Rob Phillips ’78 Comm.
Latah Books: 2024
Luke McCain is back.
Stranded hunters and a fugitive killer looking for shelter from a blizzard in the Central Cascades make for McCain’s most challenging 72 hours as a Washington State Fish and Wildlife enforcement officer.
The Yakima-based McCain, who also just happens to be a WSU alum, as well as his trusty sidekick Jack, a yellow Labrador retriever, work overtime to help get everyone safely out of the mountains. The engaging, tightly written narrative features three converging storylines, including that of a trapper who gets caught in an illegal—and potentially lethal—snare as the snowstorm hits. It’s a page-turner.
It’s also the seventh McCain mystery novel by longtime Yakima Herald-Republic outdoors columnist Rob Phillips. An avid outdoorsman, Phillips shows the depth and breadth of his firsthand knowledge of the wilds of Washington’s Cascade Range in another fast-paced read that’s easy to picture cinematically. The harrowing adventure concentrates on terrain south of Cle Elum, west of Ellensburg, and north of Naches.
McCain fans will appreciate a few references from earlier novels—Phillips published his first McCain novel in 2021—but the approachable narrative stands on its own. First-time McCain readers will likely want to read Phillips’s other books.
Read more about Phillips in “Writing the wilds.” (Summer 2025)