Killing Monarchs

“Griffith’s third Sam Rivers mystery, Killing Monarchs, moves with the speed of a bullet train. A gripping tale of greed and vengeance… not to be missed.”—Jeffrey B. Burton, award-winning author of The Finders, The Keepers, and The Lost

“Killing Monarchs is an exciting, thrilling, and suspenseful page-turner! [It] hooked me from the first page, and I couldn’t put it down. I highly recommend this series!”—Kathleen Donnelly, author of the award-winning National Forest K-9 series

“Cary Griffith is that rare crime writer who’s not afraid to be funny and wise even as he keeps us on the edge of our seats. What’s more, he’s a gifted chronicler of the natural world. These qualities are all abounding in Killing Monarchs, Griffith’s best yet. It’s time to put his intrepid investigator, Sam Rivers, on every suspense writer’s radar, and the author himself in the same echelon as the finest crime writers working today.”—Peter Geye, author of The Ski Jumpers

“Cary Griffith has laid out another fabulous tale, based on solid knowledge of the natural world, with a provocative sense of the deviousness of humankind.”—Mary Logue, author of The Streel and The Big Sugar

“A gripping thriller highlighting the ironclad bond between man and his best friend, Killing Monarchs had me turning pages all night long.”—Brian Malloy, author of The Year of Ice and After Francesco

“A chilling thriller you won’t want to put down. Sam Rivers and his wolfdog partner, Gray, make a terrific crime-fighting duo!”—Margaret Mizushima, author of the award-winning Timber Creek K-9 Mysteries

“Sam Rivers is one part teacher and two parts crime solver. Killing Monarchs floats like a butterfly and stings like a scorpion. Prepare to be schooled.”—Mark Stevens, author of The Fireballer and The Allison Coil Mystery Series

“Killing Monarchs, the third Sam Rivers mystery, is a rollicking and hugely satisfying ride.”—C. Matthew Smith, author of Twentymile

Award-winning author Cary J. Griffith grew up among the woods, fields, and emerald waters of eastern Iowa. His childhood fostered a lifelong love of wild places. He earned a B.A. in English from the University of Iowa and an M.A. in library science from the University of Minnesota.

Griffith’s books explore the natural world. In nonfiction, he covers the borderlands between civilization and wild places. In fiction, he focuses on the ways some people use flora and fauna to commit crimes, while others with more reverence and understanding of the natural world leverage their knowledge to bring criminals to justice. In both genres, readers are likely to learn something about our relationship to the natural world and the creatures who inhabit it.

“I was 14 the first time I visited the lakes and boreal forests of northeastern Minnesota,” says Griffith, “and its beauty struck me.”

Griffith is also the author of Wolf Kill, Cougar Claw, Gunflint Burning, Lost in the Wild, and Opening Goliath. He lives with his family in a suburb of Minnesota’s Twin Cities.