The Deer Killers

Wildlife conservation is the theme of this ``ecological thriller,'' the first in Landers's projected series featuring outdoorsman and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service special agent Reed Erickson who here tracks a well-organized ring of commercial game hunters in Lousiana's swamps. Erickson infiltrates a small rural community by posing as the live-in lover of Marlis Pog, whose missing husband, the previous game warden, is believed to have been murdered by the poachers, or jacklighters. Erickson has domestic troubles of his own; his wife is serving him with divorce papers, and his strained intimacy with Marlis adds to his emotional turmoil. Drowning his sorrows at a bar, he pieces together the details of the deer slaughter, and later sees a group of men prowling the highways with shotguns, shooting and transporting hundreds of deer from pickup trucks to a refrigerated transport truck. Erickson oversees the bust operation but the main villain escapes for the inevitable showdown. Despite some interesting action, the writing is cliched, sentimental and obtrusively didactic. (Nov.)