Washed in the Blood (Hardcover)

They call him Rut. William Rutledge Elliott IV is Washed in the Blood, an almost born-again Baptist laying low on a remote island, skippering a seepy old freight barge and growing high-quality marijuana for a discerning clientele. While his chosen occupations are perilous, his life is peaceful and predictable until he discovers a strange track in an abandoned rice field - it's the track of an animal that's been officially extinct for over a century! Ridiculed and rebuffed by the Department of Natural Resource wardens and biologists, Rut seeks out the truth. But instead of setting him free, as the Good Book says, the truth sends him to jail. There are compensations though - good whiskey, good smokes and an unlikely romance with the lovely Charlotte Callahan - one of the state's first female game wardens.