Alice Henderson’s thrilling and fascinating series about Alex Carter, a wildlife biologist whose past adventures have taken her to study jaguars, wolverines, polar bears, and caribou, now takes her to Hawai’i. In “Storm Warning,” Alex has been asked to monitor a beach where hawksbill turtles are laying their eggs. The timing is perfect as she was just coming off of another job and had the time. Also, returning to the island where she lived with her parents for a while brings back fond memories.

As with all of Henderson’s novels, this one starts with a seemingly unrelated incident which will be relevant later in the novel. In Alaska, a gold mining crew uncovers a woolly mammoth. The mammoth gets shipped to Hawai’i for study, but then a baby mammoth is discovered at the same site. Before much can be done to carefully excavate the baby, a helicopter appears with masked men and they not only take the diminutive baby mammoth, but they brutally kill everyone on the site.

Then the action moves to the beach, where Alex Carter is snorkeling over a vibrant coral reef. One of the manners in which Henderson keeps the stories enthralling and filled with scenes we love to imagine as we read is to describe the wildlife that Alex is viewing in such detail that we can easily picture it in our minds. We see the sunlight playing over the coral and the “iridescent amber and brown” of the rare hawksbill turtle she sees eating sponges that grow on the reef. We learn that not only does the sponge feed the hawksbill, but by breaking off pieces of the sponges, thus opening the reef, the hawksbill allows fish to reach places that they wouldn’t otherwise be able to access.

Alex sets up camp on the beach, and she recruits volunteers to help her watch the turtle nests filled with eggs. She can’t be at the beach every minute, and when she needs to go to the store for food or for other supplies, she needs someone to watch the nests to ensure that predators like dogs, raccoons, and humans don’t disturb them. As we find out, humans can be the deadliest predators around. One of the volunteers is a scientist at the nearby Museum of Vertebrate Paleontology, where the Alaskan mammoth was originally taken for study.

While Alex is trying to count endangered turtle eggs and protect the nests, she’s also protecting the wildlife in the ocean from illegal gillnets which kill indiscriminately. It traps one of the turtles Alex has tagged with a sensor, so she is able to save the turtle and remove the gillnet. Not only is there danger from biped predators; a hurricane is approaching, and Alex will have to figure out how to move the eggs to safety so they don’t drown in the storm surge. And the fact that turtle eggs need protection from drowning is one of the many interesting — dare I say fascinating yet again? — things that we learn about wildlife in all of the books in this series.

As the storm approaches, the real bad guys appear. The events from the prologue make sense as we see the ensuing danger to Alex, to the museum, and to the world at large. Alex becomes almost a superhero as she dodges and intrepidly takes action to stymie the bad guys. It’s like the movie when we know you don’t go into the basement because that’s where the monster is, but the character does anyway. That’s what we feel as Alex makes move after move to thwart the evil plan of a billionaire who will never be satisfied with his billions. Henderson writes what so many people feel these days about billionaires trying to control everything; what the media writes, what networks play, who is allowed in our country, who goes to war, and who profits from war, She writes, “And why was it that the richest people seemed to be the most obsessed with acquiring more wealth, even turning to unethical means to get it?” (Billion dollar trades in oil mere minutes before public statements about war come to mind here.)

One of the things that I, and many readers, adore about Henderson’s novels is the wealth of information she provides about not only the species that is the main creature in the novel, but others as well. Here we learn about how climate change is decimating the population of sea turtles. “Turtles get killed in staggering numbers when they get caught in fishing nets. They’re also crushed by dredges used in shellfish hunting. They’re even sucked up by nuclear power plants that use seawater to cool their reactors.” Henderson goes on to explain that humans also harm turtles by building resorts and housing developments on beaches where the turtles nest. Seawalls rob the turtles of their egg-laying beaches, and climate change causes more destructive storms that erode beach habitats and drown turtle eggs in their nests.

There are many reasons to read these wonderfully written novels, including the gripping action and the admirable character of Alex Carter. While each book can be read as a stand-alone novel, the overarching story about Alex and her family, her best friend, and Casey, the mystery guy, make it a great series to read from the start. It’s incredibly rewarding to read a novel that incorporates real information about our world and our wildlife, a fabulous main character, and really gripping action, and that is also quite touching.

This review was first posted on Bookreporter.com.