Border Prey

by Jessica Speart

Book Overview

The Beeler Mystery Series publishes outstanding mysteries by writers most popular with library patrons. Titles selected for the program are not only well written and enjoyable. They also do not... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0380810409
• ISBN13: 9780380810406
• Release Date: January 2000
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Length: 282 Pages
• Weight: 0.34 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 4.2" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

Border Prey

In BORDER PREY, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Special Agent Rachel Porter has been booted from her post in Miami to the ever scenic El Paso/New Mexico border with Mexico. Here in the desert Southwest, she takes on the illegal monkey trade, lecherous ranchers, mad scientists, and vultures. Dealing with smuggling and the misuse of monkeys is bad enough, but the stakes are raised when her only informant is murdered. However, Rachel is no shrinking violet; she and her in-your-face attitude will get the job done, one way or another.Like Speart's previous novels (GATOR AIDE, TORTOISE SOUP, and BIRD BRAINED), one of the book's biggest strengths is its original, colorful characters! Rachel herself is smart and determined, in addition to possessing a wonderfully dry wit. The supporting characters, from Rachel's tracking mentor Sonny Harris to the lecherous rancher Frederick Ulysses Krabbs (a.k.a. F.U. Krabbs) to the mysterious Dan Kitrell along with numerous other characters, add regional flavor and a richness to the book. And, Rachel is not immune to romance, but Jake Santou hasn't come back into her life just yet.Perhaps the book's biggest strength is its humor, not unlike that of Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series. The humor comes from both Rachel's dry wit and the Lucy/Desi type physical comedy situations that she gets herself into. This colorful, zany, mystery is about serious topics (murder, animal smuggling, and research), but will make most readers chuckle if not laugh-out-loud. This is a very entertaining read!

Rachel Porter rules - Prickly and passionate heroine

Border Prey is a book that really reads like an action- adventure thriller movie:- full to bursting with sensory imagery and personal asides from the hard-edged but soft-hearted fish and wildlife agent, Rachel Porter, who recounts the story in ultra-first-person narrative. The action is super-charged with suspense, danger, and genuine outrage at the environmental atrocities that we all know go on, but don't really stop to think about until we read a book like this. I found it near impossible to put it down once I got into the thick of it.It's always hard to put yourself in someone else's skin, and Rachel's can be a little abrasive at first. She has clearly been jaded by more than a few confrontations with the slimy underbelly of human nature (see books 1, 2, and 3 of the series)and her outlook has become a little, shall we say, prickly....until you get to know her better. Then, when you least expect it, Porter shows her vulnerability; lapsing into musings of lost love and self doubt while breathlessly watching the death-defying aerial mating of bald eagles, or stifling child-like exuberance while watching a coyote being released from a trap, or waxing maternal gazing the eyes of a trained chimp.And then of course, she's so damned true to her cause, and so in love with nature and animals you can't help but soften to her, then sweat bullets with her, even choke up with tears along with her, and, of course, root for her and her cause. It's really fun! I do hope, (and I'm sure that Speart intends us to)we see through the broad, often comical strokes that the colorful characters are drawn with, and become aware that many of these scenarios are frighteningly for real.

Border Prey

Border Prey combines all the best of reading. You are well entertained with the characters (Rachel is wisecracking and fun, yet human and interesting) while a great mystery unfolds, keeping you reading, to the end;and yet underlying is a message of truth we all should be aware of. Jessica Speart has it all as she takes you step by step, through the mystery and life of her character Rachel Porter, rogue Fish and Wildlife Agent. Dangers, clues and surprises, on every page, you cant anticipate the next move and yet its fun and very entertaining and in the end when you think about you have learned something very real. A great read and a great book, I look forward to the next, I am hooked.

A Mystery with "Attitude"

Agent Rachel Porter is the US Fish and Wildlife Service's answer to National Park Ranger Anna Pigeon. While Anna defends the environment from the "bad guys," Rachel puts her life on the line to protect endangered species. In "Border Prey," it's helpless primates who are threatened by the greedy and ruthless. Rachel is a protagonist with "attitude," giving as good as she gets with humor and heart on every page. As usual, author Speart has surrounded Agent Porter with an off-beat cast of characters to spice up the plot and also adds a slam-bang climax. If you like the writing of Janet Evanovich, Sue Grafton, and Katy Munger, you'll love Jessica Speart's books. While "Border Prey" stands on it's own, you might also want to read the author's earlier works--"Gator Aide," "Bird-Brained," and "Tortoise Soup"--to quadruple your mystery pleasure.