Review | Bearskin by James A. McLaughlin

Rice Moore is a biologist and new caretaker of the Turk Mountain Preserve in the Appalachian mountains. He spends his days logging data entry of wildlife, maintaining tracking equipment and working on the owners’ cabin. After serving time in prison and running away from drug cartels, his sole objective is to lay low. But his peace is disturbed by the discovery of bear carcasses missing their paws and gallbladders in the forest preserve.

Moore learns there is a thriving bear poaching industry where he lives. Soon, he becomes obsessed with catching the poachers and decides to take matters into his own hands. His involvement causes friction with the local hunters and law enforcement. Even worse, his past may be catching up with him.

A roar in the trees on the mountain: the wind reaching the meadow in a moment, harder and colder than before, ending the afternoon. He waited, and felt the sun’s light slowly enter his body. He had nothing but these old bones; he was made of light and air, water and earth.

Bearskin is a slow burn and gorgeously written. The descriptions of the plants, the animals, and everything in the forest are vivid, evocative and lovingly detailed. As someone who has no desire to live in nature, I was nonetheless consumed by the prose. The author takes his time to build a setting where everything feels earthy and grounded, yet there’s also a dreamlike quality to the elements.

In an early scene, Rice Moore is dealing with a beehive in the cabin he’s refurbishing. A man appears, asking for water. There’s a surreal moment where Moore wonders if this is really happening.

“I don’t think you’re real,” Rice said, but the man didn’t reply. The crickets ticking in the grass made a pervasive sound that could have been coming from the air itself.

The substantive writing means Bearskin veers more towards a literary novel than a thriller. There isn’t a lot of action and it isn’t too concerned with the plot. Moore is a protagonist that is both a badass hero and a man on the edge of a collapse into his own mind. His skills seems a bit fantastical but the book does explain how he ends up that way, so I’m willing to overlook it.  On the plus side, I love how the book goes into the poaching industry’s devastating effects on flora and fauna.

Besides Moore, the other prominent character is his predecessor, Sara Birkeland. Fearless and independent, she’s the type of female character I love reading about. Moore also has a sort of friend in Dempsey Boger. He’s a local poacher who despite his misgivings couldn’t help but take Moore’s side.

The themes of violence, nature and survival is explored in interesting ways. We see it in the psyche of Rice Moore, who isn’t an innocent man but believes he could still be good. It’s in the strength of Sara Birkeland, who despite everything she went through still believes in the value of protecting the wildlife. There’s brutality in the drug wars, the poaching, the police work, all entangled into a mess that Moore has to figure out.

But for a book that has some ugly moments, it’s the other parts that stay with me the most. There are times when Moore experiences a fugue state and immerses himself with his surroundings. He sees the beauty of nature in the sunlight through the trees, in the rush of the river, in the face of a bear. Moving and illusive, Bearskin is highly recommended.

About the author: James A. McLaughlin

Photo by Zdeněk Macháček