Book Review: Stone Cold by C.J. Box

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Mr Box took a little break from writing about Wyoming Game and Fish Warden Joe Pickett and the ensemble cast of characters that inhabit Joe's world to give us 'The Highway' but he has come back with a real cracker.

Nate Romanowski kicks off this book and he appears to have finally gone of the reservation and who could really blame him for that considering what happened in 'Force of Nature' 

Joe is back in Saddlestring and is found trying to retrieve ANOTHER trashed department truck that has been buried under snow on top of a mountain for months.  Dave Farkus is with him, you'll recall Dave from 'Nowhere to Run' and that oft repeated line,  ‘Shut up Dave’, and he is just as dumb and talkative in this one too....

There is a new director in charge of the department, Lisa Greene-Dempsey or LGD as she likes to be known, and like all of her predecessors, she doesn't much like Joe Picket either.  Joe has been reinstated, again and this time has his old badge number, 26 back, and of course his seniority, thanks to his association with Governor Rulon.  

Sheridan is still at college in Laramie and is now a Resident Assistant looking after freshmen and has a 'gut feeling' about a new student, April and Lucy are still at home and April seems to have changed from being vlad the impaler to April 'sunshine' but the interest of Dallas Cates in her and Joe's dislike of him is about to change all that, again... all in all business as usual in the Picket household with Marybeth as the peacekeeper in the middle dodging the bullets.  I oft think of my son in law Steve on reading about the Pickett family as he too is in a household with four strong willed women..... 

It's been over a year since he has had any contact from Governor Rulon and out of the blue receives a call to tell him the Governors private plane will be arriving at Saddlestring airport to collect him and deliver him to the State Capitol, the proverbial S... is going to hit the fan again.

The Governor sent a state CID officer to Medicine Wheel County at the request of the Feds. Apparently he fell asleep smoking in bed in his motel room; It burnt to the ground, with him in it.....

As the Governor's 'Range Rider' he tasks Joe to be briefed by FBI agent and old 'friend' SAC Chuck Coon with both informing him that he only needs to go there, sus out the lay of the land, try and find out what is going on with Wolfgang Templeton a retired Financial whiz kid and who has recently bought up most of the county, oh, and to find out if Nate Romanowski is involved... Under no circumstances is he to ask any questions or get under anyone's skin.  Observe, note and report back ... yeah like that is gonna happen.

The rest is up to you guys but you just know that when Joe Pickett sees wrongdoing of any kind he just cant help himself, so go on do yourself a  favour get this and the other Joe Picket books and buckle yourself in for a great read 

One of the best lines in this book was from a barmaid to a customer. "Don't flatter yourself cowboy, I was looking at your horse!"   Loved it 

Editing for Kindle: 5 out 5
Reading Enjoyment: 5 out of 5
Plot: 5 out of 5
Overall Rating: 5 out of 5
Chapters: 31
Page length: 336 no page numbers on electronic devices

Book Review: Force of Nature (Joe Pickett 12) By C.J. Box

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Well after 4 years, that's me finally caught up with Mr Box's Joe Picket (although I do believe another one is due out shortly)! And what an explosive way to end the current crop,

This was more a Nate Romanowski tail than a Joe Pickett tail.  Over the last 11 books we have come to not know too much about Nate Romanowski as knowing who he is or what he has done would be more dangerous than stepping into an unprotected nuclear waste site, youd get a fatal overdose of contamination and your life expectancy would be reduced to milliseconds rather than years....

Force of Nature changes all of that and those that know Romanowski are dropping like bugs who've just been sprayed with DDT.

Nate's old bosses in Special Operations have decided that having him still on the loose with the knowledge that he has is just too dangerous, for them, and the only way to remove that danger is to kill him and anyone that he may have confided in, whether they know or not.  If they are loosely connected to Nate, they need to die, including the Picketts, all of them.

The best thing Joe can do is stay out of the way, pack up the family and head out of dodge until the smoke clears and the body count can be checked and then to wait and see who survives, although it doesn't look good as Nate explains that the hunter on his tail is even better at hunting and killing people than he is, and we know from past experience that Romanowski is skilled in his craft!

Is everyone we know to be trusted?  People we have known for years, newcomers with seemingly impeccable bona fides, who can be trusted, who can't?  Box mixes it up here for us and we end up trusting some we shouldn't and doubting others who we should have more sense about and then the final showdown, who survives and who doesn't and the biggest question of them all, does Sheriff Maclanahan get re-elected and I can tell you now, Box has left us to stew over that one, the swine.

Book 1 - Open Season √
Book 2 – Savage Run √
Book 3 – Winterkill √
Book 4 – Trophy Hunt √
Book 5 – Out of Range √
Book 6 – In Plain Sight √
Book 7 – Free Fire √
Book 8 – Blood Trail √
Book 9 – Below Zero √
Book 10 – Nowhere to Run √
Book 11 – Cold Wind √
Book 12 – Force of Nature √


Editing for Kindle /iPad: 5 out of 5
Reading Enjoyment: 5 out of 5
Page length on kindle /iPad: 396
Plot: 5 out of 5
Overall Rating: 5 out of 5

Book Review: Nowhere To Run by C.J. Box

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What can I say about C.J. Box and Joe Picket that I haven't said before? Nowhere to Run is No 10 in the Joe Picket series and it totally knocks your boots off.  We have watched Joe Picket change over the years from an honest upstanding game warden who would rather cut off his right arm than break the law to become an honest upstanding game warden who has had to kill people in the line of duty.  He has become hardened and with that hardening comes conflicts of conscience as he struggles with doing the right thing as opposed to up-holding the law that he has sworn to do.

Joe is still in the wilderness, literally, after his last outing, but his banishment from his re-extended family to Baggs, was about to be over with his reassignment to Twelve Sleep County and home.

All he needed to do was set out and complete one final check of the district around Baggs on horseback, to investigate the case of the missing and butchered elk, or, he could have just finished some paperwork……

Part of me was mouthing, ‘do the paperwork Joe, go home to Marybeth and the girls…’ but then I knew that was impractical and it wouldn’t make for compelling reading.  So, Joe riding Buddy with Blue Roanie trailing with his equipment sets off into the Sierra Madre of Southern Wyoming and as usual all hell breaks loose.

Joe Pickett is one stubborn man.  If he come across someone hunting or fishing it doesn’t matter to him as long as they have the correct permits and they have those permits on them, if they don’t, they get a ticket, end off, no discussion.

Maybe if Joe hadn’t been so stubborn when he came across a strange looking guy in the mountains who was fishing in a cirque, and after telling himself that the guy was strange and ‘threatening’ and if he wasn’t so stubborn, he might just have kept riding on bye, telling the guy to get a permit as soon as he got back to town…

But Joe was stubborn and sworn to uphold the law and he just couldn’t let it go….

Joe loses everything, his horses, his gear, his guns and his dignity and only barely manages to escape with his life after discovering that there was not one ‘strange and threatening’ guy, but two, identical twins and they don’t want no government man interfering in their simple way of life.

Having followed Joe’s exploits over the years you feel so helpless at seeing him so powerless and hating the brothers for what they are doing to him.  You find yourself fearing that Marybeth and the girls are going to be left to cope on their own and we have finally reached the end of the trail with Joe Pickett, Wyoming Game Warden, who after all these years can still barely hit the side of a tree with his Glock handgun; cursing at him for never getting better with it, relying on the spray of his shotgun, which he has lost…

The brothers are the archetypical anti-heroes, nasty and mean without one redeeming feature and you find yourself despising them throughout but , Mr Box has one or two surprises left in store for us and as you quickly turn the pages trying to keep up with the pace of the story as it unfolds over 10 days in late summer, you find that your sympathies are stretched to breaking point, and may well shift., as the climax explodes on to the pages in the most unexpected of ways ….. You will not be disappointed.

Nowhere to Run, has all the usual suspects coming in and out Nate Romanowski, who finds his loyalties tested. Governor Rulon who is giving Joe back his life but as usual, Joe’s honesty and integrity finds the Governor wishing that he could find an even remoter out post to lose Joe in. and FBI Special Agent Coon finds his cohunes.  Marybeth is in trouble with the girls growing up; Sheridan is now 18, sheesh I remember when she was just a baby, it seems like yesterday and Lucy and the newly reunited April Keeley back into the family wasn’t exactly the bed of roses everyone thought it was going to be and of course Missy Alden, ne Van Bruen, nee, nee, nee, Marybeth’s mother who kept trading up for richer and more powerful husbands is here too annoying every one.  Box also throws in some humour too, to lighten the mood from time to time. Dave Farkus ‘Shut up Dave’ doesn’t get tired, although if I was one of the 4 men in black I would probably have shot him after the first stupid sentence out of his mouth, but then I suppose I wouldn’t have laughed every time he appeared and that’s why Mr Box writes and I don’t ….

Book 1 - Open Season √
Book 2 – Savage Run √
Book 3 – Winterkill √
Book 4 – Trophy Hunt √
Book 5 – Out of Range √
Book 6 – In Plain Sight √
Book 7 – Free Fire √
Book 8 – Blood Trail √
Book 9 – Below Zero √
Book 10 – Nowhere to Run √
Book 11 – Cold Wind
Book 12 – Force of Nature

Editing for Kindle /iPad: 5 out of 5
Reading Enjoyment: 5 out of 5
Page length on kindle /iPad: 368 Book ends on iPad on page 357 & then as usual 1st chptr of next book
Plot: 5 out of 5
Overall Rating: 5 out of 5

Book Review: In Plain Sight by C.J. Box

Joe Pickett books - Wow

YES , THEY ARE THAT GOOD, ONCE YOU START READING THEM YOU WILL NOT WANT TO PUT THEM DOWN.

What can I say that I haven't said before people! If you haven't started reading the Joe PICKETT novels by this author, you really are missing out on a good reading experience...

When we last left Joe he had just returned from assignment to another district where he ended up shooting a legendary game guide, fell out big time with the next  director of the Wyoming Game Service and arrested for almost punching the American Vice President this guy just can't keep out of trouble.  Added to that he had feelings for another woman, which we were all glad he didn't act on and then he also discovered that Marybeth, his long suffering wife had also had feelings for Nate ROMANOWSKI, which neither acted on.  Good lord but life in Wyoming is getting even more complicated than it has been.

IN PLAIN SIGHT introduces us to a new danger that threatens the whole family in the form of a deranged sole living survivor of the long departed KEELEY family who you may recall also had a daughter that the PICKETT’s tried to adopt, but before they could, she too died in tragic circumstances, something the family have never really recovered from.

So, John Wayne KEELEY is released from a five year prison sentence, where he has become more and more convinced that the reason he is the only survivor of the KEELEY clan is solely down to Joe PICKETT, and so heads North to exact revenge.

While he heads North, things in Saddlestring are beginning to fall apart as Opal SCARLETT, matriarch of the Thunderhead Ranch the biggest and oldest ranch in the valley goes missing.  She has been the glue and the buffer of the family, holding them together at the same time as setting her sons against each other as youngsters to determine who would be the strongest and meanest, and therefore able to take over the ranch and business when she dies.

The town of Saddlestring is split down the middle as the blue collar brigade come out in favour of Arlen SCARLETT, the oldest and most articulate of the brothers who is also the majority leader in the state senate, with the bars and labour faction on the side of Hank, Arlen’s younger brother.  A third brother, Wyat, is in the mix but he is despised by both the elder brothers and is the local joke for his simpleton and strange ways.

A dead Millers weasel is pinned to the PICKETT’s front door, four Elk are killed and decapitated, the carcasses left in town and the heads shoved onto fence posts outside the PICKETT house.  Nate ROMANOWSKI has been missing for six months and Joe is fighting his new boss, Randy POPE, at every turn.  He won't let Joe do anything without first getting permission.  Then, all hell breaks loose as the drought is broken, the river is in flood cutting off everyone from everyone else and the PICKETT girls are kidnapped... AND Joe crosses another line

Yet again Mr Box writes in an easy flowing manner, a book full of suspense and danger, involving a good man and his family, a family who are growing up and teenage rebellion is in the air, he continues to deliver a consistently great readable story.  You just can't stop turning pages.....

I am slowly getting there with these books, however as they are such a joy to read I am tending to keep those I have still to read in reserve, for that moment, where I know I want something special to read and I know I will get it from Mr Box through Joe PICKETT and his family

Book 1 - Open Season                 √
Book 2 – Savage Run                  √
Book 3 – Winterkill                      √
Book 4 – Trophy Hunt                 √
Book 5 – Out of Range                √
Book 6 – In Plain Sight                √
Book 7 – Free Fire

Book 8 – Blood Trail

Book 9 – Below Zero

Book 10 – Nowhere to Run

Book 11 – Cold Wind

Book 12 – Force of Nature

Editing for Kindle: 5 out of 5
Reading Enjoyment: 5 out of 5 
Plot: 5 out of 5
Overall Rating: 5 out of 5

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

Book Review: Trophy Hunt by C.J. Box

Trophy Hunt by C.J. Box is the fourth book in the 'Joe Pickett' series of books by the same author.  I came to Mr Box late, and I am still playing catch up this book having been written and published around 2004.

If you have not read any 'Joe Pickett' novels by this author I can highly recommend them to you...

Joe Pickett is a married father who is a US Game Warden in Wyoming, living on the Bighorn Road 8 miles from the town of Saddlestring with the Twelve Sleep River running through it....

As a series it has a set of characters running through it like a soap opera, Joe and his wife Marybeth. Their two girls, Sheridan and Lucy, (there was a third, who was an adopted daughter who died in a previous novel ) Sheriff Barnum, Joe's nemesis and his deputy Kyle McLanahan, Missy Vankueren, Joe's thrice married mother-in-law and on her way to No 4, Agent Portenson of the FBI posted to the wilderness of Wyoming and hating Joe for that, and finally, Nate Romanowski an ex special forces recluse.

These charachters make up the main cast of the first four novels and you will love most and despise others.

Picket is an unusual Game Warden in that instead of dealing with hunters and licenses in and out of season he keeps getting embroiled in major crimes and death, government conspiracies and tales of aliens.  Mr Box is an excellent story teller in these books, he paints a picture of wide open country in one scene and then boxes you in a tree covered canyon in another.  You can visualise the wide open sky's and the peacefulness of the country as described and then he throws in a dead animal or two followed by a body or two and once again Joe Picket is getting under the skin of the 28 year service of the Sheriff as he starts to investigate the murders as well as the dead animals.

While doing this we have the usual assortment of family problems with Marybeth the wife, who, as a stay at home wife has suddenly started a bookkeeping service for local businesses and Joe is coming home to empty fridges and non prepared meals, and wonders if it is all worth it.

The girls are getting older and the dynamics between mother and daughters and sisters is changing, one is nearly a teenager in this book and the other is still under 10 and all of this interaction is played out in a sharply written narrative that gets you hooked in and turning the pages.

These books are gentle reading in places and gruesome  in other parts.  Joe is teaching his daughters to fish on a day off when they come across a dead moose, a dead animal is nothing new to him or his girls by the nature of their lives.  But you have the gentle family scene of a father with his daughters fishing and then you have a dead moose, but the moose has been surgically butchered and parts of it are missing.  it appears to have been dead for a while, but strangely no other animals or birds have been feeding on the carcase so in a few short lines we have moved from a picturesque family fishing trip to a gruesome find with a conundrum, and that's what Box is good at.  It doesn't sound as if it should work, this close interaction of black versus white but it does and makes for compelling reading.  After the moose is found, the next find is some cattle, again they have been killed and surgically butchered and then it is moved up a gear when two bodies are also found apparently killed in the same manner as the animals, with no tracks around the animals to suggest what or who the killer or killers might be.

Twists and turns abound, a red herring or two is thrown into the mix and all this is used to good effect to keep you engaged and intrigued and turning page after page.  The thing is having read the previous novels and seen a young daughter killed off you begin to realise that Box isn't afraid to take chances and kill off and hurt central characters in these books and this makes you continually wonder if Joe Picket and his family will survive to the end of each novel

Well worth checking out and a 5 out of 5 page turner