Sundstrand's absorbing second mystery to feature Bureau of Land Management agent Frank Flynn (after 2007's Shadow of the Raven
) pays homage to Richard Connell's classic short story “The Most Dangerous Game.” The FBI suspects the shooting of two poachers who'd been killing wild burros in California's Mojave desert is the work of an extremist animal rights group whose aim, according to its leader, Seth Parker, is “justice for the innocent, an eye for an eye—or a lip for a beak.” The planned opening of an exclusive hunting club with imported exotic prey provides Parker with a tempting target—and the half-Irish, half-Paiute Flynn, who used to be a small arms instructor in the military, with a nearly impossible challenge. There's plenty of collateral damage as Flynn and Parker maneuver before the inevitable final confrontation. Sundstrand knows this rugged territory well and the kind of denizens it attracts, and he's adept at describing both. (Mar.)
