White Harvest

Charbonneau's new eco-chiller, a sequel to The Ice , pits marine biologist Kathy McNeely against an ivory-poaching ring that is bribing Native Alaskans with drugs to create a fake legal cover against Fish and Wildlife Service investigations into their slaughter of walruses. McNeely's last expose drew media attention that is now needed by ASSET, an activist group that opposes a new Alaska pipeline. McNeely agrees to participate with hunky ASSET scientist Jason Cobb on an environmental-impact study near the Chukchi Sea, a source of walrus ivory for the lucrative Asian carving markets supplied by New York mobster Harry Madrid's savage smugglers in Nome through Hong Kong's insatiable Madam Chang. Chang has seen a news photo of the legendary walrus Muugli and demanded his huge tusks. Madrid's poachers hire undercover agent John Rorie to pilot a walrus shoot, but a winter storm hits before they collect their booty, and Muugli escapes. Eskimo patriarch John Mulak finds the ivory and, enraged at the slaughter, hides it in a bear cave. Unable to fill Madrid's order by Chang's deadline, the poachers bribe Mulak's son to help track him down in Rorie's plane. A race ensues involving most of the principals, which Charbonneau briskly orchestrates. The Alaskan wilderness sings under Charbonneau's touch, but elsewhere the prose lacks grace, and the padded cast also detracts from the plot line. Oddly, the series character, Kathy McNeely, is superfluous to the story, providing a contrived woman-in-peril motif. Still, the book speaks volumes about endangered species, and the walrus lore is intriguing. (May)