James A. McLaughlin
Author of Bearskin
Works by James A. McLaughlin
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"Bearskin" is a rare find: a literary thriller that is as lyrical as it is muscular.
Instead of choosing between writing a literary book about how a man can surrender himself to the dark sentience of an ancient forest and walk out more himself than he was before or a thriller about a man deeply maimed by violence who, although living an almost invisible life in the wilds, knows his past will catch up with him, James McLaughlinhas written a book that is both a literary achievement and a show more page-turning, viscerally realistic thriller.
Two things caught and kept my attention in throughout this book: the development of Rice Moore, the man at the heart of the story and the sometimes total immersion into the ancient Appalachian forest. Either one would have been reason enough to read this book. Together they became compelling.
Rice Moore is a great creation. Recent acts of extreme violence against him and by him have left him emotionally scarred and subject to fugues states and hallucinations. A solitary man who no longer entirely trusts himself to play well with others, he seeks isolation, partly to hide from his enemies and partly to avoid people. Alone in the forest, feeling its pulse next to his own, his inability to let go of his territoriality or his instinct for violence, repeatedly draws him into conflict with the people around him.
Yet this isn't a one-man-triumphs-against-the-world sort of story. Moore is losing his mind. His fugue states, his obsession with protecting the black bears on the estate he is warden of and his personal ghosts, lead him down a path where he literally puts on another skin and enters a different kind of consciousness. James McLaughlin's ability to help me experience this altering of states as something real and raw was deeply impressive.
Even though "Bearskin" is as fast-paced and propulsive as a thriller needs to be, McLaughlin is able to incorporate the forest and its fauna and fauna as a deeply experienced part of the story. Ecology is more than a plot device or a scientific concept here, it is about understanding our place in the world and its rhythms.
In addition to these two strong themes, McLaughlin gives us an insight into the poaching of black bears, the vengeance of the Mexican drug cartels and the rules and rituals of outlaw motorcycle clubs and an up-close experience of violence that is hard to look away from.
I recommend the audiobook version of "Bearskin" as MacLeod Andrews' narration enhanced my experience of the book.
Click on the SoundCloud link below to hear a sample.
[soundcloud url="https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/441607044" params="color=#ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true&visual=true" width="100%" height="300" iframe="true" /] show less
Instead of choosing between writing a literary book about how a man can surrender himself to the dark sentience of an ancient forest and walk out more himself than he was before or a thriller about a man deeply maimed by violence who, although living an almost invisible life in the wilds, knows his past will catch up with him, James McLaughlinhas written a book that is both a literary achievement and a show more page-turning, viscerally realistic thriller.
Two things caught and kept my attention in throughout this book: the development of Rice Moore, the man at the heart of the story and the sometimes total immersion into the ancient Appalachian forest. Either one would have been reason enough to read this book. Together they became compelling.
Rice Moore is a great creation. Recent acts of extreme violence against him and by him have left him emotionally scarred and subject to fugues states and hallucinations. A solitary man who no longer entirely trusts himself to play well with others, he seeks isolation, partly to hide from his enemies and partly to avoid people. Alone in the forest, feeling its pulse next to his own, his inability to let go of his territoriality or his instinct for violence, repeatedly draws him into conflict with the people around him.
Yet this isn't a one-man-triumphs-against-the-world sort of story. Moore is losing his mind. His fugue states, his obsession with protecting the black bears on the estate he is warden of and his personal ghosts, lead him down a path where he literally puts on another skin and enters a different kind of consciousness. James McLaughlin's ability to help me experience this altering of states as something real and raw was deeply impressive.
Even though "Bearskin" is as fast-paced and propulsive as a thriller needs to be, McLaughlin is able to incorporate the forest and its fauna and fauna as a deeply experienced part of the story. Ecology is more than a plot device or a scientific concept here, it is about understanding our place in the world and its rhythms.
In addition to these two strong themes, McLaughlin gives us an insight into the poaching of black bears, the vengeance of the Mexican drug cartels and the rules and rituals of outlaw motorcycle clubs and an up-close experience of violence that is hard to look away from.
I recommend the audiobook version of "Bearskin" as MacLeod Andrews' narration enhanced my experience of the book.
Click on the SoundCloud link below to hear a sample.
[soundcloud url="https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/441607044" params="color=#ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true&visual=true" width="100%" height="300" iframe="true" /] show less
This book provides a wonderful combination of observations on the natural world, a flawed but likeable main character, a complex plot, and erudite writing. It contains a diverse assortment of topics that the author skillfully weaves together into a cohesive story: old growth forests, ecology, herpetology, bear behavior, hunting dogs, federal and local law enforcement, drug cartels, even ghillie suits!
Rice, the main character, originally a biologist from the desert southwest, has become show more caretaker of a wilderness preserve in the Appalachians. He is trying to start a new life under a pseudonym to elude a Mexican drug cartel. When he discovers carcasses of black bears on the preserve, paws severed, and gallbladders removed, he attempts to entrap the poachers, putting him up against a black-market ring. Rice is edgy, easily startled by the animals that surround him, but has a wry sense of humor about it. He develops an affection for the natural habitat and comes to appreciate the solitude, though it occasionally affects his state of mind.
“The giant trees were like dormant gods, vibrating with something he couldn’t name, not quite sentience, each one different from the others, each telling its own centuries-long story. On the forest floor, chestnut logs dead since the blight had rotted into chest-high berms soft with thick mosses, whispering quietly. Something called out and he turned to face a looming tulip tree, gnarled and bent like an old man, hollowed out by rot, lightning, ancient fires. His skin tingled.”
The people of the area are much more nuanced than the usual stereotypes. The contrasts between wealthy and impoverished people add another dimension to the story. For example, the preserve is owned by a family’s charitable foundation, and some locals resent that the natural resources cannot be used to support the regional economy.
I found this book entertaining and educational. It will appeal to readers of mysteries and thrillers that like a complex storyline, appreciate richly detailed writing, and have an affinity for the natural world. If you want non-stop action and lots of twists and turns, look elsewhere. show less
Rice, the main character, originally a biologist from the desert southwest, has become show more caretaker of a wilderness preserve in the Appalachians. He is trying to start a new life under a pseudonym to elude a Mexican drug cartel. When he discovers carcasses of black bears on the preserve, paws severed, and gallbladders removed, he attempts to entrap the poachers, putting him up against a black-market ring. Rice is edgy, easily startled by the animals that surround him, but has a wry sense of humor about it. He develops an affection for the natural habitat and comes to appreciate the solitude, though it occasionally affects his state of mind.
“The giant trees were like dormant gods, vibrating with something he couldn’t name, not quite sentience, each one different from the others, each telling its own centuries-long story. On the forest floor, chestnut logs dead since the blight had rotted into chest-high berms soft with thick mosses, whispering quietly. Something called out and he turned to face a looming tulip tree, gnarled and bent like an old man, hollowed out by rot, lightning, ancient fires. His skin tingled.”
The people of the area are much more nuanced than the usual stereotypes. The contrasts between wealthy and impoverished people add another dimension to the story. For example, the preserve is owned by a family’s charitable foundation, and some locals resent that the natural resources cannot be used to support the regional economy.
I found this book entertaining and educational. It will appeal to readers of mysteries and thrillers that like a complex storyline, appreciate richly detailed writing, and have an affinity for the natural world. If you want non-stop action and lots of twists and turns, look elsewhere. show less
[Bearskin] is the first novel by James McLaughlin. It's a thriller and a mystery, a story of nature and of sinister surveillance and mayhem. Rice Moore, the main character, is under considerable duress, much of it the result of his own actions, but he's steadfast and loyal to the end.
Much of the action takes place at the Turk Mountain Preserve in western Virginia, described as "a thousand acres of primary forest passed over by eighteenth and nineteenth century loggers and protected by the show more Traver family ever since." A continuing problem is that some locals resent that the property is closed to them, hunting prohibited. It's full of prime timber—first-growth timber—that in the minds of local loggers and sawyers should be harvested. Rice has only recently assumed the mantle of the Preserve's caretaker, the solitary observer of the habitat and its flora and fauna, the lone guardian, the face of the Preserve and the family that owns it in the surrounding communities.
One morning, Rice spots a figure moving through the woods; it's a one-armed man shouldering a backpack and hoping for a drink of water. He explains his presence as a mushroom hunter, telling Rice he'd picked mushrooms on the neighboring national forest, not the Preserve.
The mushroom picker leads Rice up the mountain to a headless body, swarming with bluebottle and greenbottle flies.
Then he vanishes into the forest.
What is the caretaker to do? Call the game warden? The sheriff? We know, from a brief prologue, that Rice has a checkered past, back in a Mexican prison. And we know he fears retribution "with prejudice" should his whereabouts, even in the backwoods of Virginia, become known. He's got to go it alone.
There's more. Oh, there's a lot more.
Both of my thumbs are pointing up. show less
Much of the action takes place at the Turk Mountain Preserve in western Virginia, described as "a thousand acres of primary forest passed over by eighteenth and nineteenth century loggers and protected by the show more Traver family ever since." A continuing problem is that some locals resent that the property is closed to them, hunting prohibited. It's full of prime timber—first-growth timber—that in the minds of local loggers and sawyers should be harvested. Rice has only recently assumed the mantle of the Preserve's caretaker, the solitary observer of the habitat and its flora and fauna, the lone guardian, the face of the Preserve and the family that owns it in the surrounding communities.
One morning, Rice spots a figure moving through the woods; it's a one-armed man shouldering a backpack and hoping for a drink of water. He explains his presence as a mushroom hunter, telling Rice he'd picked mushrooms on the neighboring national forest, not the Preserve.
"They's somethin' to show ye." The man turned at the waist and jerked his head back the way he'd come, back up the mountain. "Sup thar."
"What is it?"
"Y'orta see't y'sef."
The mushroom picker leads Rice up the mountain to a headless body, swarming with bluebottle and greenbottle flies.
"Done skint this'n" the mushroom picker said. "Ah seen more'n a dozen. Some's skint. Most times he don't take nothin' but they hands and they galls." He began to pace back and forth under the tree, muttering to himself… Rice stared, struck by the human resemblance. After a few moments he felt able to speak.
"It's a bear?"
The man started, as if he'd forgotten about Rice.
"S'bar." He spoke through it teeth, his voice strange, lower and harsher than before. He seemed angry. "She-bar."
Then he vanishes into the forest.
What is the caretaker to do? Call the game warden? The sheriff? We know, from a brief prologue, that Rice has a checkered past, back in a Mexican prison. And we know he fears retribution "with prejudice" should his whereabouts, even in the backwoods of Virginia, become known. He's got to go it alone.
There's more. Oh, there's a lot more.
Both of my thumbs are pointing up. show less
Can't believe this is a first novel
The author's use of language is expressive and beautiful. The imagery of the forest and its denizens is wonderful and awesome. The relationship that develops between the main character and his predecessor is restrained enough to be believable, especially for two PTSD sufferers as these. I think there might be a few "Mary Sue" elements in the main character, who's a bit too accomplished and invulnerable, but that's probably a hard temptation to resist. show more Anyway I raced through this book and found myself wishing for another. I'm looking forward to seeing what McLaughlin does next. show less
The author's use of language is expressive and beautiful. The imagery of the forest and its denizens is wonderful and awesome. The relationship that develops between the main character and his predecessor is restrained enough to be believable, especially for two PTSD sufferers as these. I think there might be a few "Mary Sue" elements in the main character, who's a bit too accomplished and invulnerable, but that's probably a hard temptation to resist. show more Anyway I raced through this book and found myself wishing for another. I'm looking forward to seeing what McLaughlin does next. show less
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