With an
unprecedented hurricane in the Appalachian Mountains that no one could have expected
and wildfires in the West and rampant deforestation in many states, no one can
say that the environment and the damage caused by humans does not affect our
lives. Robert Lopresti has collected and edited a set of 15 short stories all
about human impact on nature. Sometimes thoughtless, sometimes deliberate, the impact
of the destruction is the same.
The authors in
Crimes Against Nature (Down & Out Books, 2024) are well known and
recognized for their skill in crime fiction, which shows to great advantage in
this assortment of mayhem. Instead of offenses against people, the misdeeds here
are against the earth. Michael Bracken, Susan Breen, Sarah M. Chen, Barb
Goffman, Karen Harrington, Janice Law, R.T. Lawton, Robert Lopresti, Jon
McGoran, Josh Pachter, Gary Phillips, S.J. Rozan, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Mark
Stevens, and David Heska Wanbli Weiden have each contributed a story. They also
have selected a conservation nonprofit to receive half of the royalties. Their
chosen charity is described at the end of each story; I was glad to learn about
a few groups unfamiliar to me.
The stories
are as varied as the charities that will benefit from them. Some of the
protagonists use their native guile to defend the environment, others are not
above committing a felony for the same reason. One protagonist continued to
battle for the earth’s welfare beyond the grave.
I am charmed
by the number of devious old ladies here. In Chin Yong-Yun Plants a Seed,
a grandmother saves her grandchildren’s school plot of carefully selected
native plants and arranges for a nearby factory to be brought to account for
its illegal emissions in one fell swoop. We have all had dreadful neighbors but
Emily Kitchener takes drastic steps to deal with those who destroy an
established native species garden in Heavenly Bamboo. Annabelle addresses
the problem of the marijuana-smoking neighbors who create a second-hand smoke
hazard for the nearby residents, including a cat, in Gone to Pot. A
committed recycler goes to great effort to see that her apartment complex
complies with the reprocessing sorting rules in The Trouble with Saving the
World.
Then there
are the destructive tourists who in their desire to see nature in its pristine
state destroy it as they explore. Eruptions discusses a tour group
scaling an active volcano in defiance of the police in beautiful Costa Rica,
where the fragile habitat is being wrecked by excessive tourism. A social media
darling, an influencer who films everything he does, is the subject of The
Gift. This particular influencer trespasses on private beaches and encourages
his followers to do the same, leaving a tsunami of trash as they go. A man bent
on revenge goes after several media influencers who damage delicate ecosystems
and invade protected reserves in Bad Influence.
Virgil
Wounded Horse of the acclaimed novel Winter Counts is still looking out
for the people on the Rose Bud reservation in Wind Spirits. When an
activist comes in, agitating for trouble over the wind turbines set up on the land,
Virgil steps in.
The Smart One focuses on
the worst possible consequences of careless disposal of toxic materials. Scrap
Heap is set in a metals recycling plant that ignored federal regulations
for decades; the protagonist here is the most original I have seen in a long
time. Illegal dumping of used oil is the environmental crime in Todd’s Fault,
Todd is a dog for anyone who needs a dog in their reading, and Stinkwater
Lake addresses the dangers of emptied oil wells left unremediated.
Firestorm describes an
enterprising felon’s creation of a storage unit to preserve artwork and other
valuables from the wildfires that are endemic in the West these days.
An earnest
do-gooder decides to single-handedly reduce the number of meth labs polluting
the groundwater, wells, and rivers in Lenny and the Lab. This is the
funniest entry in the book.
Body Parts
and Bathtub Rings
deals with the drought in the Southwest and the people who refuse to accept that
the need to conserve water is past urgent.
This is a
fascinating collection of stories with as diverse a set of protagonists and
plots as I can remember seeing. The annual major gift-giving season is upon us
and this book would be welcomed by any crime fiction reader who also champions
ecological causes. I found it informative and entertaining, and I expect they
would too. Recommended.
·
Publisher: Down & Out Books (October
6, 2024)
·
Language: English
·
Paperback: 294 pages
·
ISBN-10: 1643963805
·
ISBN-13: 978-1643963808
Amazon Associate
Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4i2Ud9g
Aubrey Nye Hamilton
©2024
Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.
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