"...strong ...vivid..."

What city dweller hasn't occasionally longed for the simple life in the mountains, with civilization near enough to provide the essentials but not the entanglements? By those standards, Saddlestring, Wyo., a tucked-away town that is "trailhead for the
information cowpath," should be utopia.

But in Winterkill (Putnam, $23.95, 372 pp.), the third in his hot series featuring Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett, C.J. Box once more
shows us that paradise comes with snakes in the garden.

Custody is a primary issue throughout the book. A battle is being waged between federal authorities and a group of survivalists over who is the true custodian of the land. A far more emotional custody battle rages over Pickett's foster daughter April when her biological mother returns to town.

For Joe, everything boils down to trying to do the right thing.

When he finds that Lamar Gardiner, a forest service official, has gone berserk and is slaughtering a herd of elk, he tries to bring the miscreant in peaceably. But Gardiner escapes and winds up shot in the chest with two arrows.

Enter Melinda Strickland, a hyper-intense federal official who kicks dogs, hates people and is accompanied by a journalist who hangs on her every word.

Stickland is hell-bent on proving that Gardiner's death was part of an organized anti-government campaign. Her scapegoat is a rag-tag group of "survivors of places and situations that are just incredibly sad" such as Ruby Ridge and Waco.

Meanwhile, April's mother has snatched the child from school and taken her to the survivalists' compound.

Strickland moves toward an armed confrontation, and Pickett -- stung by the unfairness of her assessment and fear of what will happen to April if the government attacks -- tries to prove Strickland wrong.

The book is filled with unexpected friendships, unexpected alliances, and unexpected behavior on the part of our hero. The writing is strong, the scenery vivid and the characters complex. While the elk may be "winterkill" -- animals that die due to extreme weather conditions -- Box proves he knows how to make every storm into a story.

By Amy Rabinovitz