Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Bearskin: A Novel
    Bearskin: A Novel
    Bearskin: A Novel
    Audiobook9 hours

    Bearskin: A Novel

    Written by James A. McLaughlin

    Narrated by MacLeod Andrews

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    “Bearskin is visceral, raw, and compelling—filled with sights, smells, and sounds truly observed.  It’s a powerful debut and an absolute showcase of exceptional prose.  There are very few first novels when I feel compelled to circle brilliant passages, but James McLaughlin’s writing had me doing just that.” —C.J. Box, #1 NYT bestselling author of The Disappeared

    Rice Moore is just beginning to think his troubles are behind him. He’s found a job protecting a remote forest preserve in Virginian Appalachia where his main responsibilities include tracking wildlife and refurbishing cabins. It’s hard work, and totally solitary—perfect to hide away from the Mexican drug cartels he betrayed back in Arizona. But when Rice finds the carcass of a bear killed on the grounds, the quiet solitude he’s so desperately sought is suddenly at risk.

    More bears are killed on the preserve and Rice’s obsession with catching the poachers escalates, leading to hostile altercations with the locals and attention from both the law and Rice’s employers. Partnering with his predecessor, a scientist who hopes to continue her research on the preserve, Rice puts into motion a plan that could expose the poachers but risks revealing his own whereabouts to the dangerous people he was running from in the first place.

    James McLaughlin expertly brings the beauty and danger of Appalachia to life. The result is an elemental, slow burn of a novel—one that will haunt you long after you hears the final words.

    Editor's Note

    Taut thriller…

    In this taut thriller, Rice Moore takes a job in a remote forest preserve in Virginia, only to come up against bears, poachers, and a cartel in his quest to stay alive. The vivid detail makes you feel like you’re right on the mountain with the bears and the bees and other critters.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateJun 12, 2018
    ISBN9780062847799
    Bearskin: A Novel
    Author

    James A. McLaughlin

    James A. McLaughlin is the acclaimed author of Bearskin, winner of the Edgar Award. A native of Virginia, he now lives in the Wasatch Mountains of Utah.

    Related to Bearskin

    Related audiobooks

    Literary Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Crescent City

      Dec 1, 2021

      Crescent City
      5 min read

    • Article

      Shelter

      May 28, 2022

      Shelter
      4 min read

    • Article

      Lungs Of The Earth

      May 7, 2020

      Lungs Of The Earth
      10 min read

    • Article

      Cut And Run

      Oct 9, 2023

      The earth shook violently as the enormous metal monster closed in. It was 100m away, 50, 20 … then it was on me. As I watched its giant steel tentacle, with its whirling, screaming blade, stretch down towards me, I was conscious less of the fear of a

      2 min read

    • Article

      Ants Go Marching: More than an expert traveler, the fire ant is the ultimate invader.

      Jul 11, 2013

      Five World War II bombers took off from a Florida airfield on Oct. 5, 1967 to bomb the American South. An article that ran that morning in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune said that three B-17s and two PV-2s laden with 10,000 pounds of death-dealing cargo

      14 min read

    • Article

      Sleep Nights

      Oct 5, 2021

      Sleep Nights
      18 min read

    • Article

      Quotients

      May 7, 2020

      Quotients
      8 min read

    • Article

      Rent Arlington Hall’s Brain: The implant would make him a brilliant pianist for 24 hours.

      Jan 15, 2015

      Eight Hours To Go Thorne hesitated. The clinic’s storefront consisted of a glass elevator that went only down. Below the earth, into the unknown. A sign on its door read in elegant silver script: “Rent a Brain Today, Genius Guaranteed.” Thorne could

      14 min read

    • Article

      Lay Your Burden Down

      Mar 1, 2019

      Lay Your Burden Down
      15 min read

    • Article

      A Dragon’s Perspective

      Jun 10, 2022

      There once lived a dragon named Deathwing. Well, at least that’s what they called him. Deathwing was growing old, far too old for his liking. The joints of his claws ached and groaned under his ever-growing weight and his scales were beginning to los

      18 min read

    • Article

      Then the Birds Began to Die

      Jul 22, 2021

      Then the Birds Began to Die
      8 min read

    • Article

      Words Of The Ancients

      Feb 10, 2022

      “Praising what is lostMakes the remembrance dear. Well, call him hither;We are reconciled, and the first view shall killAll repetition: let him not ask our pardon;The nature of his great offence is dead,And deeper than oblivion we do buryThe incensin

      18 min read

    • Article

      79 The Terrible Grinning Men

      Sep 10, 2020

      79 The Terrible Grinning Men
      8 min read

    • Article

      Hellbent and Hydebound

      Oct 19, 2022

      Where Stevenson’s contemporaries explored specific tensions within the Victorian psyche, 'Jekyll and Hyde' pinned the split personality of the era to the page. The post Hellbent and Hydebound appeared first on The Millions.

      6 min read

    • Article

      Notes From The Struggle

      Nov 10, 2022

      “That’s the thing,” my friend Tomas said. “They always get it wrong. Every time, they get it wrong. They always get the wrong people. Once we get out of this,” he spread his arms and shook his head, as if to say—This colossal fuck-fest of a mess we’v

      15 min read

    • Article

      Becoming Animal

      May 6, 2020

      Becoming Animal
      11 min read

    • Article

      The Trouble Gene

      Jul 1, 2020

      One clear thing about trouble—it can set you back to zero, a personal cone of silence. And reading, writing, listening allow entry into that troubled solitude; you disappear into it regardless t of the time or place you really are in, be it bed, kitc

      12 min read

    • Article

      The Nature Fakers

      Oct 1, 2022

      The Nature Fakers
      2 min read

    • Article

      THE Reading room

      Sep 9, 2020

      THE Reading room
      3 min read

    • Article

      Practicing

      Mar 15, 2018

      This would have been her favorite season in the Allegheny woods. The shadows of the trees were rickety, and the wind had sap in its scent. But last week, Ty had left; now one day decayed into the next. Their house was abandoned. Only their father, si

      18 min read

    • Article

      The Bargain

      Dec 10, 2022

      “Which one of you owns G2V3889?” Cygnus glided through a luminescent star field suspended in the center of an otherwise dark, oblong studio, then turned in a slow circle to survey the twenty Agents surrounding him. “Come on, speak up.” Vega shuddered

      16 min read

    • Article

      Two Poems

      Sep 1, 2022

      Are you ready? I nodded. She slid the needle inand the sick cat, who only a moment before had tried toleap to the floor closed his eyes and exhaled. Andthat’s it, she said a little too brightly, pulling the needle out.That’s it? I asked. That’s all t

      3 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Bearskin

    4/5

    197 ratings25 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      Phe. Nom. Enol. One of the best stories ive listened to in a long time.
    • 5/5
      Thrilling and engaging. I haven’t enjoyed a book in a long time but I loved this one.
    • 4/5
      Beautiful descriptions of the natural landscape made this book enjoyable.
    • 5/5
      Well written juxtaposition of geography, contemporary social problems and believable characters.
    • 5/5
      Interesting environmental information wrapped up in Sensitive-Handsome-Hero just trying to live in the moment.
    • 5/5
      Excellent novel. Love McLaughlin's voice. I'm looking forward to reading more by this masterful writer.
    • 5/5
      This was a really good book. I could see this being a very cool Netflix series or something. Makes me want to go wander in the woods. Can’t wait to see where James is going to go with his next novel.
    • 5/5
      Splendid and thought provoking. Listened to this as I commuted from my home in the north Georgia mountains to Atlanta. Hope they don’t ruin this story by trying to make it a motion picture.
    • 5/5
      Its really very helpful, thanks for sharing this information with us.
    • 4/5
      The whole book was very good!! I enjoyed it very much.
    • 4/5
      It was a good story. Sometimes the author spent what felt like hours just discussing the scenery. But overall a good story and read/listen.
    • 4/5
      Rice Moore, haunted ex-con finds what he hopes will be a fresh start when he gets a job protecting a remote wildlife preserve in the Appalachian mountains. It's a strange, quiet place steeped in tradition and respect for ones neighbors. Rice runs into trouble when a nameless wandering scavenger shows him to the site of a butchered bear.There is a thriving black market in bear parts and it appears that someone has chosen to monetize the animals that Rice has been charged with protecting. At first he thinks it'll be a simple matter of scaring off a few poachers, but he soon finds himself drawn into a life and death conflict with murderous gang. He'll have to navigate the suspicions of law enforcement, the hatred of locals, and the black malice of the unknown persons sent to do away with him. A grim tale of vigilante justice and one man's struggle to carve out a new life for himself in an unwelcoming environment.
    • 5/5
      I loved this book! A lot like a Cormac Mcarthy (sp?) book as far as mood and setting. I hope there are other books by this author.
    • 5/5
      Masterfully written and beautifully read. A new favourite. The imagery was dreamy, the story a slow build to a worthy end.
    • 4/5
      Brutal, beautiful prose, a primal and almost phantasmagoric view of nature.
    • 3/5
      Drug lords meet the forest ranger?
      It was tedious at times, LOTS of violence, but an interesting premise.
    • 4/5
      I was given this book, which is not at all my usual fare. It was fairly well-written, well-paced, and with pretty good character development. The ending, though, was too sudden and not explained well enough. A device of alternating chapters: Virginia and then Mexico, would have worked better to my mind, although I guess the people who determine the Edgar Award for best first novel might not agree with me.
    • 4/5
      Combine a cast that includes tree-hugging biologists, a man escaping from Mexican drug cartels, and red-neck hunters from Virginia, this well-deserves the 2019 Edgar Award for First Novel. Its tense up to nearly the last minute as a caretake for a private reserve tries to track down who is hunting bear for the paws and gall bladders. I thought I had the resolution figured out but I was very wrong.
    • 5/5
      I don't read many thrillers, and I doubt I've given many 5 stars to those I've read, but BEARSKIN is special. The writing is descriptive, captivating, and succinct. Every word seems to be there for a specific purpose and the language is sometimes beautiful, sometimes harsh. The reader gets drawn into Rice Moore's world and into his mind. This book is not only for readers that enjoy a "what will happen next" storyline, but a novel that is told in an extraordinary way.
    • 5/5
      Rice Moore gets a job to help preserve a forest reserve in the mountains of Virginia. There has been a lot of poaching of bears to get their gall bladders and paws used for different purposes in Asia. Rice is challenged to protect them but he also has a criminal past in prior times along the Mexican border. that will come back to haunt him.. This is a gritty book supported by the author's vast knowledge of outdoor life and guns. Well worth reading.
    • 4/5
      2019 Edgar Award for Best First NovelReview of the Ecco paperback (2018) edition.I didn't get through all of the 2019 Edgar Award nominees for Best First Novel, but Bearskin definitely stood out for its atmospheric woodlands setting and its two leads, so I wasn't surprised that it was the Edgar Award winner on April 25, 2019. It didn't quite break into 5-star territory as the ending felt a bit too rushed, with some of the retribution taking place off the page, but otherwise this was very compelling suspenseful reading. I'll certainly be interested in James McLaughlin's follow-up novel.
    • 2/5
      This book just didn't work for me. Too many half told stories, half formed plot lines.
    • 5/5
      Wonderful debut novel. The author creates a nature treatise wrapped in a suspense story. The language generates the atmosphere and the perfect word is well chosen; where else have you seen umwelt or minatory in a novel lately? Don't know how I missed this when it came out last year, great read.
    • 5/5
      Highly recommended. Beautifully written, skillfully plotted, psychologically complex. At one point the tension was so intense that I had to put it down for a while. I was bereft when I finished it.
    • 5/5
      I continue to be amazed at the quality of the writing from so many debut authors. This book is Mr. McLaughlin's first, and it as perfect a thriller as you will come across. The writing is literate, and the descriptions of the beautiful Appalachian mountains in and around the state of Virginia are breathtaking. And at the same time McLaughlin manages to pen a thriller that will keep you tearing up the pages as you race to get through the book. In this book we meet Rice Monroe, a man with a very colourful past, and a man on the run from some very serious bad guys. As his job is park warden, he takes it very seriously when he spots poached bears on his forest preserve.The bears are gutted and all their paws are cut off. Rice knows its being done for blackmarket bear parts which are sold to people in Asia for a very tidy sum. Little does he realize that poached bear parts leads to the end of his anonymity and the discovery of his whereabouts, and he is trying to stay alive in the dark and brooding forests of Turpin Mountains, where his survival skills as well as his knowledge of the mountain gives him a little advantage in his fight for his life. Highly recommended.