When a hunter is butchered in Wyoming, game warden Joe Pickett and his boss, Randy Pope, set off to investigate. Soon, it becomes clear that someone is systematically killing hunters.

*STARRED REVIEW* – In January, Box branched out from his popular Joe Pickett series with a stand-along thriller, Blue Heaven (2008).

"It's no secret that I am a huge C.J. Box fan. I have reviewed virtually everything he has ever written except his daily to-do lists...I said it before; I'll say it again: C.J.

When an elk hunter is shot and gruesomely gutted in Box’s solid eighth Joe Pickett novel (after 2007’s Free Fire), Wyoming governor Spencer Rulon assigns Joe to the investigative team headed by Jo

Wyoming Game and Fish Warden Joe Pickett (Free Fire, 2007, etc.) once again at the governor’s behest, stalks the wraithlike figure who’s targeting elk hunters for death.

After seven award-winning Joe Pickett mysteries, C.J.

“Blue Heaven is a relentless thriller. C.J.

By Hallie Ephron

"...it's as good as a psychological/action thriller gets..."

By Margaret Cannon

“Blue Heaven is one of the best thrillers of the year, and it kept me up most of the night, the way few books have ever done. C.J. Box owes me a night’s sleep!”

“Blue Heaven is a first-rate thriller, peopled by complex characters and unpredictable action. Don’t miss it.”

C.J. Box. St. Martin's Minotaur, $24.95. Grade: A

North Idaho, as its inhabitants prefer to call it, is the rugged setting for this gripping new thriller from bestselling writer C. J. Box.

MYSTERIES
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Michele Ross

Kids witness killing in sleepless thriller
MARK BARRINGER

Two children making their way through the woods to go fishing stumble on something no one was meant to see. In a clearing, three men execute a fourth.

"...It's four days of high tension and high action. And Box delivers surprises until the final page..."

Wyoming author C.J. Box knows the people, the geography, the issues of the mountain West.

By Joe Hartlaub

Thriller 'Blue' is slice of heavenly writing

Rob Thomas — 1/10/2008 9:14 am

Blue Heaven reads like a good suspense movie

By JC Patterson
Madison County (MS) Herald
January 5, 2008

THE master of the regional western thriller, C.J. Box departs from his irresistible Wyoming game warden series in this new stand-alone novel.

raves, "With Free Fire, C.J. Box delivers like a well-oiled rifle taking down its trophy elk at three hundred yards.

'When I think of crime committed out-of-doors, I think of Joe Pickett,' the governor says. So do we.

says, "...C. J. Box is a marvel. I learned more about Yellowstone National Park in the night it took me to read FREE FIRE than I did in 19 years of school..."

Among the new breed of thriller authors...[FREE FIRE is] Yellowstone in all its dangerous glory -- the author conveys a vivid sense of the park and its unpredictable topography..."

says, "Box is one of my favorite authors writing today. The depth of his skill shows on every page.

"C.J. Box has fashioned a splendid thriller, deftly plotted and skillfully executed...Previous Joe Pickett novels have earned Box numerous awards. This should bring him another...."

names FREE FIRE a "Critic's Choice" and says, "...A must read for anyone who's headed for Yellowstone this summer, and highly recommended for everyone else..."

Box makes brilliant use of the mystery novel as a forum to examine real issues of importance...."

The setting, action, new characters and old favorites join together to enrich this compelling tale..."

STARRED REVIEW* raves, "...absorbing...his best yet...The author vividly evokes Yellowstone's natural beauty, but the book's real power emanates from Pickett's (and Box's) passion for preserving the w

says, "...The plot is built on an ingenious premise...Free Fire is, at its heart, a mystery with a message.

*STARRED REVIEW* states, "...Box, winner of the Anthony, Macavity, Gumshoe, and Barry Mystery awards, knows how to turn on the nail-biting suspense and violence until the cliff-hanger of an ending...H

*STARRED REVIEW* says, "...Though Joe's far out in no-man's-land, as professionally on his own as he's ever been, the family man's moral compass is as strong as ever.

says FREE FIRE is, "absorbing...almost unimaginably exotic... Box is after bigger game..."

says, "The mystery is well paced and action-packed, and Pickett proves once again to be an appealing hero...."

writes, "Box's mysteries just keep getting better..."

calls FREE FIRE one of the Hot Releases of 2007..."

reports, "Typical of a Box mystery, the book is deftly plotted and quickly paced, but the back-story in this novel is what is most improbable. In this case reality is stranger than fiction..."

writes,"...the themes that dominate "In Plain Sight," Box's newest novel, are more personal. Hate. Family.

*STARRED REVIEW* When Wyoming's governor appoints Randy Pope to be the new director of the Game and Fish Department, warden Joe Pickett finds it almost impossible to do his job.

says, "GRADE: A. If you need a good reason to pick up a new mystery, look no further. C.J.

reports, "Joe Pickett - honest, upright and hardworking - tends to attract the meanest villains this side of a spaghetti western...sprightly......Edgar-finalist Box expertly evokes Wyoming's landscape

After an eventful trip to Jackson Hole (OUT OF RANGE, 2005). Wyoming Game and Fish warden Joe Pickett is back in Twelve Sleep County for a homecoming that's anything but homey.

reports, "gripping and thoughtful...rich conflicts and relentless suspense, C.J. Box shows how his hotheaded protagonist makes choices that affect all and forever change the dynamics of family. ..."

says, "Pickett's old-fashioned character is a large part of the charm of Box's series. Another is his choice of setting.

More outdoorsy types have welcomed C.J. Box's six novels about Wyoming Fish and Game Warden Joe Pickett, all crammed with action even though Joe's no threat with fists or firearms.

says, "...By the end of this gripping story, Pickett's life is profoundly changed, and his family's future is uncertain at best.

says,"...Box puts on a hell of a show."

Wyoming Game and Fish warden Joe Pickett - honest, upright and hardworking - tends to attract the meanest villains this side of a spaghetti western, as shown in his sprightly sixth outing in which he

says, ""In Plain Sight" is a modern-day Western mixed with the classical influence of Shakespeare's "King Lear." Box's treatment of family grudges makes for a refreshing read...."

A wild Wyoming saga
The land plays a fateful role in this tale of two families.

Keeping any series balanced between familiar and fresh is tricky. An excellent series is like a tightrope act.

says, "The sixth in a successful and satisfying series, In Plain Sight has more violence than C.J.

Joe Pickett, hero of C. J. Box's series, was a new discovery for me last year. I read one book and then hunted out four more. In Plain Sight is the sixth in the series, and the best.

reports, "In Plain Sight is the sixth in the series, and the best.

'In Plain Sight' brings missing matriarch into focus.

STARRED REVIEW* says, "...if you don't know this series, it's high time you started...Despite an encore roster of perps and felonies that plays like a Greatest Hits list from Joe's first five adventur

C.J. Box's Joe Pickett series has taken the detective thriller out of the city and into the plains of Wyoming.

STARRED REVIEW* raves, "...edge-of-the-chair suspense; his prose sings with energy and heart-stopping action... unforgettable..."

Game Warden Joe Pickett is living in a purgatory of his own making. He has made enemies while protecting the environment of Saddlestring, Wyo. His boss hates him and wants to get rid of him.

says, "Box has created an exceptionally good series of contemporary crime novels full of tense suspense and believable, emotional, well-crafted characters...the well-plotted tale races to an explosive

If you need a good reason to pick up a new mystery, look no further. C.J.

says, "What mystery writer Tony Hillerman is to New Mexico, C.J. Box is to Wyoming... crackling good reads..."

Box sights in hot new mystery
Joe Pickett's self-confidence, family and career are in the crosshairs in author C.J. Box's sixth book featuring the troubled, but appealing Wyoming game warden.

reads, "Just be warned, you'll want to keep the lights burning to see if your theories on resolution of the many mysteries in the book hold true -- and you'll be inspired to seek out those earlier Pic

C. J.

writes, "...crammed with action...Box, having lavished all his audience's frustrations on his everyman hero, lets him act out their deepest fantasies of revenge..."

C.J. Box's latest: This time it's personal for Joe Pickett

raves, "...Arguably, Box is steadily staking his claim as the heir apparent to such masters of the genre as Zane Gray and Louis L' Amour.

How many times can a man's family be imperiled?

says, "C.J. Box ain't one of those pale-skinned writers strapped indoors by the dull glow of a computer screen..."

Wyoming sets stage for beauty, tragedy

writes, "Leave it to CJ Box.

In Plain Sight author C.J. Box

Odd departmental doings also figure into C.J. Box’s “Out of Range” (Putnam, 308 pages, $24.95), the fifth in an outstanding series involving game warden Joe Pickett.

C.J.

It's an image as big as the West itself, and almost as old - the lone lawman maintaining order and fighting the good fight in a vast and rugged territory. C.J.

*STARRED* When a fellow game warden kills himself, Joe Pickett is transferred to Jackson Hole – “Wyoming’s very own California” – where the new and old Wests collide head-on.

What drives a man who seems to have it all to take his own life?

OK, let me admit it - I'm a fan of Wyoming author C.J. Box. A big fan.

C. J. Box is another brilliant voice from the American West. His series featuring game warden Joe Pickett is set among the mountains and forests of Wyoming.

C.J. Box has staked out memorable turf — the rugged landscape of Wyoming — for his series about game warden Joe Pickett.

It must have taken everything C.J.

*STARRED* REVIEW

In Box's taut, suspenseful fifth Joe Picket novel (after 2004's Trophy Hunt ), the Wyoming game warden is temporarily transferred from his backwater base, Saddlestring, to Jackson, a sophisticated tou

Saddlestring, WY, game warden Joe Pickett (Trophy Hunt) takes a temporary assignment in upscale Jackson, when friend and coworker Will Jensen dies from an apparent suicide.

Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett returns in C.J. Box's Out of Range.

If you aren't familiar with the name "C. J. Box" you're missing out on something, and someone, special.

In the vast expanse of Wyoming, where hunting is a way of life, game warden Joe Pickett is used to catching poachers squatting beside the half-skinned carcasses of deer or elk.

Box's riveting fourth Joe Pickett adventure (after 2003's Winterkill) opens on a disturbing note, with the Wyoming game warden's chance discovery of the oddly mutilated body of a moose near his favori

The events at the center of Box’s fourth novel featuring game warden Joe Pickett make the fate of the Donner Party look like a square dance.

"I want to get inside his head, see what makes him tick. Find out what he's thinking and why he came here. And who sent him."

I've come to really like the Joe Pickett series by C.J. Box. Pickett is a good hero.

For an author like Chuck Box, it's hard to constantly better yourself when
your first novel wins a whopping four prestigious mystery awards. But when

In the Joe Pickett series by C.J. Box, Pickett is a good hero.

Two authors from our American West have written action-packed, compelling
stories that are vastly different while sharing many similarities that guarantee
lively reads.

Box, whose superb Joe Pickett series has nailed some great western issues (ecoterrorism, endangered species, survivalists), here draws a bead on one out in left field: cattle mutilations.

Author C. J. Box mines Hillerman territory in Trophy Hunt, his fourth novel featuring Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett.