Heywood has crafted an entertaining bunch of characters. An absorbing narrative twists and turns in a setting ripe for corruption.

– The Dallas Morning News

Crisp writing, great scenery, quirky characters and an absorbing plot add to the appeal….

– The Wall Street Journal

Heywood is a master of his form.

– Detroit Free Press

Top-notch action scenes, engaging characters both major and minor, masterful dialogue, and a passionate sense of place make this a fine series.

– Publishers Weekly

Joseph Heywood writes with a voice as unique and rugged as Michigan’s Upper Peninsula itself.

– Steve Hamilton, Edgar® Award-winning author of The Lock Artist

Well written, suspenseful, and bleakly humorous while moving as quickly as a wolf cutting through the winter woods. In addition to strong characters and . . . compelling romance, Heywood provides vivid, detailed descriptions of the wilderness and the various procedures and techniques of conservation officers and poachers…. Highly recommended.

– Booklist

Taut and assured writing that hooked me from the start. Every word builds toward the ending, and along the way some of the writing took my breath away.

– Kirk Russell, author of Dead Game and Redback

[A] tightly written mystery/crime novel . . . that offers a nice balance between belly laughs, head-scratching plot lines, and the real grit of modern police work.

– Petersen's Hunting

In 1913, Theodore Roosevelt recruits former Rough Rider Lute Bapcat to become a game warden on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula in Heywood’s absorbing first in a new series. Outsized characters, both real (athlete George Gipp before his Notre Dame fame, union organizer Mother Jones) and fictional (randy businesswoman Jaquelle Frei; Lute’s Russian companion, Pinkhus Sergeyevich Zakov), pepper the narrative.

– Publishers Weekly

Joseph Heywood has long been a red-blooded American original and an author worth reading. With Red Jacket—a colorful and sprawling new novel with a terrific new protagonist named Lute Bapcat—he raises the bar to soaring new heights.

– C.J. Box, New York Times bestselling author of Force of Nature

Heywood mixes history—the [miners’] strike and the violence it engenders, culminating with the Christmas Eve Italian Hall Disaster in Calumet, Michigan, in which 73 died—with vivid characterizations in a . . . promising series opener.

– Booklist