The Last Ranger is my first experience with Peter Heller's work but I was immediately taken by the author's storytelling ability and the conflicted characters that populate this tale of what everyday life inside a large national park such as Yellowstone might be like for the rangers and staff who live and work in them. Having spent some time in several national parks in recent years, I've often admired the patience that park rangers display even while witnessing the utter stupidity of an unfortunately high percentage of the tourists they have to deal with every day - but there were things I was still curious about. Well, The Last Ranger, I'm happy to report, not only kept me thoroughly entertained, it left me with a much better understanding of what daily life inside a park like Yellowstone must be like for the animals and humans who live there.

Ren Hopper, a Yellowstone National Park enforcement officer, is still dealing with the personal grief created by the sudden death of his wife. Ren is getting better, but he's still not ready to be around a lot of people, so the isolation and remoteness of his job are exactly what he both craves and needs. The ranger has two or three close friends for support and he's friendly enough with a small circle of locals and park employees, but it is the company of the park's beautiful wolf expert that he enjoys more than most - a positive sign.

Ren knows the routine well. He realizes that his days are largely going to be spent rescuing clueless tourists from themselves, breaking up campground fights, and dealing with locals who sometimes resent the behavior of tourists passing through their world - but he can always look forward to days off when he can lose himself inside the park's more remote areas. Everything changes on the day Ren spots a poacher, rifle in hand, allowing his dog to chase a young black bear inside the park. As it turns out, the poacher is not only a threat to Yellowstone's bear population, he is also a threat to the wolves who call the park home. And because the park's wolf expert is just as aggressive in defending her wolves as the poacher is in trying to take them, the poacher is now a direct threat to the woman Ren wants so much to protect.

Peter Heller's main characters are complex and flawed, even the ones who make doing the right thing their first priority. Too often, doing the right thing is not easy, and Heller's characters must decide how far they are willing to bend in order to get the job done. It's the age old question of judging when the ends justify the means. The Last Ranger is a literary novel; it is a painless lesson in the behavior of the animals found inside Yellowstone National Park; and it is a crime novel - with the real question being who will turn out to be the criminal, and who the victim. ( )

I knew many of the places Heller mentioned, Cooke City, the Ausable River in the Adirondacks, the Lamar Valley, etc., which added to my enjoyment. He captured the impact of all sorts of people with widely varied attitudes to nature, animals and life converging in Yellowstone. He also shows the impact of money on the people who live modestly in that environment. I loved the compassion Ren showed when he could and the how that changed over time. Hilly, the wolf biologist, gave insight into how wolves live and, sadly, die before their time. ( )

Skip this one. I had high expectations, but it just dragged on and meandered with no purpose. Read Heller's The River or American Wolf by Nate Blakeslee instead. I think Heller‘s fatal flaw is that he just can’t write women well. Scratch that, Celine, his novel about an elderly PI based on his mother, is excellent. He just can’t write women as a romantic interest. They are hollow and so bad. Their actions never feel genuine. Hoping for better next time. I loved The River, but then that didn’t have any women in it. ( )

Ren is in his mid-30s and works as a park ranger/ enforcement officer at Yellowstone National Park. Most of his duties are routine and mundane, with the occasional flash of excitement and danger. When he finds his biologist/wolf expert friend, Hilly, caught in a wolf trap and severely injured it sets Ren on a mission to find the poacher responsible. Heller does a wonderful job describing the outdoors and wildlife (especially the wolves). That alone makes it a worthwhile read, despite the weaker mystery plot. ( )

The Last Ranger by Peter Heller is a very highly recommended, exquisitely written novel following a realistic account of a national park ranger.

Officer Ren Hopper is an enforcement ranger with the Yellowstone National Park Service. His many duties vary greatly as he deals with often clueless tourists, a park full of wildlife, and local residents. Off duty, he enjoys spending time with Hilly, the wolf biologist, who is passionate about her work. There is trouble brewing between Hilly and a local hunter/trapper, Les Ingraham, who may be poaching too. And then there is someone who is specifically leaving notes that are targeting and threatening Ren.

Heller does a magnificent, poetic job capturing the beauty and danger found in the natural environment of Yellowstone, as well as the conflicts between people in The Last Ranger. It is an even paced novel that is part mystery novel with several incidents to investigate and part ode to the natural world. Heller has seamlessly written into the plot many facts and information about wolves, bears, and other animals in the wilderness.

At the same time Heller also populates The Last Ranger with a cast of realistic characters with differences and conflicting emotions. Ren is a wonderful, complex, fully realized character. He is thoughtful, contemplative, and purposeful while dealing with the conflicts and questions he encounters. His emotional wounds from his past are present, but help make him the man he is.

The Last Ranger would be a wonderful choice for a book club. There are so many details and questions that could be discussed.
Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Knopf via NetGalley.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2023/07/the-last-ranger.html ( )