Animals first?

"Do you think you're the last ranger that puts the animals first?" Yellowstone park ranger Ren Hopper asks himself early in Peter Heller's The Last Ranger (2023).

Animals or people is a dilemma that runs through Heller's novel. Much of Ren's work involves stepping in when Yellowstone tourists, eager for good photos, get too close to animals, putting both in danger. Increasingly he worries about poachers, one in particular. How far can he go to stop them?

Ren's best friend in the park is Hilly, a famous expert on Yellowstone wolves. She, too, struggles with the animals or people question. When she is caught and nearly dies in a leg-hold trap that seems to have been set expressly to trap her, Ren's rage toward the suspected poacher boils over. As does Hilly's.

The women in Ren's life have long been a source of internal conflict for him. His alcoholic mother was suspected of a mercy killing. His ailing wife killed herself. Might Hilly, the woman he discovers he loves, also have killing on her mind? And then there's that animals or people question that Ren struggles with right to the end.

Here we have another first-rate outdoorsy novel from the pen of Peter Heller.