Woods Cop Books In Order

Publication Order of Woods Cop Mysteries Books

Publication Order of Woods Cop Mysteries Collections

Born in New York, Joseph Heywood is an all American writer of immense popularity as he’s gained both critical and commercial success. Receiving degrees in journalism, he’s managed to build himself strong literary career over the years, with his extremely adept and easily accessible style. Focusing his work on a lot of experiences from his own life, he’s able to take inspiration from the world around him and put it into his stories. The Wood Cop series of books is one such example of this, as they provide entertaining and fun narratives featuring protagonists who use all their wits out in the wilds to help justice prevail. Dealing with different mysteries and cases in each book, they manages to catch criminals, fish for legendary trout and uncover priceless artifacts. Using their in-depth knowledge of nature, Heywood’s protagonists are able to make full use of their respective environments to deal with the case in hand.

Categorized as mystery novels focusing on ‘the great outdoors’ and nature, no two books in Heywood’s series are exactly the same, although they do happen to follow a general pattern. Nature is important as a theme to Heywood and it shows as, whilst they can be termed under a variety of different categories such as ‘sports novel’ or ‘action’, they always come back to the same key point of rural living. This may be a part of why he has such a wide and popular appeal as he isn’t so easily defined, something which will continue into the future.

Ice Hunter: A Woods Cop Mystery

Published initially in 2001, this was to be the first inclusion into the mystery series setting up the overall premise of it all. Also introduced here for the first time is the character of Grady Service, the former marine known for his skills in the wild. A recurring character, he has his first case of the series here, however reluctant he may be from the outset.

The character of Grady Service himself is a tough talking, strong-willed and ever resourceful former marine. Well regarded for his tracking skills, he’s able to get the job done with a minimum of fuss, ensuring that justice always prevails. Recently though he’s rather live a more peaceful life in retirement, taking some alone time to contemplate more out in the wild. Set within the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, the landscape is almost a character unto itself that Grady must bravely traverse. As he is also a highly competent tracker as well as a Conservation Officer to the area, this is a character Grady knows only too well. When one ‘Ice Hunter’ gets on the loose, it is up to Grady to use his advanced knowledge to capture this most dangerous adversary. With a dangerous killer at large Grady must understand their every move if he is to stay one step ahead and stop them. As there are poachers out there too, he must do whatever it takes to stop them from ravaging this natural habitat. There is also the politics of the area which play an integral part in the narrative as well, right up to the greedy corporations along with the Governor of the State of Michigan.

Taking some time-out from his former life in the wilderness, Grady Service is sworn to protect the great natural reserves of Michigan. Just like his father before him, he aims to keep the land free from threat, whatever that may be, as they seek to ravage it. One such threat soon turns up in the form of a group of poachers led by a hardened ex-convict and old nemesis of Service, as he’s been recently released from prison. Dangerous and formidable, Grady must stop the man known as the ‘Ice Hunter’ preventing him from wrecking the natural landscape, whilst avoiding the powers that be who also have ulterior motives. Will he be able to stop the Ice Hunter, or will it be too late as he destroys all the local wildlife throughout Michigan? Who is pulling the strings and what are their vested interests in seeing this extended operation through to the end? Can Grady Service make it out alive stopping the Ice Hunter in this first installment of the Woods Cop Mysteries?

The Snowfly

Initially released in 2000, this was to act as the follow-up to the first novel, although it wasn’t a direct sequel. Not using the same characters as last time, it heads for a new environment, whilst still focusing on the beauty of nature. It may contain the same themes and ideas as the first, but it has a far together more ethereal quality to it.

Opening with Bowie Rhodes, it feature the UPI reporter as the protagonist of this story based around fly-fishing. Traveling across the world he hopes to locate the extremely legendary Snowfly which is said to only hatch every seven to ten years. Bringing up trout of almost mythical proportions, Rhodes aims to find it on his international travels through in-depth manuscripts and hushed secrets. Will he ever be able to find the legendary Snowfly and capture trout so huge that they’d need to be seen to be believed? Can he get past the many obstacles that lay in his path, such as the Soviet Union of Brezhnev, or the poisoned uranium mines of Canada? Where will his journey take him and will he ever come home as he goes out searching for the one and only Snowfly?

The Woods Cop Series

Difficult to categorize, although still hugely popular amongst a wide-range of people, it has yet to be adapted for television. Whilst it follows many of the conventions of the detective show, it doesn’t have one singular protagonist running throughout, instead opting for a different character for the majority of the novels. This isn’t the case for his recurring character of Grady Service though, he often returns for follow-ups due to his appeal as a personality. Gaining a large following, Joseph Heywood speaks about nature and it’s usefulness in gaining the upper-hand on a situation. With more books planned for release this appears to be a trend that’s set to continue on into the foreseeable future.