-MINNESOTA BOOK AWARD WINNER-
CARY J. GRIFFITH
THE BOOKS
Contact Information: Liliane Opsomer FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tel: 205-443-7981
Email: liliane@adventurewithkeen.com
Wolf Kill
(A Sam Rivers Mystery)
by Cary J. Griffith
$16.95 – ISBN 978-1-64755-057-8 – June 15, 2021 – 256 pages
Publisher: Adventure Publications, an Imprint of AdventureKEEN
A decades-old promise haunts Sam Rivers, but the wildlife biologist refuses to return home―not with his abusive and estranged father still there. Sam left the family farm some 20 years ago. He found solace in nature and built a respected career as a special agent for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. His experiences have given him a penchant for understanding predators―a skill he’ll need, now more than ever.
After his father’s mysterious death, Sam is lured back to his hometown of Defiance, in northern Minnesota, to fulfill his mother’s dying wish. But all is not as it seems. Sam breaks into his childhood home during a howling winter storm and discovers something sinister. His suspicions are heightened after a bizarre wolf attack on local livestock. The events lead the special agent to a series of clues that could change everything he knows―or thinks he knows―about the town, his family, and himself.
With the help of alluring reporter Diane Talbott, Sam must unravel the wolf kill and learn what really happened to his father―a man Sam has hated for most of his life. It is a case unlike any he’s worked before. His knowledge of frigid winters, wolves, and wilderness will be put to the test, as he tries to solve the case―and stay alive.
In Wolf Kill, natural history writer Cary J. Griffith introduces readers to Sam Rivers, the predator’s predator, and weaves a masterful tale of danger and suspense in the far north.
For a high-resolution cover image, a review copy, or to schedule an interview with the author, contact Liliane Opsomer at 205-443-7981 or liliane@adventurewithkeen.com.
“In Northern Minnesota, winter is full of dangers that can kill: hard cold, hard men, and hungry wolves. Cary J. Griffith brings the menace of all three into play in his riveting new thriller. Returning to the childhood home he fled 20 years earlier, Sam Rivers finds himself battling a group of scheming reprobates and struggling against an avalanche of painful memories. Griffith’s intimacy with the territory he writes about comes through in every line. I loved this novel and recommend it highly. But I suggest you enjoy it under a warm blanket. Honestly, I’ve never read a book that evokes the fierce winter landscape of the North Country better than Wolf Kill.”— William Kent Krueger, Edgar Award–winning author of This Tender Land
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The story of the Ham Lake fire, at the time the most destructive wildfire in modern Minnesota history—the blaze, the firefighters’ battle, the human toll
Gunflint Burning is a comprehensive account of the dramatic events around the Ham Lake fire of 2007, one of the largest wildfires in Minnesota history. In sharp detail, Cary J. Griffith describes the key events of the fire as they unfold, transporting readers to the front lines of an epic struggle that was at times heroic, tragic, and sublime.
"Skillfully wielding his narrative talent, Cary J. Griffith leads readers into the blistering heart of the 2007 Ham Lake fire, one of the most destructive in Minnesota history." — Peter M. Leschak, author of Ghosts of the Fireground and Letters from Side Lake
"In Gunflint Burning, Cary Griffith has penned the consummate story of one of the great wildfire disasters in the history of Minnesota. Expertly reported and cleverly written, this account of the Ham Lake fire of 2007 reads like a thriller and an environmental treatise all in one. This is no coincidence, given Griffith’s bona fides. Gunflint Burning is one of those rare books for just about anyone. " — Peter Geye, author of Wintering
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To view the 1:33 minute book trailer for Gunflint Burning, click on the play button. Video produced by Noah Griffith, June 2018.
In the wilderness, one false step can make the difference between a delightful respite and a brush with death.
On a beautiful summer afternoon in 1998, Dan Stephens, a 22-year-old canoeist, was leading a trip deep into Ontario’s Quetico Provincial Park. He stepped into a gap among cedar trees to look for the next portage—and did not return.
Three years later, Jason Rasmussen, a third-year medical student who loved the forest’s solitude, walked alone into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness on a crisp fall day. After a two-day trek into a remote area of the woods, he stepped away from his campsite and made a series of seemingly trivial mistakes that left him separated from his supplies, wet, and lost, as cold darkness fell.
Enduring days without food or shelter, these men faced the full harsh force of wilderness, the place that they had sought out for tranquil refuge from city life. Lost in the Wild takes readers with them as they enter realms of pain, fear, and courage, as they suffer dizzying confusion and unending frustration, and as they overcome seemingly insurmountable hurdles in a race to survive.
About Lost in the Wild
"Lost in the Wild is a book you'll cancel appointments to read. Shelve it between the works of Jack London and Jon Krakauer..."
--University of Minnesota Alumni Magazine
"... gripping ... admirable economy and a flair for suspense ..."
--Washington Post
"... harrowing ... saavy ... Griffith writes lucidly throughout ..."
Publishers Weekly
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A cave diver exploring a spring, blinded by a cloud of silt and trussed like a bug in a web of his own dive line, must find a way out before his tank empties. A group of young people exploring a manmade cave underneath a St. Paul neighborhood discover a dangerous cache from the 1950s. Five teenagers enter another of St. Paul’s caves after a fire has robbed the air of oxygen, and only two emerge alive. With these compelling incidents, author Cary J. Griffith introduces readers to the challenges and dangers of caving.
Griffith then recounts the amazing story of Goliath’s Cave in southeastern Minnesota’s karst region. Discovered by recreational cavers in the 1980s, this extensive complex remained largely and tantalizingly unexplored: it could be entered only through a sump that was rarely open. When a proposal to start a quarry threatened the cave’s existence, state officials purchased the entryway, designated it as a scientific preserve, and closed off public access. The cavers, furious, found their own highly effective and deeply controversial way into the cave. Squeezing through tiny openings, scuba diving through silt-filled waters, scaling walls, and traversing crevasses, they painstakingly investigated Goliath’s ever-further reaches in an exploration that continues to this day.
With a mix of adventure, suspense, politics, science, discovery, and wonder, Opening Goliath takes readers to a subterranean wilderness where exploration and preservation sometimes coexist—and sometimes collide.
About Opening Goliath
“In nonfiction that reads like a fast-paced thriller, Cary J. Griffith explores the incredible beauty and danger of Minnesota’s caves, along with the personalities of those driven to enter the unknown, whatever the risks. But beyond the drama of exploration, Griffith presents the very human conflict that results when a newfound cave system becomes a public trust—and a political football, bounced between bureaucracies, well-meaning experts, and the recreational cavers who discovered the labyrinthine passages, all of whom claim to know the ‘best’ way to protect fragile underground wilderness. A great read and an insightful look at the politics of conservation, Opening Goliath is destined to become a classic among cavers and noncavers alike.”
--Michael Ray Taylor, author of Cave Passages: Roaming the Underground Wilderness and Caves: Exploring Hidden Realms
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