Book of the Week #36

Catamount: A North Country Thriller by Rick Davidson (Center Ossipee, NH: Beech River Books, 2008)

Rick Davidson, a resident of Freedom, is a teacher, photographer, and--with the publication of this, his first novel-- author.
Man's sacrilegious infringements on Nature's delicate balance calls down a forgotten Indian curse and releases a raging mountain lion, a catamount in the North Woods. This creature is not supposed to be there and is not supposed to prey on humans, but two young children and their dog pick up its trail behind an isolated summer camp not far from the Canadian border. The children do not return and a search and rescue party sets out after them, but the rampages of the malevolent ghostlike cat hinders their efforts and a violent storm sets off a serious forest fire in the tinder-dry forest.

"June.
The silence is not normal for the time of year. If Rob Schurman, the local conservation officer, was there, he might notice that suddenly, for no apparent reason, all the forest noises stop. Indeed, after relative silence, he would wonder why every bullfrog, cricket, whippoorwill, and peeper within hearing distance suddenly resumes, creating a cacophony of outback nature sounds. This concert would invariably stop in unison again only moments later. It would not have been unthinkable for someone to be in the woods videotaping the sights and sounds of early summer. Had that person been there, his camera might have caught a glimpse of something black as it slowly emerged from the underbrush. Neither the conservation officer nor a videographer was there. There was only the full moon, a large expanse of field, five deer feeding on the low grass, and a shadowy creature moving slowly just below the tops of the wild grass." (p. 5)