Grizzly: A Mystery

English professor, poet, and professional house sitter Lee Squires is swamped in a sea of student compositions when she receives a call for help from childhood friends in Montana. Happy to leave her students and Washington, D.C., Lee travels out to the Eastern Front of the Rockies to spend her Easter break as temporary cook for the J-E dude ranch.
The ranch and related cattle operations are managed by Dave and Trudy Fife, while Dave's brother, Mac, runs the Sacred Paw Institute - dedicated to saving the grizzly and its habitat in Montana. The ranch is in severe financial distress, though, and the Fifes are hoping for an infusion of capital from a group of Japanese businessmen interested in investing in the American West. Lee's challenge is to meet the quirky culinary needs of these important guests, but she is shaken up when she discovers a body with the head, hands, feet, and genitals missing. Although the killing occurred some time before Lee's arrival, her suspicions are aroused, and when another body turns up, Lee's investigative talents shift into high gear.