After narrowly escaping El Paso with her life, Molly Hund had nowhere else to go but home. Due to a deeply instilled corruption, there was no one else she could trust, except her brothers. Trailing Molly was a large relentless force funded by the EPA and led by her boss who was well-equipped and would stop at nothing for their pot of gold.
Without many fond childhood memories, to Molly, home was just a place and her parents were just some people, but Grandpa Malaki had instilled some values in her and her brothers had made it a home. She realized that in the end, this was all that she had and hoped she didnât bring too overwhelming of a fight home.
With mercenaries knocking on the Hunds doorstep, not only would this threat completely eradicate an endangered species that was the beacon for clear cool water, but it also threatened their lives as well as their livelihood.
After narrowly escaping El Paso with her life, Molly Hund had nowhere else to go but home. Due to a deeply instilled corruption, there was no one else she could trust, except her brothers. Trailing Molly was a large relentless force funded by the EPA and led by her boss who was well-equipped and would stop at nothing for their pot of gold.
Without many fond childhood memories, to Molly, home was just a place and her parents were just some people, but Grandpa Malaki had instilled some values in her and her brothers had made it a home. She realized that in the end, this was all that she had and hoped she didnât bring too overwhelming of a fight home.
With mercenaries knocking on the Hunds doorstep, not only would this threat completely eradicate an endangered species that was the beacon for clear cool water, but it also threatened their lives as well as their livelihood.
âKiss mine, Donald!â
Standing in a hallway on the edge of a cubicle farm, outside a windowed office with a glass door, Molly Hundâs face had reddened with anger. A few employees in the immediate area dropped what they were doing and stared at the proceedings in surprise. Nobody had ever yelled at their regional director Donald, at least not in this manner. Donald was second in line, reporting directly to the administrator of the EPA.
It had started as a question of wonderment: Molly wanted to know why Donald had approved a mining request on an already taxed watershed that eventually flowed into the Colorado River.
It was the exact opposite of what the EPA stood for, so she confronted her boss on his decision, and the conversation had quickly grown into a heated yelling match. Molly knew her temper was often triggered too quickly, but the audacity and stupidity of this decision was baffling.
Donald replied, âWatch your tongue, Molly!â
âYou know exactly what that will do to the water quality in that area! Youâre putting every animal in the area and the recovery efforts on the Gila Trout in jeopardy!â Anger scrunched her face. âI take that back, it wonât just jeopardize them, itâll annihilate!â
âThatâs being a little overdramatic.â
âDid you just hear yourself? We are talking about the Gila River watershed, Donald!â
Though he was becoming madder by the second for being outed in front of his employees, Donaldâs face only slightly reddened and he managed to control his anger. âNot the time and particularly not the place, Molly!â
Molly looked about the cubical farm to see heads propped over cubicle walls and around their edges, gawking wide eyed at the two of them. She dropped her eyes, then turned and left the area, heading toward her office. Donald remained, trying to smooth things over with the group â his specialty.
Molly locked herself in her office, afraid of how sheâd react if she encountered her boss again, and dropped her shades for privacy. Regardless, Pam, her receptionist barged in through the door using her spare key, then closed it behind her. âOh my god! Are you ok?â
Before she could answer, the door opened once again, revealing Donaldâs now seething face. âYou are on leave, Molly! Starting right now!â Donald kept his face in the door crack, hoping for further contempt from Molly â then he would then have the grounds to fire her.
Holding his stare, Molly winked at him. âThanks, Iâve been meaning to take a vacation.â
***
Mitch reached over and slapped Kyleâs head, which made it thud hard against the passenger window. âWake up moron!â
Frustrated, Kyleâs eyes slowly rolled open. âOuch! Look man, I didnât get any sleep last night.â
âThatâs not my problem,â Mitch said as he continued stuffing pork rinds in his mouth. Half of the BBQ flavoring covered the fingers on his right hand; the rest dusted the front of his black shirt.
Mitch and Kyle had been cramped in the front seat of Mitchâs Nissan Altima for the last three hours, watching a steel door that entered a grey brick building. Hung above the door was a sign that read âTwilight Tavernâ. They sat out of sight a block away, observing the barâs patrons. A respectable amount of people entered the establishment; however, very few of them looked to have more than twenty bucks in their pocket. The mostly solitary men were dressed in overalls and carrying hardhats, winding down from a hard day at work.
Sitting in the Angelâs Triangle neighborhood of northeast El Paso, Texas, the tavern was located in the most impoverished area of the city. Drug dealers stood on the darkened corners, where the scantily-dressed sex workers paraded under the streetlights for money. Dilapidated closed down warehouses stood on each side of the tavern with a large, partially treed field riddled with debris and makeshift lean-tos lining a river bottom across the street.
With pork rind spittle flying, Mitch surmised, âI canât believe you donât remember Twigs. The greatest snack cracker ever.â
Kyle shook his head in disagreement, âThat would be Triscuits.â
From the back seat, Carlo interrupted the bumbling idiots. âHey, guys, I think our target just came out.â
The idiots in the front seat hadnât heard him. Instead, Mitch and Kyle continued arguing about which Nabisco treat was the best. Mitch stated, âI donât know why you live in denial. It is quite simply, without a doubt, Nutter Butters.â
Kyle retaliated, âNo way, man. Chips Ahoy.â
Reaching forward, Carlo slapped both of them on the back of their heads. The argument stopped as they both leaned forward, rubbing the now sensitive spot, then simultaneously looked at him. Carlo pointed forward through the windshield.
Mitch muttered, âWow, sheâs beautiful.â
Mesmerized, Kyle nodded his agreement. âWhat a waste.â
Trying to maintain his temper, Carlo asked, âSo, maybe you two want to stop gawking and start executing the plan?â
Opening the passenger door, Kyle slipped out, remaining low and keeping the wrecking bar grasped tightly in his right hand while he peeked over the hood. Acting frustrated, Mitch crawled out. Freed pork rinds began falling from the hidden confines of his t-shirt to the ground. Their short burst of liberty ended with a crunching to dust underfoot.
Carlo was surprised that Mitch managed to capture their targetâs eye at such a distance, even before he had left the confines of the darkened recess where they sat. Playing his part, Mitch raised his arm. âHello, Miss.â
She stopped and looked directly at Mitch, then scanned her surroundings. Carlo thought he saw an intense glow from her eyes as she glanced his direction. It must be a reflection from the street light.
Using his palms like a megaphone, Mitch called out, âI seem to have a dead battery. Could you be so kind as to give me a jump?â
The redheaded beauty smiled, and yelled back, âOf course!â
Carlo shook his head as he smiled and muttered, âThe gullibility of the good will be their demise.â
Molly Hund started her metallic grey Mercedes AMG GT Coupe, backed out of her spot, and pulled in front of the Nissan. She matched her hood with the strangerâs while the obese man with his crumb covered shirt held jumper cables and waved her forward.
Once the woman placed the car in park and started opening the door, Mitch watched as Kyle appeared from behind a concrete cylinder at the edge of the lot holding the wrecking bar. The light atop the cylinder had been shot out long ago. Kyle was closing the thirty-yard gap, walking briskly to keep from alerting the target. As if he was dreaming, Mitch then saw two rather large coyotes hop onto the concrete and bolt toward his unsuspecting partner.
Looking back at the woman that stood before him, she gave him a contemptuous smile and pleasantly stated, âYou are just the cure for a crappy day at work.â
Kyleâs screams of pain were met with the sound of a steel bar fumbling across the concrete and rattling to a stop, which snapped Mitch back into action. Using the jumper cables like a rope, he flipped his hands outward, hanging on to the two ends and making the middle shoot out like a lasso. As they rolled over their mark, he yanked them back, trying to pull the woman into his grasp.
Surprisingly, the woman did a backflip, completely freeing herself from the cables, and as her feet left the ground, one of them caught him in the chin, snapping his head back and slamming his jaw shut with a painful clack. Before he could regain his composure, the woman applied a roundhouse kick to his knee, dropping it to the ground, then gave him a solid punch in the nose. Blood spurted into his vision. The temporary blinding, coupled with Kyleâs continued screams, had Mitch completely disoriented. Never before had he been in this position. At six-foot-two and three hundred pounds with a massive belly overhanging a stressed belt, most people left him alone, but the few that hadnât were no match for him.
Finally, he heard the electrifying sounds of the cattle prod spark to life behind him. Carlo announced, âNow, we donât want to hurt you, please just get in the car!â
Molly replied, âIs this the only way you three can get a woman to have a drink with you?â
Carlo came in at a full run, thrusting the cattle prod at Mollyâs midsection. She spun, knocking the prod to the side. Continuing her spin, she connected a back fist punch with the side of the manâs head, sending him reeling into the passenger window of the Altima. Unconscious as he slid down the car, he still gripped the cattle prod. She watched as it slowly sizzled toward the obese behemoth.
Once it reached the still-kneeling, portly man that was hunched over feeling his nose, he was shocked into sitting straight up with arms at his sides while gritting his teeth. She imagined that was probably the quickest he had moved in decades. Not wanting to kill the man, she kicked the unconscious manâs hand, releasing the cattle prod. The obese behemoth fell over sideways, also unconscious.
Looking back at her blind attacker, she found him curled up in the fetal position, murmuring. Two bare-fanged, snarling, and slobbering coyotes stood over him. She noticed one pant leg of his jeans had been ripped and bloodied, as well as his leg underneath. Clucking her tongue twice, the coyotes sat on their haunches and turned to face her. She stepped over and squatted between the two of them, petting them and kissing each one between the eyes, leaving a red lipstick mark on their foreheads.
As she stood, the two coyotes bounded off into the field. She asked, âYou work for Donald, correct?â
Being the scared bumbling idiot that he was, Kyle stuttered, âYes. Yes, we do.â
Greg Buck has written something in The Trout Wail which is an unexpected and rather enjoyable thriller.
The book starts with Molly Hund having a fallout with her boss, Donald, a seemingly innocuous disagreement which we soon learn has much deeper repercussions for Molly, as Donald is not all that he seems to be and the extent of his reach and his purpose becomes made manifest as the book progresses. Also ,at the start of the book, Molly then has to defend herself against hired hurters and manages to escape and is helped in this by coyotes, who appear to protect her.
Molly is the main character who we follow along with her brothers, Elias and Franz and we learn about their family history as the plot of the book progresses. Having lost both parents, Molly and her twin brothers have been brought up by Malaki, their grandfather and Buck shows Molly's childhood and what she has learned from this man, known to the locals as a hermit, by using flashbacks from Molly's memories.
Molly, Elias and Franz are unusual. I will tell you that creatures with dog-like presence feature heavily in this book, from tame domestic sorts to the larger more lupine kind and this lends the narrative a kind of mysticism, a connectedness to the natural world, a similarity which echoes Native American beliefs which I rather liked. The Hunds are the good guys and you root for them throughout as they fight for what they love and want to protect - the environment they live in and the other animals who share it with them.
There is much to like about this book. It flows and is well-written by Buck. There is plenty of action with fights and confrontations galore and Buck is good at describing these in just enough detail to make it visual. Molly is a strong female protagonist who is likeable and has presence throughout. She is dynamite! Dialogue is realistic and I romped like a coyote in the hunt through my reading of the whole book.
If I have a complaint it was that the type was small on my Kindle and I was not able to adjust it in the settings but this was minor and certainly didn't put me off from reading it.
I sense that there is the potential for more adventures from the Hunds.