Death Rattle, Book 2

"Shaken, not stirred takes on new meaning it this second installment in the modern-day western mystery series by Carl and Jane Bock. Their writing reflects solid knowledge of Arizona and its denizen. And their storytelling is as sharp as a serpent's tooth." - Nicolas Gilmartin Teranzi, Online Critics Corner There is a killer at large in the oak grasslands of southeastern Arizona whose weapon of choice is a deadly variety of southwestern rattlesnake. Deputy Sheriff Calvin Creede doesn't like snakes, but with the help of veteran herpetologist Dr. Hazel Smith and his fiancé, Maria Obregon, he seeks to find the mountain cave from which a collection of Mojave rattlesnakes recently was looted. Then he must determine which of a variety of suspects has taken them home. In this, the second installment of Arizona Borderland Mysteries, Carl and Jane Bock continue their story about a deputy sheriff in an isolated corner of Arizona's smallest county. It is a land once dominated by a few cowboys and their cattle, but Deputy Creede finds his job increasingly complicated by the trappings of southwestern exurbia, including vineyards, drugs, border tension, and high-end housing developments.


About the Author
Carl and Jane Bock are retired Professors of Biology from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Carl received his PhD in Zoology from the University of California at Berkeley, while Jane holds three degrees in Botany, a B.A. from Duke, an M.A. from the University of Indiana, and a PhD from Berkeley. Carl is an ornithologist and conservation biologist. Jane is a plant ecologist and an internationally recognized expert in the use of plant evidence in criminal investigations. She is co-author with David Norris of Forensic Plant Science (Elsevier-Academic Press, 2016). The Bocks spent nearly forty years studying the natural history of the region in southeastern Arizona that is the setting for their Borderlands Mystery series. They have co- authored numerous articles and two nonfiction books based on their fieldwork in the Southwest: The View from Bald Hill (University of California Press, 2000), and Sonoita Plain: Views from a Southwestern Grassland (with photographs by Stephen Strom; University of Arizona Press, 2005). The first volume of their mystery series, Coronado's Trail, was published in 2016 by Absolutely Amazing eBooks. Now largely retired from academic life, the Bocks presently divide their time between Colorado, Arizona, and the Florida Keys, mostly fly fishing (Carl), fighting crime (Jane), and writing fiction.