Linwood Barclay, Lone Wolf

Lone Wolf

Linwood Barclay

Bantam, October 2006, $6.99

ISBN: 0553804553

Zack Walker is relived to learn that the body found at his fishing camp near his cabin belongs not to his father, but to Morton DeWort, a guest who was staying at the home that Timothy Wickens is renting from Arlen Walker. Timothy claims a bear mauled him, but a nurse at the camp insists that Morton died from dog bites. The Wickers own vicious canines are trained to kill people, so everyone avoids them, and even Chief Orville fears confronting them.

While his father recovers from injuries, Zack runs the camp and also investigates the Wickens. He finds their yard is a mess, filled with cars in various need of repair. The house smells of excrement, and the only apparent way in is via a padlocked gate. A picture of Timothy McVeigh on the wall increases Zack's worries, as does the feeling of horror from a family who believes the holocaust is a lie and Jews and Blacks are second class citizens. A feed store worker is killed and thousands of pounds of fertilizer is stolen. Timothy's daughter asks for refuge for her and her son from her father. Zack thinks the Wickens plan to explode a major bomb, but he lacks proof.

The Wickens are obviously a bunch of wackos, but no evidence proves they are doing anything illegal. Besides which, they have intimated everyone, including the police chief and lawyers, as Arlen learns when he cannot obtain legal help as one attorney's house was previously blown up. Zack sees the ties between murder, the stolen fertilizer and the alleged bear killing, but lacks proof that the Wickens plan something nasty. Though perhaps the villains are too evil, Linwood Barclay masterly provides deeply developed characters, starting with the paranoid Zack and following with the malevolent Wickens.