A field biologist with the Forest Service has come to the Pacific Midwest to learn what has poisoned a lake and killed trout. Dr Teresa Cleary views the beautiful amenity, but swimmers had also reported respiratory distress so clearly something is gravely amiss. This will lead her into DANGER AT THE BORDER with Canada as the lake spans that border.

Tourism is an important source of livelihoods here and the Rangers are disturbed by the havoc caused to nature. Local men disparage a slight woman - what use can she be? But Teresa assures them that she will find the cause of pollution. Agent Jeff Steele is willing to let her work. He's from the Customs and Border Patrol so he accompanies Teresa out in a Zodiac inflatable boat, zipping along the large lake to collect samples and search for pollutants. When shots are fired at the pair by men in camouflage gear they have to take to the unpopulated woods, where Teresa knows they are near the source of the chemicals she's found. There's no phone coverage. Have they any chance of making it, even with the survival kit she always carries?

Bears inhabit these woods and they aren't the worst dangers Jeff and Teresa will face. I liked the hiking experience and nature detail. The brave, sensible people have time to talk and it turns out that each of them got dropped by a partner who took up a better offer for work somewhere else. Teresa's devoted herself to her job, and Jeff gets on better with prayers. There's no guarantee that they will survive, especially if the gun-toting men find them again.

Readers will get to know more details about certain crops than they expected, and find that Homeland Security cameras in the woods have been set on a loop by criminals so nothing seems amiss. This fast-paced story piles on the dangers and never lets up. I really had a good time reading this first in the Northern Border Patrol series by Terri Reid. I previously loved her Scent of Danger in the Texas K9 Unit linked series, so anyone who enjoyed those books is in for a treat.