BAD GUYS, BULLETS, AND BOAT CHASES

True Stories of Florida Game Wardens

Bob H. Lee, University Press of Florida, Hardcover $24.95 (240pp), 978-0-8130-6244-0

Gator poachers, timber thieves, illegal dumpers, and other backwoods bad guys may not end up on the America’s Most Wanted list, but they cause inestimable damage to the environment. Surprisingly, they also pose grave danger to wildlife officers due to the remoteness of their crimes, firearm ubiquity in rural America, and the fact that the officers often work alone. Florida’s vast backcountry, from the Everglades up to the cattle ranches near Georgia, seems to attract an extra bat-crazy level of criminal, and ex-water patrol officer Bob H. Lee has both chased some doozies and heard tales of plenty more in his thirty-plus years of duty in the Sunshine State. This riveting book compiles nearly twenty stories.