Not since James Dickey's classic Deliverance has there been a novel that succeeds in capturing the violent and beautiful world of the river and those who dare to travel down its turbulent waters. The Hookmen, winner of the 1993 Colorado Fiction Award, is a haunting adventure set against the backdrop of the rugged Kern River in southern California. It is the story of nineteen-year-old Roy Cruz, who struggles to care for his alcoholic father, and the summer he takes a dangerous job with the Forest Service to make ends meet. Taught by old Crawdad, Cruz becomes a "hookman" and learns the grim craft of searching for the drowned, then dragging them from their watery grave with metal hooks. He falls in love with Rita, a tough woman with a mysterious past, and befriends Walker, a masterful kayaker and burned-out Vietnam vet, whose presence will eventually threaten to destroy everything Cruz has ever loved or trusted. More than anything, The Hookmen is a novel of survival. As Cruz attempts to navigate the treacherous rapids in the high mountain canyons of the Kern, he also tries to salvage his own doomed relationship with his father and his love affair with Rita.