Out of Service — Joseph Heywood

Just when longtime Michigan conservation officer Grady Service is certain that he's seen it all, he learns once again that he hasn't.

After so many decades protecting his state's natural resources, here he still is, undercover yet again -- not in a case he's developed, but dumped into a case by the Feds (with his governor's approval). And as time passes, he can't figure out if what he's buried in is truly a religious nationalist militia group set on overturning the U.S. Constitution, or one man's cash cow, a sort of half-ass redneck Ponzi aimed solely at fattening a single bank account.

The newest Woods Cop Mystery, #12 in the legendary series, is another soaring brainchild of Joseph Heywood, author of the Woods Cop and Lute Bapcat Mysteries, both of which explore a way of life lived by Michigan game wardens over many different decades, from the Bapcat mysteries of the early 1900s to Grady Service and compatriots in contemporary times.