A simple voice-mail message unleashes terror for former Montana residents Melissa and Jack McGuane in Wyoming author C.J. Box's new mystery, "Three Weeks To Say Goodbye."

After the couple's long struggle to have a baby, their adopted 9-month-old, Angelina, apparently isn't theirs after all.

Garrett Moreland, the birth father and son of a powerful judge, didn't sign papers releasing custody of the child. And the judge wants Angelina back.

Jack would anything to keep the tot. But money and the judicial system seem stacked against the McGuanes. Even worse, the adoption-agency rep hints that Garrett is a danger to pets.

So, what about a child?

The author explores just what a true parent is and how humans react when a loved one is threatened.

Box says the book was inspired by friends who found themselves in a similar custody plight, but without the sinister overtones that quickly leave the McGuanes' situation spinning out of control.

Most of the books in Box's mystery series about Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett open with powerful physical action.

The standalone mystery "Three Weeks To Say Goodbye" builds its tension from a quieter, more mundane place - Jack's office.

It makes the couple's fear and grief all the more biting because almost any reader could find him or herself in that physical setting any work day.

Jack's anger builds at hints that the Morelands want to simply buy off the couple and as others' question whether the adoptive parents couldn't simply adopt another child.

" 'It's not like trading her in for a new model,' " Jack thinks. "How can she not understand?"

As Garrett and his friends start harassing the couple, the stakes grow, with lives as well as emotions on the line.

The book is set in Denver, but Montana and Wyoming figure in, too.

As in other works, Box creates vivid settings and realistic human interactions. He is adept at making us care about his characters and creates unusual supporters for the couple under siege.

He jacks up the tension and level of fear as Jack sheds layer after layer of civility in a desperate attempt to protect his family.

The book's seemingly gentle beginning gives way to staccato action with tentacles that even reach across the ocean.

Box has built a reputation for writing knife-edge suspense while incorporating solid social issues. And he does so again here.

Use of first-person storytelling is a divergence for the author and is especially effective because it never distances the reader from Jack's ragged emotions.

Box won accolades and awards, as well as spots on bestseller lists with his previous standalone novel, "Blue Heaven."

The tight writing, dead-on characterizations and fierce action that he brought to other novels come together in the wrenching "Three Weeks To Say Goodbye."

By CHRIS RUBICH
Of The Gazette Staff

http://billingsgazette.net/articles/2009/01/11/features/magazine/53-terr...

Author: C.J. Box

Publisher: Minotaur Books