Yellowstone Standoff (National Park Mystery #3) by Scott Graham

He, his wife, and her two girls are going camping in Yellowstone.  He's under contract by the Park Service and they've found some artifacts he's going to examine and identify.  They are going with a group of people, so it should be safe enough.  The animals aren't normally aggressive towards humans but they certainly won't bother a group.  The head ranger assures him it's safe.  It's not...

Torrey House Press and Edelweiss gave me the opportunity to read this book for review (thank you).  It will be published June 14th.

They are traveling with students who are doing research for the graduate classes they are taking.  They need to write a thesis to complete their studies and they are not happy about being held back a year due to the death of two members of the group who were studying wolves by a bear.  It was an unusual kill and they are still looking for the bear.  Everyone knows to be cautious and to avoid traveling alone.

This book terrified me because there was a bear warning on a camping trip I made with my husband.  We were 18 miles away from the ranger station, on foot, and alone.  I told him I had seen the bear but he said it must have been a dog.  (I KNOW what a dog looks like, thank you, but he insisted.)  We knew better than to take anything attractive along for food.  Dried soup mixes, some flour and other ready to eat dehydrated things.  We hung our packs high.  I was haunted by that bear the whole week we were there.  When we came out, the camp below us had everyone in the outhouse and they ran to the truck and climbed up and over the railings to get on.  They were in shock and they left everything behind.  The outhouse had big scratches, their tents, sleeping bags and coolers were all destroyed.  The bear went for easier food.  I could relate to this story and the people's fears.

What they see happening is unusual behavior.  They are aggressive when they should be backing off.  The wolves and the bears work together and that's not seen.  Of course, once in a while the bear will turn on the wolf.  Then a human is killed.  Unfortunately it's murder by knife.  That means someone in their group is real, real dangerous.

Chuck is a character that grows on you but he's just too nice.  It takes a while before he figures out what's going on and by then it's almost too late.  There's a very exciting finish to this story.  I'll watch for another in this series.  Hopefully it won't have bears in it...