perhaps within his own beloved DNR, one that could lead him all the way to the top. Making enemies at every level of the state, Service rousts out the people on the take. He doesn’t rest until there has been full exposure in a case that takes him from the wilds of the Upper Peninsula to the jungles of the state capital, into the maw of the Ukrainian mafia in New York City and onto distant beaches of Central America. Somehow, I missed this one when it first came out in 2009. I read the 2011 trade paperback version. Grady Service is a Conservation Officer (Woods Cop) based in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. In Death Roe, he is tipped to a conspiracy to add contraband salmon roe to Michigan roe by a state contractor. The contractor is responsible for harvesting salmon roe, returning some to the state, and uses the rest of it for commercial purposes. Grady steps on many toes trying to prove that the contractor and many state officials are corrupt.In this "episode", Grady has been promoted to the detective division of the state DNR. He frequently wishes he could return to his regular policing duties arresting poachers. He is full of angst because of the death of his fiancee and son in the last book, and the impending birth of his grandchild. Grady is like Jane Rizzoli from the male perspective.Had to get up in the middle of the night to finish it - couldn't wait.
What do You think about Death Roe: A Woods Cop Mystery (2008)?
Like the setting but the story was weak.
—EreCarter
