Cary J. Griffith

Special agent Sam Rivers' investigation of a bizarre wolf attack leads to evidence of murder, conspiracy, and shocking family secrets in this wildlife-themed thriller.

A Sam Rivers Mystery

Wolf Kill

True survival odysseys of two wilderness trekkers who entered the woods in search of tranquility but found something else entirely.

Danger and Survival in the North Woods

Lost in the Wild

Killing Monarchs

Evidence in the death of a wealthy business owner points to an unexplained--and unlikely--cougar attack, but special agent Sam Rivers risks his life to uncover the truth.

Cougar Claw

Sam Rivers, special agent for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, returns to Minnesota's Iron Range. He investigates wolf depredation of livestock, but wolves aren't the only predators around. A murder lands him on a case unlike any he's worked before.

Wolves

In this outdoors thriller, the investigation of a bizarre wolf attack leads to evidence of murder, conspiracy, and shocking family secrets. A decades-old promise haunts Sam Rivers, but the wildlife biologist refuses to return home—not with his abusive and estranged father still there. Rivers left the family farm some 20 years ago. He found solace in nature and built a respected career as a special agent for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. His experiences have given him a penchant for understanding predators—a skill he’ll need, now, more than ever. After his father’s mysterious death, Rivers is lured back to his hometown of Defiance, in northern Minnesota, to fulfill his mother’s dying wish. But all is not as it seems. Rivers breaks into his childhood home during a howling winter storm and discovers something sinister. His suspicions are heightened after a bizarre wolf attack on local livestock. The events lead the special agent to a series of clues that could change everything he knows—or thinks he knows—about the town, his family, and himself. With the help of alluring reporter Diane Talbott, Rivers must unravel the wolf kill and learn what really happened to his father—a man Rivers has hated for most of his life. It is a case unlike any he’s worked before. His knowledge of frigid winters, wolves, and wilderness will be put to the test, as he tries to solve the case—and stay alive. In Wolf Kill, natural history writer Cary J. Griffith introduces readers to Sam Rivers, the predator’s predator, and weaves a masterful tale of danger and suspense in the far north.

The story of the Ham Lake fire, at the time the most destructive wildfire in modern Minnesota history—the blaze, the firefighters’ battle, the human toll On May 5, 2007, two days into his twenty-seventh trip to the Boundary Waters, Stephen Posniak found a perfect spot on Ham Lake and set about making a campfire. Over the next two weeks, the fire he set would consume 75,000 acres of forest and 144 buildings. More than one thousand firefighters would rally to extinguish the blaze, at a cost of 11 million dollars. Gunflint Burning is a comprehensive account of the dramatic events around the Ham Lake fire, one of the largest wildfires in Minnesota history. Cary J. Griffith describes what happened in the minutes, hours, and days after Posniak struck that fateful match—from the first hint of danger to the ensuing race to flee the fire or defend imperiled property to the incredible efforts of firefighters and residents battling a blaze that lit up the Gunflint Trail like the fuse to a powder keg. We meet locals faced with losing everything: the sheriff and his deputy tasked with getting everyone out alive; tourists caught unawares; men and women using every piece of equipment and modern firefighting technique against impossibly high winds and dry conditions to suppress a wildfire as it grew to historic proportions; and, finally, Stephen Posniak, who in the aftermath tragically took his own life—the fire’s only fatality. In sharp detail, Gunflint Burning describes the key events of the Ham Lake fire as they unfold, providing readers with a sense of being on the front lines of an epic struggle that was at times heroic, tragic, and sublime.

Fire in the Boundary Waters

Gunflint Burning

Adventure writer Cary Griffith recounts riveting and life-threatening tales of exploration in the limestone caves of southeastern Minnesota and the man-made caves of St. Paul.

Cary J. Griffith

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