“Bear Ridge,” by Elaine Long (University of New Mexico Press, 291 pages, $24.95)
Today no one blinks an eye when a female wildlife biologist is assigned to track and manage any one of the more than 300 species across the West. But award-winning author Elaine Long takes us back to 1990 when Kelly Jones, a 23-year-old biology graduate student at Brigham Young University, is struggling for a place in the male-dominated bear-study program, conducted for the Division of Wildlife and the U.S. Forest Service in the mountains of Utah.
Kelly knows how difficult it is to appease the hunters and ranchers, animal activists and outdoor enthusiasts who have their own interests in the bears. But when her adviser agrees to let her join the two male students who will conduct an all-summer study, she knows she faces the tougher problem of being accepted on her own merits.
From the beginning, project manager Rick Santini makes it clear that he believes no woman is up to the physical demands and primitive living conditions of extended field work. She senses his partner, Adam Wainwright, is more accepting, but he is not the kind of person to speak up for her. Even on the last night before they are to leave, Kelly’s boyfriend, Matt, a lumber contractor, uses every romantic trick in the book to persuade her to stay and marry him.
Once in the field, however, a semblance of comradeship slowly begins to develop. When her boyfriend shows up, Kelly holds off his advances. But on the occasions when she finds herself alone with either Rick or Adam, she comes dangerously close to breaking the university’s Code of Honor.
During a return trip to Provo in mid-summer, Kelly discovers the time away from home has allowed her to see a different side of her parents and her sister. With a sense of growing confidence, she persuades her adviser to let her return to the cabin – this time alone.
The solitude is more intense than she had expected, even frightening. But there is work to do, and she again becomes immersed in tracing the bears. Eventually Kelly comes to know herself, and the story’s ending is as inevitable as it is satisfactory.
Inspired in part by the author’s experience gained during field research on a BYU bear study project, the novel offers readers an accurate picture of the challenges faced by wildlife managers as well as a quiet story of a woman’s determination to carve out a future of her own making.
“Walk Proud, Stand Tall,” by Johnny D. Boggs (Five Star Publishing, 235 pages, $25.95)
At the age of 70, Lin Garrett is a legend in his own time, a lawman who, unlike the Garrett named Pat, never tracked an outlaw so he could shoot him from ambush.
The year is 1913 and automobiles have replaced the horse and buggy. Instead of ranchers, the town’s sidewalks are filled with tourists eager to see the Old West and the Grand Canyon. And, to add insult to injury, Garrett, no longer a lawman, lives in the Coconino County Hospital for the Indigent. The days are long. Occasionally, his old friend and one-time deputy, Randolph Corbett, whom he calls Old Corb, comes to visit. Otherwise, Lin spends his time oiling a saddle he found in the stable.
It has been 25 years since he put the outlaw Ollie Sinclair in the Yuma Penitentiary. Perhaps he has lost track of time, but he is surprised when he learns that Sinclair has just been released from prison, organized a gang and pulled off a daring robbery said to total $80,000. Lawmen are sent after him.
But back at the County Home, Lin thinks he knows where to look. He and Old Corb appoint themselves a posse of two. They go off to buy supplies where they encounter Deputy Sheriff Paine, who, whether on a whim or out of good sense, names them his deputies. And they saddle up.
Lin is sure Sinclair will stop to see Holly Grant Mossman, now a widow, but once the woman Sinclair loved. Lin had loved her too, but he was always a man of few words.
When they come across Holly Mossman’s son near death in a wrecked truck, the plot takes yet another turn.
The author’s deft hand at characterization and the subtle way he fills in the blanks as the story progresses makes “Walk Proud, Stand Tall” a tender story hard to resist.
Sybil Downing writes a monthly column on new regional fiction.
