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| A Hunt for Justice: The True Story of a Woman Undercover Wildlife Agent | 
| Author: Lucinda Delaney Schroeder
Publisher: The Lyons Press
Category: Book
List Price: $21.95
Buy New: $4.39
You Save: $17.56 (80%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  13 reviews
Sales Rank: 315901
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 296
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6 x 1.3
ISBN: 1592288820
Dewey Decimal Number: 364.18
EAN: 9781592288823
ASIN: 1592288820
Publication Date: April 1, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand new! May have a remainder mark.
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Selected for the 2007 Amelia Bloomer Project list of recommended feminist literature for young readers For thirty years, Lucinda Delaney Schroeder held an unusual government position: she was one of the handful of women special agents with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. In August 1992, she accepted an assignment that forever changed--and endangered--her life. She posed as a big-game hunter in Alaska in order to infiltrate an international ring of poachers out to kill the biggest and best of that state's wildlife.
A Hunt for Justice recounts her dramatic story--a story she was not legally permitted to write about until her retirement in 2004.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 8 more reviews...
Politics April 4, 2008
I can sympathize and empathize with the Author. I did know a few Fed Covert operators who were hung out to dry by Federal Prosecutors. Two of my cases as a State Agent, were taken, then aborted by a couple U. S. Attorneys. I had the 'goods', but they failed to follow through, very frustrating. I know, personally, the one time head of the Enforcement Division of the National Marine Fishery Service, Dave McKinney. We went through the same Alaskan Academy, Recruit Class 35 back in 1981. This is a good read and allows an insight into the slings and arrows suffered by a professional Wildlife Agent.
Good straight forward read December 29, 2007
Quick, interesting read in a direct narrative style. Very informative for anyone interested in the Fish and Wildlife Service, Alaskan hunting, or a woman in a traditionally all-male field. I hope the author continues to write.
 You Go, Girl! August 29, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
In 1974, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service hired its third female agent, Lucinda Delaney. And unlike the first two women in the agency, she was determined to do more than checking cargo and baggage for smuggled contraband.
And thus began a career in which Delaney, who married biologist Lonnie Schroeder soon after, spent 30 years working undercover, bagging poachers and other hunting scofflaws.
Her fascinating story has been recounted in "A Hunt for Justice."
Schroeder tells of her struggles to be taken seriously in an agency that gives "old boy's network" a really bad name. A degree in criminology and an overwhelming passion for solving mysteries led Schroeder to her chosen career, and a dogged determination--some might say stubbornness--kept her in it for 30 years, despite outright and undisguised sexual discrimination and harassment, administrative roadblocks and hostility.
Today's generation doesn't remember the struggles involved for women in the 1960s and '70 to be taken seriously in formerly "male" occupations. Employers could--and did--discriminate on the basis of sex, motherhood and pure bias; those women who persisted were subjected to verbal and physical harassment. It is a testament to Schroeder's passion and determination to do her job that she not only did it, but was instrumental in bringing down an international poaching ring operating in Alaska.
And this case is the crux of the story. Her struggles in the beginning, building a family and juggling being a wife, mother and field agent are just background for the real story, the undercover "Operation Brooks Range" in 1991.
Poachers at this time could make serious money taking hunters into Alaska for "guaranteed" trophies: moose hunts began at $6,000, sheep and grizzlies cost hunters $7,000; combination hunts were as high as $18,000.
As Schroeder begins her undercover operation, at a hunter's bar called "The Bear Den, she finds out why the costs are so high: " `Wow! Pretty hefty prices,' I said, sliding the brochure and videotape into my oversized black leather purse. `Not when you consider that everything's guaranteed,' (the bartender) replied."
One of the biggest violators was a guide named "Bob Bowman" (Schroeder changed the names to protect privacy). He had "all the elements of a violator--small airplanes, wealthy clients and lots of big game ..."
But with 64,000 licensed guides in 591,000 square miles of wilderness, catching him was almost impossible.
Until Schroeder and an informant wangled their way into a hunt with Bowman by pretending to be hunters in search of big trophies who weren't willing to take the time and hardship to hunt legally.
Operating by word-of-mouth, with clients coming in from Italy, Germany and other foreign countries, staying under the radar and having an almost supernatural ability to sniff out undercover operatives (and allegedly no compunction about "eliminating" them), Bowman's operation had been going on for years, even thought the agency knew he was dirty.
Illegal hunts included using small planes to tire out grizzlies and moose, spotting game and dropping the hunters right on top of them, despite a law forbidding flying and hunting on the same day, and conducting hunts in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Schroeder spent 11 heart-pounding days in Bowman's camp, worried that violators she'd arrested would recognize her, worried her informant might slip and give up their secret, worried the illegal hunters would leave the country with their evidence--and trying to convince herself that the time away from her daughter and husband was worth the stress and fear.
This woman has guts--and smarts. She got on Bowman's good side by translating for his Italian guests, got in with them by speaking their language, worked up a relationship with the wives of the poachers by helping in the kitchen and seeming compassionate, kept the foreign hunters' evidence in the country with a well-told lie, and brought home a terrific piece of evidence in the form of a Dall sheep trophy she shot in ANWR.
Here, Schroeder's overriding reason for taking the risk is seen:
"I hated to kill a magnificent ram like this one for a case, and I wondered for a minute if I was any better than the crooks who killed animals for their own selfish agendas."
Schroeder's agenda should in no way be seen as anti-hunting. As she points out in the Preface, "... I championed ethical and legal hunting. Nothing in this book should be construed as being anti-hunting. My job was to stop illegal hunting and poaching that diminished legal hunting opportunities. I fully acknowledge and respect the tremendous contribution that hunters have made to wildlife conservation worldwide."
This book reads like a thriller, with international intrigue, heart-stopping action and a gutsy heroine who's not afraid to face her adversaries head on--even in a foreign country--in order to make her case.
Schroeder writes well, infusing her prose with imagery and action, making her characters three-dimensional, even the bad guys. She doesn't hesitate to tell of the lengths she'd go to, nor does she gloss over her fears and concerns about her family and her work's effect on them. But her passion for solving crimes and putting criminals away is obvious, and her book makes for a compelling read. I sometimes forgot I was reading a true story, it was so well done.
True crime is a genre one either loves or hates, and I happen to love it. "A Hunt For Justice" goes right up at the top of the list of well-written good reads. If you're not a fan of this genre, read it for the history, for the excellent picture of the struggles women have gone through to be considered equal, or for the damage illegal hunting and poaching does to the wildlife populating.
Whatever your reason, just read the book. You won't be sorry.
Great Book! June 20, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
As a female looking for a career in wildlife law enforcement this was a great book to read! Lucinda Schroeder did an excelent job writing this true story, it was hard for me to put it down at night. Because Lucinda is a female she had a great advantage over men at catching poatchers in Alaska, and this reminds us all that you don't have to be male to succeed in this line of work. The book was full of excitment, danger, humor and fun. A great read!
Great Book April 8, 2007
This is a GREAT BOOK....there are very few books written by undercover agents that rings so true. This woman had guts....
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