The readership for C.J. Box’s books seems to grow exponentially upon the publication of each new title. Box has found an interesting niche, writing modern Western thrillers that in effect have relaunched the genre. His primary protagonist, Joe Pickett, is a good man for whom things more often than not go wrong, not so much because of bad choices but more as the result of the draw breaking badly.

One of the greatest tragedies of Pickett’s life took place at the conclusion of WINTERFALL when April, his foster daughter, was killed in a horrific accident for which he still feels responsible. BELOW ZERO is a sequel of sorts to that work. Pickett is a warden-at-large in Wyoming, thanks to the largesse of the canny if somewhat eccentric governor, who is the beneficiary of Pickett’s assets and has assisted in the cleanup of some of his liabilities. Just after closing the case on a sadistic poacher who has been maiming animals for the sport of it, Pickett returns home to a bombshell. Someone has been texting Sherry, Pickett’s older daughter, and identifying herself as April. The messages could be discounted as the product of a mean and twisted mind if not for the fact that “April” exhibits a knowledge of the family and memories of her time with them that only she would know. What is even more significant, though, is that the sender knows about a series of seemingly unconnected murders that have been taking place throughout the West.

BELOW ZERO proceeds along two tracks, with Pickett attempting to trace the messages while a young girl, in the company of two men, criss-crosses a wilderness of plains and mountains on a bizarre quest. The men are a strange pair, to say the least. One is a Chicago mobster named Stenko, who is dying of cancer and is on a two-fold mission that he hopes to accomplish before his passing. Stenko wants to recover from his accountant the fortune in ill-gotten gain that has been embezzled from him and to reestablish, at any cost, a relationship with his adult son Robert, who he more or less abandoned as a child. Robert, the other half of the team, is a radical environmentalist who spends his time calculating energy use and enlisting his father to murder those who exceed calculations of what their proper “carbon footprint” should be. In this manner, according to Robert, Stenko will account for and reduce his own carbon balance to below zero.

The girl, meanwhile, is an enigma. Rescued by Stenko from bad circumstances, her only link to the sane world is her text messaging with Sherry, which she uses as a form of electronic breadcrumbs. Pickett, through a combination of the information from the girl who may or may not be April, a canny investigation, and some arm twisting with the FBI and the governor’s office, slowly but surely begins to track the trio --- even as he comes to the realization that Robert has the potential to achieve disruption of an area far beyond the state of Wyoming. And, from a personal standpoint, Pickett’s success or failure in catching up with them will make the difference in determining if the girl who is unwillingly accompanying the father and son is, against all logic, truly April, or if the Pickett family has fallen victim to the cruelest of hoaxes.

Box takes Pickett in a bit of a different direction in BELOW ZERO. Pickett’s inability to get his head around the social phenomenon of texting makes him even more sympathetic to anyone over 40, and the conclusion, which temporarily removes Pickett from his Wyoming comfort zone, results in an occurrence that promises to have some interesting repercussions for future volumes of this excellent series. That is not to say that the book turns Pickett upside down. Pickett’s pursuit and capture of the poacher is classic Box, and the reintroduction of his friend Nate, who remains on the run from federal law enforcement, ratchets up the excitement level into red hot territory. As good as it is, BELOW ZERO promises even greater things to come.

--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

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