cover image Shadow of the Grizzly

Shadow of the Grizzly

Larry Jay Martin. Doubleday Books, $15 (185pp) ISBN 978-0-385-46902-9

In his fifth El Lazo western ( The Benicia Belle ), Martin has produced a land-locked, Old West version of Peter Benchley's Jaws . Chased from its habitat among California's giant redwoods, a mammoth grizzly worshipped as a bear god by the local Indians goes on a rampage. When the son of the Indians' chief is killed by the animal, the tribe seeks out Clint Ryan to hunt it down. Although he demurs at first, circumstances force him to join both Indians and other hunters and to go after the bear. Martin alternates between the point of view of the humans and that of the bear as it kills its pursuers one by one. Dialogue is often stilted and fails to ring true. The casual evil of Ryan's competitors in the hunt, never explained, seems largely unmotivated. Still, with tight plotting, Martin manages to keep the reader's attention, and series fans should not be disappointed. (May)