Wolvers

The overstuffed seventh novel from Brown (Rednecks) centers on the showdown between a hunter and a wolf in the mountains of New Mexico. The Gila National Forest is home to three packs of wolves reintroduced to the wild by the federal government. Their occasional attacks on livestock put a strain on the region’s ranchers—some of whose families have been on the land for generations—so local power brokers turn to Trace Temple, a former rancher living out of his truck, to kill the wolf nicknamed One-Eleven, leader of the pack thought to be responsible for mangled cattle on nearby ranches. In the midst of stalking his quarry, Temple is tied up and left in the wilderness by a mystical antagonist called Horn. It’s a promising setup, but Brown crowds the narrative with too many subplots, from the involvement of a militia to Trace’s fraught entanglement with a childhood love interest. When a professional assassin named Murdoch enters the picture with a hidden agenda of his own, the pace slows to a crawl. Brown’s affection for his four-legged predators is evident in extended sequences detailing their habits, pack dynamics, and hunting strategies, and he crafts some moments of nail-biting suspense, but the novel is too unfocused to maintain momentum. This one doesn’t quite come together. Agent: Julie Stevenson, Stuart Agency. (Apr.)