Few mystery authors who use the environment as a plot foundation are as even-handed and clear-eyed in their approach as C.J. Box. He has established a solid reputation for keeping a balance between environmental and human issues - as well as rip-roaring plots - in a writing career that is just revving up.

In his third novel, ‘‘Winterkill,’’ Box takes the hot-button issue of survivalists, the FBI interventions at Waco and Ruby Ridge, and personal freedom and melds them into a plot that is as thrilling as it is heart-wrenching. His story is not simple, and it does not offer the reader an easy out. ‘‘Winterkill’’ will make you ponder uncomfortable issues as much as it will keep you on the edge of your seat as Box ratchets up the suspense and the surprises.

The hero of Box’s series is Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett, a devoted family man, knowledgeable at his job and often puzzled about the ways of nature and human beings. He is, as one character likes to say, ‘‘a good guy.’’ But Box also shapes Joe as a complete person with foibles, doubts and a temper that reacts to waste and incompetence.

Joe has just arrested a Forest Service supervisor who, in a fit of ‘‘target fixation,’’ has just gone on a shooting spree, slaughtering a herd of elk. When the man escapes, Joe tracks him through the woods made nearly impassable by a hard blizzard - only to find him killed by an arrow.

It is the kind of high-profile, dramatic murder that attracts the attention of the U.S. Forest Service bureaucrats and the vindictive and psychotic supervisor, Melinda Strickland. The arrest of a local loner who raises falcons and hunts with a bow and arrow is quickly and viciously railroaded by Melinda and the two out-of-control FBI agents with whom she is working.

Suspicion then falls on a caravan of misfits who call themselves the Sovereign Citizens, which includes refugees from Ruby Ridge, Waco and the Montana Freemen. Now camped on federal land, this group ofgovernment-hating survivalists came to this small Wyoming town just before the murder. ‘‘We’ve found each other, and are bound together through mutual tragedies and experiences,’’ their leader says. ‘‘Nearly all of us are the last of our kind, the survivors of places and situations that are just incredibly sad.’’

Melinda wants a bloody confrontation with the group, and she is willing to manipulate another Waco if necessary. Joe is convinced the group just wants to be left alone, but his professional interest soon turns personal. Among the group is Jeannie Keeley, whose daughter April is the foster child of Joe and his wife, Marybeth. The Picketts have raised April with their own two daughters since her mother abandoned her more than three years before, and have started adoption proceedings. But the human factor matters little to Melinda’s ultimate agenda.

Box shapes ‘‘Winterkill’’ as more than just a winter of Joe’s discontent. The vivid, harsh beauty of Wyoming is the perfect backdrop for a severe test of government power and individual freedom. Box keeps the suspense high through a final showdown - and beyond.

Box’s characters shine as brightly as the environment. Joe is a hero, but he also is quite human and his feelings of frustration and powerlessness are balanced by his ability to rise to any occasion, even when he has been handcuffed to his steering wheel. The author keeps this same balance as he explores the personalities of Marybeth, April and the Picketts’ oldest daughter, Sheridan. And while our automatic reaction is to view members of the Sovereign Citizens as villains, Box goes beyond this veneer.

Box puts a contemporary spin on the old-fashioned western in ‘‘Winterkill.’’

Oline H. Cogdill, Mystery Columnist
Associated Press