"A confluence of thrills, history, and mystery as twisty as the Colorado River." —MICKI BROWNING, author of Shadow Ridge When suspicious deaths befall a whitewater rafting expedition through Cataract Canyon in Canyonlands National Park, archaeologist Chuck Bender and his family recognize evil intent lies behind the tragedies. They must risk their lives and act before the murderer makes an already deadly journey on the Colorado River through Utah's red rock wilderness even deadlier—or turns on them instead.
In the ninth book in Graham's National Park Mystery Series, an archeologist must stop a century-old crime to save his daughter. “Death Valley Duel is a taut, smart, and propulsive thriller that will keep you spellbound. Scott Graham has written a love letter to the California desert, and to parenthood, and to the athletes who push themselves past limits most of us cannot even imagine. This novel is a steady, dangerous, and addictive race toward justice.” —NINA DE GRAMONT, New York Times bestselling author When archaeologist Chuck Bender makes a stunning discovery of a century-old crime, he believes it may be related to a series of deadly accidents plaguing the Whitney to Death 150, the world's toughest ultra trail-running race. While Chuck's teenage stepdaughter Carmelita races to win the competition, Chuck races to uncover the wicked intent lying behind the tragedies—before Carmelita becomes the next victim.
In The Dawn of Industrial Agriculture in Iowa E. Paul Durrenberger recounts the transformation of Iowa’s family farms into today’s agricultural industry through the lens of the lives and writings of Iowa novelist Paul Corey and poet Ruth Lechlitner. This anthropological biography analyzes Corey’s fiction, Lechlitner’s poetry, and their professional and personal correspondence to offer a new perspective on an era (1925–1947) that saw the collapse and remaking of capitalism in the United States, the rise of communism in the Soviet Union, the rise and defeat of fascism around the world, and the creation of a continuous warfare state in America. Durrenberger tells the story that Corey aimed to record and preserve of the industrialization of Iowa’s agriculture and the death of its family farms. He analyzes Corey’s regionalist focus on Iowa farming and regionalism’s contemporaneous association in Europe with rising fascism. He explores Corey’s adoption of naturalism, evident in his resistance to heroes and villains, to plot structure and resolution, and to moral judgment, as well as his ethnographic tendency to focus on groups rather than individuals. An unusual and wide-ranging study, The Dawn of Industrial Agriculture in Iowa offers important insight into the relationships among fiction, individual lives, and anthropological practice, as well as into a pivotal period in American history.
Janelle Ortega and Chuck Bender are drawn deep into a threatening web of hostility and deceit in Saguaro National Park in this page-turner of a mystery. "A winning blend of archaeology and intrigue, Graham's series turns our national parks into places of equal parts beauty, mystery, and danger.” —EMILY LITTLEJOHN, author of Lost Lake When Janelle Ortega’s cousin from Mexico is found brutally murdered at a remote petroglyph site in Saguaro National Park, she and her husband, archaeologist Chuck Bender, are drawn deep into a threatening web of hostility and deceit stretching south across the US-Mexico border and back in time a thousand years, to when the Hohokam people thrived in the Sonoran Desert. Book 8 in Scott Graham's National Park Mystery Series introduces readers to the landscapes and cultural histories of Saguaro National Park in southern Arizona, providing an inside look at the wonders of the wildly popular national park and its archaeological and cultural complexities.
"One part mystery, one part mysticism, and one part mayhem—Scott Graham's Yellowstone Standoff is all parts thrilling." —CRAIG JOHNSON, author of the Longmire Mysteries Yellowstone Standoff takes readers deep into the backcountry of a wildly popular national park. When Yellowstone National Park's grizzly bears and gray wolves suddenly and inexplicably go rogue, archaeologist Chuck Bender teams with his old friend, Yellowstone Chief Ranger Lex Hancock, to defend the suspect members of a group scientific expedition. Soon, Chuck finds himself defending the lives of his family as an unforeseen danger threatens in the storied national park's remote wilderness. SCOTT GRAHAM is the author of the acclaimed National Park Mystery series, featuring archaeologist Chuck Bender and Chuck's spouse Janelle Ortega. In addition to the National Park Mystery series, Scott is the author of five nonfiction books, including Extreme Kids, winner of the National Outdoor Book Award. Like most visitors to America's first national park, Graham was awestruck by Yellowstone as a child. His fascination with the park has continued in the years since, with numerous visits to Yellowstone's geyser– and wildlife–filled front country and its incomparable wilderness. Graham is an avid outdoorsman and amateur archaeologist who enjoys mountaineering, skiing, hunting, rock climbing, and whitewater rafting with his wife, who is an emergency physician, and their two sons. He lives in Durango, Colorado.
Whether you're a longtime outdoorsperson looking to get your kids involved in the activities you loved B.C. (Before Children), or have no outdoor experience but want to enjoy a new sport alongside your children, Extreme Kids will take the whole family on an adventure. Learn the basics of outdoor sports, some extreme (whitewater rafting, kiteboarding, backcountry skiing), and some less so (day hiking, peak bagging, flatwater canoeing), and how to share them with your kids. The book also includes practical and philosophical reasons for family outdoor adventuring. It's never too early to hit the trail (or the river, or the vertical wall) with your kids--each section has an easier version of an extreme sport to get the family's feet wet before diving in.
"An absorbing archaeological mystery, rich in historical detail and local atmosphere. With its colorful characters and fast–paced plot, Mesa Verde Victim is a fascinating find." —AUSMA ZEHANAT KHAN, author of A Deadly Divide Hounded by false accusations of murder, archaeologist Chuck Bender and his family risk their lives to track down an unknown killer on the loose in a rugged canyon on the remote western edge of Mesa Verde National Park, where ancient stone villages and secret burial sites, abandoned centuries ago by the Ancestral Puebloan people, harbor artifacts so rare and precious they're worth killing over. SCOTT GRAHAM is the National Outdoor Book Award–winning author of the six–volume National Park Mystery Series for Torrey House Press, including Canyon Sacrifice, Mountain Rampage, Yellowstone Standoff, Yosemite Fall, and Arches Enemy, and five other books. He is an avid outdoorsman who lives with his wife, an emergency physician, in southwestern Colorado.
The true stoy of a tragic love affair between an heroic SAS operative and an IRA terrorist. Scott Graham was decorated for hereoism in Northern Ireland and the Falklands, and he fought battles in which more than a dozen IRA terrorists were killed. Mairead Farrell was petite, young and darkly beautiful and she planted bombs for the IRA. Together the two shared a deadly and terible secret. They loved one another, against the taboos of both their armies, for 14 years. The clandestine love affair reached its crescendo with one of the most controversial incidents in the history of the SAS.
The very strange but nevertheless true story of the dark underbelly of a 1960s hippie utopia. Laurel Canyon in the 1960s and early 1970s was a magical place where a dizzying array of musical artists congregated to create much of the music that provided the soundtrack to those turbulent times. Members of bands like the Byrds, the Doors, Buffalo Springfield, the Monkees, the Beach Boys, the Turtles, the Eagles, the Flying Burrito Brothers, Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, Steppenwolf, CSN, Three Dog Night and Love, along with such singer/songwriters as Joni Mitchell, Judy Collins, James Taylor and Carole King, lived together and jammed together in the bucolic community nestled in the Hollywood Hills. But there was a dark side to that scene as well. Many didn’t make it out alive, and many of those deaths remain shrouded in mystery to this day. Far more integrated into the scene than most would like to admit was a guy by the name of Charles Manson, along with his murderous entourage. Also floating about the periphery were various political operatives, up-and-coming politicians and intelligence personnel – the same sort of people who gave birth to many of the rock stars populating the canyon. And all the canyon’s colorful characters – rock stars, hippies, murderers and politicos – happily coexisted alongside a covert military installation.
