Box is back with a nail-biter

By JC Patterson
Book It!

A common greeting heard during hunting season in the Rockies is "Got your elk yet?" This year's kill is strung up, flayed, gutted, beheaded and on display in a secluded hunting camp in Wyoming. Only this kill is human.

Bestselling author C.J. Box tops himself with every novel in the game warden Joe Pickett mystery series. But Blood Trail (Putnam, $24.95) cuts a whole new path of death and suspense never trod upon before.

Ex-warden Pickett returns from last year's Free Fire, set in Yellowstone National Park, to a new neighborhood far from the peace and solitude of the mountains. After his untimely firing two books back, Joe has been ranch foreman for his overbearing mother-in-law's current rich husband. Now he's the new governor's go-to guy when things heat up in the woodland territories.

Things don't get any hotter than the sickening display Joe and authorities are led to at the camp. Near the body's remains lies a mysterious poker chip. The psycho killer must be found at all costs or the governor will be forced to shut down Wyoming's hunting season. Joe knows the lay of the land. But he has to share duties with a world famous tracker, bumbling local cops, and bureaucratic red tape.

Meanwhile, animal rights activist Klamath Moore is in the area to shine a light on the brutal murder. Or is Moore a part of the plot to shut down the "slaughter" of animals?

Things go from bad to very, very bad when an accident and a double homicide change the course of the investigation. Things get personal as Joe swears vengeance for an old friend. Pickett's pal, mercenary and falconer Nate Romanowski, incarcerated at the end of Free Fire, is released into Joe's custody to try and catch the killer. But Nate has his own agenda. Now Joe must investigate odd leads while tracking down the elusive Nate and activist Klamath Moore.

Box incorporates Wyoming's Native American tribes and the anti-hunting controversy that threatens a way of life in the West. The killer walks in plain sight in a mist of misdirection as the na•ve yet relentless ranger Pickett gets ever-closer to the crosshairs of his own demise. Dogged by his boss, harassed by the governor, scrutinized by the FBI and local law, Joe Pickett faces his toughest trial ever in Blood Trail. Box's finale is harsh and unpredictable with a finish you won't see coming.

The Joe Pickett series reads way too fast, making me dread the year-long wait for another potent visit to the beautiful and treacherous Rockies.

JC Patterson is an author, playwright, and is active in local theater.