Review by Polly Hays
If you're on the payroll of a federal land management agency in the west, you may find that author Kirk Mitchell has captured many aspects of your worklife in the pages of High Desert Malice. This mystery, set in the sage and pinyon country of central Nevada, provides both an entertaining story, and a not too fictional portrayal of the politics of many contemporary resource management issues.
As the book opens, we are introduced to sharp tongued Dee Laguerre. Daughter of a Basque sheepherder, Dee has recently returned to her native Pinyon County, Nevada as a ranger for the BLM. Dee's Master's in Resource Mangement doesn't mean much to the locals who fear that the new range inventory she started will mean a reduction in AUMs. At work, Dee endures the open hostility of co-worker Jack Reckling, a "good old boy" range conservationist who has not adjusted well to changes in agency hiring practices that have him working side by side with a female law enforcement ranger and a Korean botanist. Dee finds refuge in her room at the Basque hotel, and keeps up on local gossip through her best friend from gradeschool Jewel Farley, the neighborhood Madam.
Conflicts between the government and ranchers are brought into sharp focus when Jack Reckling and the BLM botanist turn up murdered. Throw in a deep rooted animosity between local ranchers and Basque sheep herders, a few incidents of monkeywrenching, and some out-of-towners camped out with a case of dynamite under the seat of their VW bus, and you have enough motives to keep Dee and everyone else on their toes as the plot unfolds.
From the outset, Dee is frustrated by the incompetence of the local sheriff's office, and the patronizing attitude of the law enforcement agent from the state BLM office in Reno. Her role in the investigation is further complicated by a still smoldering attraction to her highschool flame Cinch Holland, a struggling rancher who turns out to be the prime suspect in the murders. Emotions in the community are running high when the cattleman's association bails Cinch out of jail. During the ensuing celebration at the Snakepit, the local hostility towards environmental laws and federal bureaucrats is evident. Before the closing pages, a few more bodies litter the ground, and grazing allotments, mining claims, and proposed wilderness legislation all play a role in piecing together the clues to solve the murders.
After you've squinted with Dee in the Nevada sunshine, rinsed the alkalai dust out of your mouth with a drink at the Pyrennes Hotel, and stayed up late finding out who-done-it, take a moment to reflect on how well this book captures the tenor of the current debate over management of public lands in the west. From the opening pages, the reader is presented with an array of real, contemporary resource issues: wilderness study areas, range inventories, watershed protection, wild horse management, overgrazing, workforce diversity, monkeywrenching and more. Small details of dust drenched vehicles and eye-watering sunshine give the reader a tangible sense of daily life in the high desert. Dee is Nevada Chapter president of FEER, a thinly veiled verison of PEER (Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility). Although Pinyon County is fictional, at one point a rancher from the very real neighboring Nye County shows up to comment on the action.
For those in the know, you will find some errors in fact: wilderness designation does not preclude grazing, for example, and the regional office of the Forest Service in downtown San Franciso is the Pacific Southwest region, not the Southwest region. You may find a few of the characters too stereotyped, and some of the dialogue a bit extreme. However, you can probably find media accounts and personal stories of agency policy and politics that do not differ much from what is presented.
Does this book really portray what it's like to work for the BLM in Nevada these days? I'm not able to speak from personal experience, but when I heard that one BLM employee in Reno gave this book to all her friends for Christmas, I can't help but think that it captures the essence of the experience. Besides, for work related reading it's a whole lot more entertaining than environmental documents and land management plans.
