In the Shadow of the Mountain — John D. McLaughlin

An aging Vietnam veteran reflects on his life and the effects of that controversial war in this story of intrigue and adventure set in the early 1970s deep in the Gila Wilderness and the small, sleepy town of Silver City, New Mexico. Jack Wetzel has returned home from the Vietnam War. Hoping to find peace in a life that has been inundated with death and violence, he finds work with the U.S. Forest Service as a Wilderness Ranger in the Gila National Forest and soon faces unforseen calamities and unprecedented dangers-unexplained murders, a kidnapping, raging forest fires set to kill him as he searches for answers and to find those responsible. As he struggles under emotional distress and attempts to overcome arduous physical hurdles will Wetzel's war experience assist or deter him from doing what he must in dealing with ruthless, bad men, who kill whenever it pleases them?