New York Times

C.J. Box serves up a lot of red meat -- some of it still raw and bloody -- in OUT OF RANGE (Putnam, $24.95), his fifth novel about a Wyoming game warden named Joe Pickett who patrols the rugged Saddlestring District of the Bighorn Mountains. When another game warden, who is also a friend, shoots his brains out with a .44 Magnum, Joe is temporarily assigned to his Jackson district, 1,885 square miles of "spectacular, roadless mountain wilderness" that extends to the Continental Divide. "Don't go crazy over in Jackson," a friend warns him about this untamed region, which is not only home to vast numbers of elk, wolves, grizzly bears and mountain lions, but also attracts "animal-rights activists, wolf lovers, big-shot developers, politicians, movie stars, all kinds of riffraff." Although the villainous specimens Joe encounters are so broadly drawn as to be cartoons, Box redeems himself by giving voice to intelligent arguments about game hunting and raising animals for slaughter, and with his compassionate account of the bone-hard and deeply stressful life of a game warden. The glorious scenery is a bonus. By Marilyn Stasio