Amid Rage: A Mike Jacobs Environmental Legal Thriller

Burcat’s disappointing sequel to 2019’s Drink to Every Beast opens strongly before devolving into a clichéd action yarn. Along with two henchmen, Ernie Rinati, the thuggish owner of Rhino Mining, ties mine inspector Marty Stevens to a chair in Stevens’s home, before torching the house, because Stevens opposes Rhino’s efforts to start a new coal mine close to a residential area, which could also pollute some nearby headwaters. Stevens dies, but the murder isn’t connected to Rinati. Though Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection gives Rinati a permit to go ahead, with some strict conditions, that decision is challenged in administrative court both by Rinati, who considers those conditions too strict, and locals opposed to the mine’s development under any circumstances. Mike Jacobs, an assistant DEP counsel representing his agency in the case, finds himself in the middle and the object of Rinati’s violent ire. A subplot involving Jacobs’s relationship with his best friend, a lesbian with whom he’d like to be romantically involved, doesn’t add anything. Hopefully, Burcat will use his expertise as an environmental lawyer more effectively in the future. (Feb.)