Powder River Poison by Maureen Meehan Aplin

About the book

Butch Anderson, a born-in-the-saddle cowboy world famous for his days on the rodeo circuit, owns a pristine ranch with his wife on the outskirts of the magnificent Big Horn Mountains in northern Wyoming. MethZap, a coalbed methane gas company, purchased the mineral rights underneath the Anderson ranch with the intention of mining the gas. MethZap promised the Andersons that they would be entitled to receive large royalty checks and that the ranch would be returned to its immaculate condition. Unfortunately, MethZap didn't keep its word to the Andersons, and when sludge oozes from the "Well from Hell", contaminating their groundwater, destroying their rangeland, and poisoning the Powder River Basin, they hire Mac and Harry, prominent Wyoming attorneys, to represent them in a class-action toxic tort crusade that threatens to divide the Anderson's marriage, family and community. The multi-million dollar jury verdict against MethZap is enough to restore the Anderson ranch, but will money replace what has been lost in the battle? In winning justice for her clients, Mac learns the value of respect -- respect for the environment, loved ones, and most importantly, for herself.

About the author

Maureen Meehan Aplin was born and raised in the small northern Wyoming town of Sheridan, where Powder River Poison is based. The novel is fiction, but the toxic waste from methane gas development in the Powder River Basin is quite real.

Ms. Aplin received her Bachelor of Science and Master of Arts degrees in education before becoming a lawyer. She has been practicing civil litigation in California for over a decade. She has completed numerous marathons and triathlons, including the Boston Marathon, as well as the Hawaii Ironman World Championship Triathlon.

Always passionate about the art of communication and the craft of the written word, the gruesome murder of Ms. Aplin's legal secretary inspired her to write legal thrillers. In her first Mary MacIntosh novel, Geyser, Mac defends a client accused of murdering his business partner on the ski slopes of Jackson Hole. In her second Mary MacIntosh novel, Snake River Secret, Mac is on a mission to solve the murder of her legal secretary. In the third novel, entitled Powder River Poison, Mac brings a class-action lawsuit against coalbed methane gas developers who've poisoned the rangeland and rivers in the Powder River Basin.

Ms. Aplin lives with her husband and two children in Southern California, where she is currently crafting the fourth Mary MacIntosh novel, entitled Medicine Wheel Murder.