Page 39 - SOM FALL 2017 BOOK

Author: John Riha

History comes alive in a rollicking new novel set in Southern Oregon
in the 1920s. A young farm girl defies the odds to become Oregon’s
first female bounty hunter in this debut novel from Ashland writer
John Riha. “The Bounty Huntress” is inspired by actual events in the
Rogue Valley during the early part of the 20th century.
Hang on for a wild ride with Iris Greenlee. It’s the 1920s—there
may be telephones and electric lights in the small towns, but in the
mountains of Southern Oregon it’s still the Wild West, with gold
thieves lurking in the alleys and armed moonshiners roaming the
hills. It takes a steely heart for Iris to try and make a living hunt-
ing criminals for money, but she’s determined to keep her twice-
widowed mother and autistic brother safe in a world hell-bent on
destroying their threadbare happiness. She has other motives, too.
Iris isn’t simply intent on bringing lawbreakers to justice; she’s out to
find the murderer of her game warden father. Although she’s mocked,
cheated, and nearly shot to death, Iris is determined to ply her dan-
gerous trade to its true conclusion.
More than a spirited good yarn, “The Bounty Huntress” is a moral tale
that weighs law against justice, and explores the limits of forgiveness.
The book is available at Bloomsbury Books in Ashland and other fine
bookstores, and on Amazon.

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