There are killers at large on the high plains of southern Arizona, and some of them are human. When the owner of a nature preserve is murdered along with her foreman, Deputy Sheriff Cal Creede searches for a motive. Was it because both victims were helping border crossers find their way north, or was there a dark secret about the ranch both died trying to protect? Deputy Creede must root out corruption, greed, and pure evil in order to solve the case, while the largest feline predator in t...

Forensic botany is the application of plant science to the resolution of legal questions. A plant's anatomy and its ecological requirements are in some cases species specific and require taxonomic verification; correct interpretation of botanical evidence can give vital information about a crime scene or a suspect or victim. The use of botanical evidence in legal investigations in North America is relatively recent. The first botanical testimony to be heard in a North American court concer...

“Sam Sawyer may become my favorite crime fighter. I can’t wait for the next book in this new Florida Keys mystery series …”—Maryjane Elizabeth Jones, Heat Until BoilingThey called Arthur Broom “The Glades Man,” not because he lived way out there in the river of grass, but because he was spending all his money trying to save it. And as one of the richest men in Florida there was much he could do to beat back the onslaughts of agriculture and development that were threatening ...

“Sam Sawyer may become my favorite crime fighter. I can’t wait for the next book in this new Florida Keys mystery series …”—Maryjane Elizabeth Jones, Heat Until BoilingThe fourth book in the Florida Keys Mystery series.Fishing guide and part-time sleuth Sam Sawyer is with a client in the remote backcountry of Everglades National Park, when they come upon the abandoned remains of an old red canoe. Forensic evidence suggests it may have belonged to Seb...

Far to the south of Arizona’s sprawling metropolises, a rolling savanna of grass, oak, and mesquite rises above the surrounding deserts. The Sonoita Plain is a basin of a thousand square miles bracketed by mountains, a land once the domain of cowboys that is now more and more the focus of exurban development. These southwestern grasslands are both typical of and distinct from those of the Great Plains—similarly shaped by drought, grazing, and fire, but with a different flo...

In the aftermath of Hurricane Irma, the Director of the Florida Keys Bird Observatory has gone missing, along with his boat. Zoologist and fishing guide Sam Sawyer joins in a hunt for Frank Alvarado that takes him from the wilds of the Everglades backcountry to an uninhabited island where he makes a gruesome discovery. Along the way Sam encounters nefarious characters who may have wanted frank’s disappearance to be a permanent one. Was it a team of shark poachers engaged in the illegal har...

A recently retired schoolteacher, Grace Vieumilliers is busy adjusting to life as a newlywed and deputy sheriff specializing in forensic botany, when one of her best friends is found murdered on a hiking trail. In this, their third Arizona Borderland Mystery, Carl and Jane Bock once again take us to the grasslands and savannahs of southernmost Arizona, where Grace works with others in the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Department to search for the killer. Suspects include a jealous husband, a...

This book presents a broad view of contemporary research in evolutionary plant ecology. It illustrates the broad spectrum of life history stages which affect plant reproductive success in some fashion.

Sam Sawyer is a fishing guide and part-time sleuth living in the Florida Keys. He escaped a floundering academic career to realize his childhood dream of becoming a guide. But it has come at a heavy price, because his wife and colleague has chosen to remain behind in the halls of ivy. They see each other all too rarely, and lately things have gotten decidedly chilly. Sam’s life takes an unexpected turn when he discovers a pair of shoes lying next to a huge crocodile on a sandy bank deep in...

In 1540 Francisco Vásquez de Coronado led an expeditionary force from Mexico into what is now the American Southwest. His journey provides the backdrop for this contemporary mystery novel. Deputy Sheriff Calvin Creede mostly works alone in one corner of Arizona’s smallest county. His job has been a simple one until the day a flash flood exposes the rusted remains of an old pickup. A body in the truck turns out to be the long-lost son of a prominent ranching family, and forensic evidence sh...

There is a killer at large in the oak grasslands of southeastern Arizona whose weapon of choice is a deadly variety of southwestern rattlesnake. Deputy Sheriff Calvin Creede doesn’t like snakes, but with the help of veteran herpetologist Dr. Hazel Smith and his fiancé, Maria Obregon, he seeks to find the mountain cave from which a collection of Mojave rattlesnakes recently was looted. Then he must determine which of a variety of suspects has taken them home. Was it the leader of a gang of ...

Fear of bears seems almost to be part of what it is to be human. Our species emerged out of the depths of time into a world already populated by these great carnivores. Before we mastered iron and later developed firearms, we had few defences against bears—only watchful caution and elaborate ceremonies and sacrifices to ward off fear.Where human populations grow, bears have traditionally dwindled or disappeared. But when we return to the wild, to places where bears still survive, a...