On the heels of their experiences in Venezuela’s Orinoco Basin, Will Thacker and Joann McVay return with their continuing adventures in The Chronicles of An Exotic Animal Cowboy. This time their research takes them to the vast grasslands of western Paraguay – one of the most sparsely populated places on the planet. Their expedition is interrupted when they encounter the dastardly outlaw El Diablo and his brutal henchmen.
The two biologists team up with their trusty sidekick, Tom McClimon, the colorful bush pilot and former Army Ranger. The trio must outsmart the vile desperados and extract a kind of frontier justice. Only then can they resume their search for venomous reptiles and elusive canines.
This tale is reminiscent of the wild west, with vast open spaces, cowboys and outlaws, horseback chase scenes and local indigenous tribes. Throw in a little Paraguayan mythology and you have a story you won’t be able to put down.
Don’t miss any of William Thacker’s adventures: Otters on a Plane • Orinoco • The Pearl Islands • The Gainesville Tales • Adventure Road
“The five renegades once again galloped alongside the course of the river. We had closed the distance to mere yards. Clods of wet earth flew from the ground and shot past us like musket balls as the hooves of their horses shredded the rushes and plowed through the mud. Tom dared not fire for fear of hitting Joann.”
-excerpt from An Untamed Land
“Whatever it’s rooted in, Will Thacker’s writing always takes you on a trip. This new one, An Untamed Land, is a dive off a cliff into fiction after his journal-based books. What that means is that mixed in with the usual Thacker-esque crazy serpent and animal specificity and nature wildness is something new, a couple of Hey-it-could-happen! storylines that lead the reader down some trails nobody will see coming. It makes it all fun and suspenseful and romantic and trippy. And a bonus: Will helps us out with a curated playlist.”
~ Dan Vining, author of The Quick, The Next, Among the Living (Penguin) and NightSun (Rare Bird Books).