Wild Instinct

Edgar winner Parker (Desperation Reef) excels in this shrewd police procedural that introduces Lew Gale, a “post-traumatic Marine with a taste for liquor and no desire to talk about what he’[s] been through.” After returning from Afghanistan, Lew has become an Orange County sheriff’s detective. He draws on his training as a hunter when he’s asked to track down the mountain lion that killed Bennet Tarlow, scion of a powerful real estate family, on land his relatives had donated to become a wilderness park. Before Lew can find and shoot the cougar, the case turns much more complex. Bennet’s autopsy reveals that he actually died from two bullets fired into the back of his skull at close range, and that the mountain lion only mauled him after he was dead. Along with his new partner, Daniela Mendez, Gale changes tack to track down the human killer, even as his once positive impression of the Tarlow clan is complicated by news that they were planning a development on the ancestral land of an Indigenous tribe Lew himself is descended from. With effective surprises, memorable characters, and simmering SoCal atmosphere, this goes down smooth. Parker has done it again. (Nov.)

This review has been updated.