Review: "Endangered: A Joe Pickett Novel" by C. J. Box

Life can be fleeting in the mountains of Wyoming and Game Warden Joe Pickett knows that all too well. Humans also have an amazing ability to be incredibly cruel. The most recent example is scattered on the ground around him on an otherwise beautiful mid-March day. Everywhere he looks he sees feathers, blood, shells, and the bodies of at least 21 dead sage grouse. Nearby a few wounded survivors who will not last much longer move around. Known to many as “Prairie Chickens” these helpless birds were wiped out sometime very recently as they went about their springtime rituals.

While Joe Pickett is plenty angry about this senseless slaughter he is about to get much angrier when his friend and Sheriff of Twelve Sleep County, Mike Reed, calls him. One of his deputies has found a young woman in a ditch by the side of an isolated road. The woman has been severely beaten and is barely alive. She also might be Joe’s daughter, April, who left home to travel the rodeo circuit with a local professional rodeo cowboy by the name of Dallas Cates. Dallas was trouble and Joe knew it, but he couldn’t prevent his 18 year old daughter from running off with the dashing cowboy.

It soon becomes very clear that the badly beaten woman in the ditch is April. She has endured serious blunt force trauma and is barely alive. Even if she lives, which is in grave doubt, most likely she has suffered irreversible brain damage. As April fights for life, Joe Pickett works to figure out what happened to his daughter and deal with whomever is responsible. 

Paperback--October 2015

As one expect in the series, a significant portion of the book deals with a secondary storyline involving the ongoing situation with Nate Romanowski. Repercussions from events detailed in Stone Cold continue here and provide a significant backdrop to the main storyline.

Endangered: A Joe Pickett Novel is the fifteenth book in the Joe Pickett series by author C. J. Box and a mighty good one. Family and the complex relationship between humans and nature have always been a major element in these books and such is the case here. The same is true in the short story collection Shots Fired. At the same time those issues never get in the way of the complex mystery or mysteries contained in each book. If you are new to the series start at the beginning with Open Season and work your way forward as family history is a major part of this great series. 

Endangered: A Joe Pickett Novel

C. J. Box

http://www.cjbox.net

G. P. Putnam’s Sons (Penguin Group)

http://www.penguin.com

March 2015

ISBN# 978-0-399-16077-6

Hardback (also available in e-book and audio)

384 Pages

$26.95

Material was obtained for my use in an objective review from the good folks of the Plano Library System and specifically the Haggard Branch.

Kevin R. Tipple © 2015

Review: "Stone Cold: A Joe Pickett Novel" by C. J. Box

Stone Cold: A Joe Pickett Novel is the fourteenth book in the series and features the return of both fugitive outlaw Nate Romanowski as well as Game Warden Joe Pickett. While Nate is doing what he has to do to survive and is out of contact with the Picketts, Joe is as well while also worrying about his missing friend. That means when Governor Rulon suddenly demands that he come to Cheyenne and doesn't care that Joe Pickett hates to fly, he has to go. The hatred of flying is just one of several reasons Joe is not going to like this assignment.

Not that Joe Pickett really has a choice. The only reason he once again has his job as Game Warden is because of Governor Rulon. Not only did Joe keep his seniority in the service, he also got a raise and the title “Special Liaison to The Executive Branch” to go along with it. Joe gets the job done and sometimes the Governor, who has a major independent streak, puts him to work on special projects. This is going to be one of those cases.

For Wyoming Game Wardens being sent to Medicine Wheel County in the far northeastern part of the state is punishment. Beautiful land with few residents, most extremely poor and receiving governmental assistance, it is not a place where a place to advance a career. Those who live in this area also don’t welcome outsiders.

Though they seem to have welcomed a man by the name Wolfgang Templeton. That may have happened because he brought a lot of money to the area which he seems to be running as his personal fiefdom. Half a dozen years ago Templeton showed up from out of nowhere and bought the Sand Creek Ranch. He also bought up plenty of private properties in the area. According to the governor, the Feds think that Templeton is involved in some sort of murder for hire business. While the state folks don't have any real reason to suspect anything, because of politics they have to be seen as doing something to check it out. A Department of Criminal Investigation agent was recently sent in to investigate and quickly after arrival died under strange circumstances. Governor Rulon wants Pickett to go in undercover by doing his real job check things out. He is to trust no one, including the assigned Game Warden Jim Latta, and to evaluate and report without taking any real action.

The whole deal is a mess and one Joe Pickett does not want any part of. He has enough going on at home with his strong willed daughters and things there are starting to heat up again. But, Joe understands very well he can’t say no to Governor Rulon. Before long Joe is in the deep woods in so many ways.

This latest in the series is another good one. Interesting characters, multiple ongoing storylines that continue book to book, and plenty of mystery and action make this one another compelling read. Author C. J. Box once again brings the beauty of Wyoming alive in a complicated tale that quickly engages the reader or many levels. Stone Cold: A Joe Pickett Novel releases next week and is well worth your time.

Stone Cold: A Joe Pickett Novel

C. J. Box

http://www.cjbox.net

G. P. Putnam’s Sons (Penguin Group)

http://www.us.penguingroup.com

March 11, 2014 (Scheduled Release)

ISBN# 978-0-399-16076-9

Hardback (e-book and audio available also)

384 Pages

$26.95

I was selected to receive an ARC via the Early Readers group on LibraryThing for my use in an objective review.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2014

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