Although much of this book is fascinating, I did come away feeling a little disappointed - I expected many more stories about wildlife encounters (or wildlife-human encounters) than there turned out to be.

The author is undoubtedly an excellent writer, and certainly does the job of conveying the breadth of what her job as a conservation officer in the U.S. involves. From deer poaching to fishing up people's bodies from the waterways, Billerbeck doesn't spare us the visceral details, nor the emotional fallout.

There's also some pretty funny moments, and the author narrates these to maximum effect.

That said, I'm a fan of books about popular science and the natural world - and 'Wildland Sentinel' didn't deliver in this regard. As I said at the beginning, there's very little actual wildlife. Mostly we get details about human-on-human crimes. I felt like I was reading a book by a small-town sheriff, most of the time. And that's quite a shame, because from the passages that are about wildlife, Billerbeck is clearly a talented nature-writer. I very much hope she'll write more, and that next time, she'll be focusing on the non-human rather than the human.

(With thanks to Netgalley and the University Of Iowa Press for the ebook in exchange of an honest review)

Wildland Sentinel is part memoir, part conservation essay, and a fascinating inside look at the work which conservation officers perform. Due out 15th Sept 2020 from the University of Iowa Press, it's 230 pages and will be available in paperback format.

This is a plainly written and accessible first person account of the making of a conservation officer from her childhood up through employment and experiences in the field. Working in Iowa, where there are remarkably few truly wild places remaining, her job entailed a lot more park ranger type duties than I was maybe expecting (challenging as a woman), but she's adept at telling her story and I found myself engaged in the narrative. I finished the book in a couple sessions and never felt the pace dragged or became difficult. The scenarios run the gamut from quite humorous to deep pathos and everything in between and Ms. Billerbeck is gifted in her storytelling.

The stories are arranged roughly thematically: the author's childhood, the officers, being a woman in a male dominated field, areas of conservation (water, land, wildlife), laws and law enforcement, the public, and her maturation as an officer of the law and as a person. She has a down to earth and philosophical writing style and I found myself nodding along as I was reading the book. It's a very readable book.

I really liked the lino cut illustrations (see cover art) and felt they added a lot to the text in a simple and rugged way. There aren't any photographs, but the descriptive style of the author more than compensates for the lack. The book doesn't contain an index, but it does have a neat appendix listing other books from the publisher with a number of interesting titles.

Four stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

I enjoyed this book. The author describes her career as a Conservation Officer for the state of Iowa. Admittedly, not the romantic setting of a similar Officer in say, Montana, but interesting nonetheless. I found her job duties to be quite different from what I experienced while working in college in Wisconsin with Conservation Officers. Her duties seemed to run more toward a park police person, dealing with drunks and such. But, as a woman in her chosen profession, she met the challenges head on and persevered. It could not have been easy. I thank her for her service.

This was part working-life-memoir, part cautionary book, and different for me. But overall, I thought it was a pretty good read. I read it in a few sittings, slowed only by dry bits about the history of nature conservation in Iowa. But the author made up for those with her recounting of experiences out in the field. They covered a range of emotional high and low points, as you might expect. I won't give anything away here.

I'm glad I got to read this, so thanks to the author for writing it, and the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to read it in exchange for my honest opinion.

I enjoyed this first hand account. It had great vignettes of a career in conservation law enforcement. The beginning seemed like it would balance well between life and work but the end turned more toward work. I would have liked to understand more why she did it. Some passages hinted at it but I was left feeling ambivalent if she truly loved what she did. But she's a good writer and I appreciated the perspective of a woman.

I really enjoyed this book. It provides an insight into the world of working as a conservation officer, with the good, the bad, the ugly, and the plain weird all highlighted. I really enjoyed reading these little slice-of-life titbits and the way in which life sometimes throws curveballs at you from the strangest places. Everyone who works as an officer is well developed as characters in the book, and you can get attached to them pretty quickly. The author writes in an affable fashion, and it develops an instant connection for the reader to attach themselves to with ease.

I really enjoyed the stories in this book as well. While some were horrible and had a distinctive sense of absolute awfulness, they were still interesting, and give a realistic insight into the way that the job has changed over the years and some of the strange deaths that occur in parks. There was also a lot of things in here that I never would have guessed formed part of the job, so it was interesting to learn about that as well. Honestly, I just wanted to know more and more about it all!

All in all, this was a really interesting book that is a mostly quick read, and it has a fantastic voice from the author who gives it the kind of life that makes you feel like you're out in a national park with her. This was a lovely read, and especially recommendable to anyone even remotely interested in nature in any capacity.