Animal Life — Jerry Mevissen

Deputy Sheriff Bear Braham hopes to spend his last months before retirement in relative peace, hopes townspeople and country folk will use common sense, obey the law, stay clear of trouble. He's lived with them all his life and plans to retire among them. But there's the wounded veteran who hates law enforcement, the three-times married woman whose husbands die mysteriously, the gopher trapper who won the lottery. Stack these on top of personal issues--his wife, the town hairdresser, who knows more of the facts of cases than he does; his son whom he considers a better man than him but who keeps his distance.In fifteen stories, Jerry Mevissen returns to the people and places of his previous collections, Broken Hart and Good Shepherd. With glaring honesty and profound respect, he allows the characters to tell their stories, to win your affection, or to thank God you don't live among them.