and Lute Bapcat mystery series comes a new book for the fans. When Heywood was writing his first Woods Cop novel, into his mind crawled a character called Limpy Allerdyce, who is a master poacher-predator-violator in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan--that is, the turf where Heywood's novels take place.

The first description of Limpy was in Ice Hunter. Much like Shakespeare's outrageous character Falstaff, Allerdyce exhibits little doubt in himself, and though he seems to exhibit a dark view of life and living, there are glimpses of lights at other levels sometimes flashing like distant small beacons. Unlike Falstaff, who virtually everyone is happy to see and be around (until they aren't), no one is ever glad to see Limpy because his reputation scares the hell out of everybody he comes in contact with (and most who've only heard about him)--everyone, that is, except Grady Service, conservation officer and hero of Heywood's novels. A minor character at first, Limpy's role in the novels has grown with time.

For Yoopers who are far and away (and some who are not so far and away), one thing is true for all of them: they all want to return to the UP as soon as they can. Till that day, they have the novels of Joe Heywood and Limpy's Adult Lexicon to comfort them.