Book Review, Out of Range by c.j. Box

Out of Range is No 5 in the 'Joe Pickett' series from author c.j. Box.

As is usual Joe is in the wilderness of intrigue, double dealing and burgeoning matrimonial problems.

The book opens with Joe and the family at Missy Vankueren's 4th wedding, Missy being Joe's mother in law.  While there, Joe hears from the new sheriff, Kyle McLanahan, that his freind and fellow Game Warden, Will Jensen, who operated out of Jackson, had committed 'suicide'.

Joe is assigned to temporary look after that district, which means leaving the family for a while. Before we leave we discover that Joe has been receiving silent phone calls over the last couple of months and this with the order to leave for another district troubles him.

Nate Romanowski, the recluse 'ex government agent' tells Joe that he will look after the family while he is away.  Not knowing that a mysterious guy from his past is about to arrive in Saddlestring armed with sniper rifles and who engages the help of ex Sheriff Barnum.........  what happens next is....................................... sorry no spoilers, you are going to have to check out the book. Although we do find an interesting piece of news early on in the book about a find out in the wilderness by Nate that seemingly plays a part in....... no, too much give away.

So,  Joe heads off to Jackson and meets up with his supervisor Trey before he gets there while they track down a rogue grizzly, and the trapping of that gives Trey some doubts about Joe as he seems to freeze at a critical moment, but if you read the previous book this may not come as a surprise......

Finally Joe gets to Jackson and finds that his history with 'Sheriff' Barnum and his propensity for sticking his nose in where it isn't wanted or needed, has followed him.

Joe finds that his predecessor had been blocking a multi million $ land development deal and that the developer was desperate to get him on his side.  To complicate things Joe felt the same spark that he had only felt twice before in his life, once, when he 'did it' for the first time and the second time, 'when he first saw Marybeth'.  He found that spark again when he met 'Stella Ennis' the developer's wife.  Unknown to Joe, Marybeth in Saddlestring, was having similar feelings towards Nate......

Animal rights people and 'Outfitters' the people licensed by the state to guide hunters into the wilderness are all thrown at us in this book as well as Joe been thrown in jail for allegedly 'taking a swing' at the American Vice President..........

Out of Range, really is as good as the previous 4 books in the series.  Box hits the right notes with the loneliness that guys in that line of work must feel and of that of their wives and families and intermingles all of this with the intrigue of land deals, politics, murder and loyalty, what motre can you want from a good book................

Well deserving of 5 out of 5 stars