"...makes for a refreshing read..."

C.J. Box's Joe Pickett series has taken the detective thriller out of the city and into the plains of Wyoming. His latest, In Plain Sight (320 pages, Putnam, $24.95), finds Pickett, a Wyoming fish and game warden, in a battle with a villain from the past.

The town's matriarch, Opal Scarlett, who owns a sprawling ranch and who pulls considerable clout, has vanished. Her two sons, Hank and Arlen, begin a bloody feud over who will inherit the ranch and its rich land. This feud divides the town, further complicating Pickett's attempts to find out what really happened to Opal.

If that weren't enough, a mysterious ranch hand, John Wayne Keeley, appears. Keeley is a killer whose ability to play both sides of the feud draws Pickett's suspicion. But what Pickett doesn't know is that Keeley has marked Pickett and his family as his next victims.

"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. BY FRANCIS W. DECKER