Blood Trail

BLOOD TRAIL, featuring Mr. Box's folksy Joe Pickett, perfectly blends mesmerizing suspense, unique characters, a non-stop, action-filled, twisting plot into a page-turning fervor. I told my wife (who has also read all of the author's previous novels) that I was going to stay up an extra hour to finish BLOOD TRAIL. The conclusion was so dynamic, even to the very last page, when I finally crawled into bed I could not fall asleep. My mind had been permanently transcended into the deep woods of Wyoming. Visions of Joe Pickett, Nate Romanowski, Randy Pope and the many other deftly crafted characters continued to stir my thoughts. I heartily agree with the other reviewers that BLOOD TRAIL is Mr. Box's most compelling novel to date...and one of the best I have read all year!

Joe Pickett loved being the game warden of the Saddlestring District, but he was fired by Randy Pope, the Wyoming State Director. Now he is a troubleshooter for the governor and a substitute for game wardens throughout the state who are ill or on vacation. Currently it is elk hunting season; one of the hunters has been killed, skinned, and found tied upside down to a tree branch missing his head. The governor wants Joe to find the perpetrator before he is forced to close state lands from hunters and ask the Feds to do likewise. Unlike his usual on the job distant professionalism, Pope is hands on leading the investigation. When they go into the woods tracking the killer, he is missing though his friend is there as back-up. The tracker is killed. At about the same time shots are fired and Randy's friend dies. Activist Klamath Moore, some feds feels terrorist is more descriptive, and his wife Shannon arrive in town stirring up those people against hunting because he believes killing animals for sports is ethically apprehensible. Joe begins to figure out what is going on when he gets his friend Nate released from federal custody but he doesn't want to believe where the evidence points. . The Joe Pickett police procedurals are unique action-packed thrillers starring a hero who thinks outside of the box, which is why he lost his job. The villain is multifaceted as he is leaving a message behind for hunters who will NRA the killer with disdain and readers who will feel sorry for that person. However, this is Joe's series and he is determined to bring justice to the killer knowing that this time it will hurt badly as he sympathizes with the culprit and believes he may know the person. Using a secondary character, C .J. Box also warns the audience that the natural beauty of the parks are in jeopardy by those whose strategic planning is less than fifteen minutes as instant satisfaction is all that matters. Harriet Klausner

In my opinion, Joe Pickett is becoming one of the great characters of modern American crime fiction, approaching the likes of Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch and even James Lee Burke's Dave Robicheaux. All of them are strong but vulnerable, stubborn, idealistic, and singularly unimpressed with the bureaucrats and politicians they must sometimes answer to. They're also distinct renegades unafraid to buck the system when justice demands it. In "Blood Trail", the eighth Joe Pickett novel, the Wyoming game warden is forced to work with his nemesis and so-called boss Randy Pope, the soulless head of the game and fish department who fired Pickett in "In Plain Sight." They're appointed by the governor to investigate a series of murders - beginning with the gutted, flayed and beheaded body of a hunter found hanging in a tree - that may have been orchestrated by a fanatical anti-hunting activist. As always, CJ Box expertly evokes the beauty and majesty of his native Wyoming in "Blood Trail", and also presents both sides of the hunting vs animal rights issue without intruding on the story. I think this is one of the more exciting Joe Pickett novels, and it is beautifully written to boot. Also recommended: A Stranger Lies There - winner of the Malice Domestic Award for best first mystery, it features a vivid desert backdrop that should please fans of CJ Box's colorful Wyoming settings.

Coming quickly on the heels of the novel Blue Heaven (not a Pickett story) which was released in January, 2008, C. J. Box has published his eighth Joe Pickett novel, Blood Trail. Fast paced with economic prose, packed with suspense and containing more twists and turns than a mountain trail, Blood Trail may be the best of the Pickett novels yet. When hunter Frank Ulman turns up shot, beheaded, field dressed and hung from a tree with a poker chip near by it becomes obvious that he is the third victim of the Wolverine, a sadistic killer who apparently loves to kill hunters. What drives the Woverine? No one is sure. Some speculate that Klamath Moore, an anti-hunting activist may be behind the killings one way or the other. Now working as a special agent who reports directly to the Governor, Joe Pickett is put on the case. But even he hasn't seen anything like the present incident. Blood Trail is sure to keep you guessing. This is an excellent beach read. Peace always