James Conroy’s new novel, The Coyote Hunter of Aquidneck Island not only introduces readers to a still rural bit of paradise set in Narragansett Bay, but to little known facts about indigenous New England Indian tribes…and coyotes. And, starting with the opening dialogue, the novel also introduces some good writing that brings together domestic drama, lore about the environment and some little-known Civil War military history. Conroy, a published poet and novelist from Long Island has an unusual story to tell and unusual protagonists to flesh it out. Micah LaVeck, a stoic, middle-aged retired federal civil servant with an incapacitating, incurable degenerative disease, lives alone in an unimproved cottage near the water and makes a living turning family journals into – he hopes – publishable memoirs. Kodi Red Moon, a young army veteran trained to be a sniper, is a professional hunter hired by the town to kill the invasive coyote population. Though Kodi’s working in conjunction with the