Augustus Green in the Lair of the Pye-a-Saw

Augustus Green in the Lair of the Pye-a-Saw (2009)
Thomas G. Lammers
([LibraryThing] [Missouri Botanical Garden Press])

A self-published, first novel (actually, more of a "novella" in length) by Lammers, an Associate Professor at the University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh. The author, a fervent botanist who has been to many exotic locales over the years, collecting samples, brings this wealth of knowledge and experience in his chosen field to good use in this tale of "Augustus Green", another botanist living at the very end of the 18th century in the still young United States. He and his guide, a French-Canadian named Jacques Blondin, venture into the then Spanish held territory which is now southeastern Iowa--then known as "northern Louisiana"--against the wishes of the Spanish Lieutenant-Governor over that area, Zenon Trudeau. Green makes many interesting botanical discoveries in the region, but soon finds himself more enthralled by the tale of the "Pye-a-Saw", a giant predatory bird which once menaced the Native Americans living there. Furthermore, rumors have spread that the Pye-a-Saw has actually returned. Green and Blondin become resolute to discover if this is indeed the case, and, if so, to bring down this monster before it can kill again. This entire tale is told via Green's journal of the expedition, discovered in the attic of a college administration building about to be demolished in 1948 (the novella's framing sequence). This first work of fiction by Dr. Lammers is an enjoyable read. Occasionally the botanical verbiage (the various scientific names of the various plants Green encounters) can become a bit distracting to someone not used to them (although they do add to the feeling of authenticity, that one is reading an actual journal kept recording such an expedition), and I couldn't help but wish that we could have seen an additional scene or two of Green and Blondin avoiding discovery by the Spanish authorities, however those are minor quibbles. I very much look forward to whatever future tales Dr. Lammers comes up with. (Note, being a self-published book, Augustus Green is not on Amazon, so I have put a link here to Missouri Botanical Garden Press instead, as they currently carry it.) (Finished reading 8/9/09)