Blue Wolf

As haunting as the landscape it occupies
As Jackson Hole gallery owner Alix Thorssen plans an art auction to promote wolf conservation, she is plunged into a bitter feud between ranchers and environmentalists — and an old mystery involving the strange death of a teenage boy. A reclusive artist delivers a stunning painting of a blue wolf at the auction, and asks Alix a favor: investigate the accidental shooting of Derek Wylie twenty-five years earlier. Alix finds disturbing clues to a murder and a cover-up, one that leads by tangled threads to the heated animosity right now in Jackson Hole, as the artist and her painting become the catalyst in a brewing storm of rage, guilt and dark secrets left behind in a trail of old blood.

This is the fourth Alix Thorssen mystery, following Nordic Nights, Painted Truth, and The Bluejay Shaman

.“A few writers are gifted with a feel for place that transforms locale from mere background into a vital element of the story itself, as important as the human characters who inhabit it. Among today’s fortunate few are Tony Hillerman with his mystical view of Navajo country and James Lee Burke, whose evocation of the Louisiana bayous verges on the poetic. To their number add Lise McClendon, who has taken the small resort town of Jackson Hole and the Wyoming wilderness that surrounds it, and made her own., Picturesque Jackson Hole, placid on the surface, is not without its controversies and conflicts. When a rancher, claiming self-defense, kills a wolf, the community is divided among those who view the wolf, recently reintroduced into the wild, as a threat to their livestock and those who seek to protect and preserve the greatly endangered species.

McClendon weaves a persuasive story, as haunting as the landscape it occupies and blessedly free of manufactured melodrama. In Alix, she gives us a heroine both captivating and credible. And when you add that feel for place mentioned earlier…”— The San Diego Union-Tribune

“Blue Wolf is a mystery that stars an engaging amateur sleuth, but it is also a novel about human frailties and fears that dog a person their whole life. Lise McClendon captures the essences of the human spirit to perfection, which is why her novels are so realistic.”— Midwest Book Review

“Thematically, this work is the strongest of the four Alix Thorssen novels, plus the sense of something magical occurring in the area is powerful. Its use of the fall season in Wyoming for a setting is expressive, and the well-developed characters that people this work are also a highlight… Recommended to any traditional mystery reader, especially those who enjoy works set in the contemporary West.”— Mystery News

Author Biography

No matter where she sets her novels or what adventures befall her characters, one thing is certain. Strong female characters always populate a Lise McClendon novel. — Yellowstone Valley Woman Lise McClendon has published eight novels, and her short stories are included in three anthologies, including Dead of Winter. She has written two mystery series featuring Alix Thorssen and Kansas City private eye Dorie Lennox. Her standalone novel, Blackbird Fly, is set in southwest France. Her romantic thriller, Jump Cut, was written as Rory Tate. For more information on Lise see her website at http: //www.lisemcclendon.com or her blog at http: //www.lisemcclendon.wordpress.com/ She lives in Montana