One of my favorite authors is Nevada Barr. She writes about a park service ranger in different parks across the country. What's great about her books is that she actually was a park ranger in all of the parks she's wrote about. That's one of the reasons I like her books and style. She's lived alot of the life she writes about and that adds something to a book you can feel, least I feel it.
Nothing wrong with a well researched book and never having done any of the things written in it. But the author can add the little details that make it totally believable if they've actually been there and done that so to speak. Those are the books I've really come to enjoy.