Bigfoot: A John Denson Mystery

Not so much a mystery as an entertainingly cynical adventure story, this clever new series installment (after Whoo? ) sends offbeat Northwest detective John Denson and his partner, Indian shaman Willie Prettybird, on the trail of the legendary Sasquatch. Denson and Prettybird are hired to guide Russian primatologist Sonja Popoleyev up the slopes of Mt. St. Helens on her quest to determine what, if anything, Bigfoot might be, and, incidentally, to pick up the $100,000 prize offered for its capture by a local promoter. Their competitors include explorers and Bigfoot believers from all over the world. Before the expeditions can begin, the promoter and his brother are murdered, but the hunt for the creature goes on, with Denson wondering who among the searchers might have reason to kill. The murders provide the jumping-off point for a fast, funny and deliciously crazy story that mixes Denson's skepticism with Prettybird's mysticism and attempts to answer, in terms of primate evolutionary science, the eternal question of what women and men really want from each other. (Jan.)