Twelve-year-old Joey MacTagert's dad wants his son to carry on the family tradition of hunting. But Joey has "buck fever"—he can't pull the trigger on a deer, and hates the idea of killing animals. He's more interested in art and hockey, two activities that his dad barely acknowledges. Joey's dad wants him to use his special skill in tracking to hunt down the big antlered buck that roams the woods near their home. Joey knows how to track Old Buck, but has kept secret from his father the reason he's gained the deer's trust. When trouble between his parents seems to escalate, Joey and his older sister, Philly, find themselves in the middle of tensions they don't fully understand. Joey wants to keep the peace, and if conquering his buck fever will do it, he has to try. Buck Fever is a nominee for the 2003 Edgar Award for Best First Novel.

Game Warden John Marlin investigates the death of a man dressed in a deer costume who is shot just outside the home of the county's most important resident: a white-tailed deer named Buck. Martin's Press.

Examines the complex and conflicting issues surrounding the hunting of deer.

Game warden John Marlin hopes that Burnett, a likeable kid, isn't found dead in his burned down house. But Marlin doesn't have the same warm fuzzy feelings about rancher Vance Scofield, who is missing after his SUV is found in the river. Scofield, a skirt-chasing SOB, is a "high fencer," a rancher who pens trophy bucks behind deer-proof fences which lazy hunters can bag for a fee. To Marlin it's like shooting fish in a barrel. Worse, a range war of sorts has erupted with the low-fence ranchers, and things are turning downright ugly. Of course Marlin still doesn't know about the X-rated pictures a blackmailer took of the state senator in cahoots with the high fencers...the scheme being hatched by two bumbling poachers...or the stolen red Corvette which may be the key to everything. What has caught his attention is the sheriff's department's pretty new deputy...

Every fall close to one million hunters enter Pennsylvania's forests and mountains in quest of the white-tailed deer. Some are seeking sport and companionship; others are stocking their larders for winter; many are conservationists who regard hunting as the most humane way of reducing overpopulated deer herds. They all face the increasing activism of animal rights advocates who are opposed to hunting in principle and who frequently picket and harass hunters. This controversial subject is explored in depth by Mike Sajna, the outdoors columnist for Pittsburgh Magazine and a twenty-year veteran of Pennsylvania's "pumpkin army," the orange-clad throng that invades the woods every season. To explain the ethos and traditions of hunting he takes the reader to a typical deer camp in Warren County, in the rugged terrain of the Allegheny High Plateau. Starting with the trek north from their homes around Pittsburgh, he captures the sights and sounds, thoughts and feelings of three generations of hunters. With humor, affection, and insight he recounts the hunting lore, the camaraderie, the physical testing that make deer camp a unique experience.

Blanco County, Texas. It's one week before the start of deer hunting season, and everyone in town has come down with a case of... Buck Fever The fury begins with Red O'Brien and Billy Don Craddock, two drunken poachers who fire a shot in the direction of Blanco County's most important resident: a wide-eyed, white-tailed deer named Buck who lives on the Circle S ranch. Now Buck is on the loose, and no one knows where to find him: not Trey Sweeney, the man who took the bullet meant for Buck, albeit right in the flank of his own deer costume; not Tim Gray, the veterinarian who can't function very long without popping a few canine tranquilizers; and especially not Roy Swank, owner of the Circle S, who wants desperately to find Buck for reasons no one can quite understand. Navigating all this turmoil is Blanco County Game Warden John Marlin, with a little help from his best friend Phil and a beautiful nurse named Becky who seems too good to be true. But when a dead body turns up, the real mystery in madcap Blanco County soon boils down to a single question: Just who is hunting whom?

Twelve-year-old Dill (short for Dylan) is desperately trying to keep her family from falling apart. Her father is always at work, her mother is gone, and their dog, Dead End, seems to be here one moment and missing the next. And big trouble is brewing. A wild pack of dogs is destroying local livestock and property, and the sheriff has ordered them to be shot. Is this where Dead End has been disappearing to? How far will Dill and her best friend, a boy nicknamed Cub, go to uncover the truth, and hold together the last strands of a family that seems to be unraveling?

Bizarre behavior of deer near West Branch, a busy hunting and tourist stop in northern Michigan, is causing hunter concern and links to several deaths. Two rookie reporters and a seasoned veteran from the Detroit Times newspaper, pursuing the sensational scoop of a lifetime, encounter humans and deer strangely influenced by an apparent brain-bending disease leading to a horrific conclusion of murderous intent. A further look into human history provides uncanny references to similar strange occurrences possibly linked to a mysterious grain fungus toxin, existing throughout the world. Be prepared to accept the heart-pounding impossible, as Katie Kottle, Jeb Porter and Louis Dingman investigate and unravel this baffling age-old cause of peculiar human and animal behavior. Katie and Jeb, romantically involved, find themselves in a cozy thriller that brings them closer together and resolves a mystery in Katie's past. Let the story take you on a captivating journey through hunting woods, but be warned, you might get Buck Fever and not return. “A smart, creepy, can’t-stop-reading trek through a could-happen series of deadly events and mind-altering consequences with lots of twists and turns.” "Interesting epilogue references to pyramid building, Salem witch trials, Jack the Ripper, and ancient writings--make it seem very real."

It's late summer 1793, and the streets of Philadelphia are abuzz with mosquitoes and rumors of fever. Down near the docks, many have taken ill, and the fatalities are mounting. Now they include Polly, the serving girl at the Cook Coffeehouse. But fourteen-year-old Mattie Cook doesn't get a moment to mourn the passing of her childhood playmate. New customers have overrun her family's coffee shop, located far from the mosquito-infested river, and Mattie's concerns of fever are all but overshadowed by dreams of growing her family's small business into a thriving enterprise. But when the fever begins to strike closer to home, Mattie's struggle to build a new life must give way to a new fight-the fight to stay alive.