The Loner

May 6, 2013
McKenna’s contemporary Jackson Hole, Wyo. series continues (after The Defender) with an uneasy mix of romance and suspense. Former Navy SEAL Dakota Carson and his wolf companion, Storm, are living in fairly self-sufficient isolation in the Teton Mountains when a grizzly attack injures Dakota. Sheriff’s deputy Shelby Kincaid assumes responsibility for overseeing the care of Storm and Dakota, as Dakota’s severe untreated PTSD prevents him from recovering in the hospital. Shelby and Dakota soon discover they are linked by the vicious rape and murder of Dakota’s sister, which Shelby investigated; tensions escalate when the killers escape and target Shelby for revenge. Dakota and Shelby’s common experience as wilderness trackers helps strengthen their bond once Dakota overcomes his initial disdain for “Deputy Barbie Doll.” McKenna’s enthusiasm for her setting and characters helps overcome tepid prose, excessive exposition, graphic details of sexual assault, and grizzlies meeting sad and gory ends.

June 1, 2013
In the seventh book in McKenna's Wyoming series (The Wrangler, 2012), sheriff's deputy Shelby Kincaid meets former SEAL Dakota Carson in the parking lot of the local ER, where he has driven himself after a bear bite. Shelby ends up taking him to her home to recuperate because his severe PTSD makes him afraid of closed-in spaces like hospital rooms and because she was unable to help her brother, who committed suicide after an Iraq deployment. Both tormented, they are drawn to and start to heal each other but wind up using all their mutual tracker skills to hunt two escaped convicts who killed Dakota's sister and now are coming for Shelby, leading to a nail-biting climax. Dakota could be a recruitment ad for the SEALs, given his many lethal talents, and Shelby is no slouch herself. While this is a classic romance plot, it works well here as McKenna makes the most of a dramatic setting, includes striking details about PTSD, and orchestrates great sex scenes.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)