Winterkill

The first couple of pages went into detail about killing beautiful wild animals for no reason,. I thought this might be something that just will lead on to better things, but NO! Next couple of pages are about animals being mistreat, killed, and for no reason. I guess anyone that enjoys killing things for no reason may love this book. What is interesting is the author is from Wyoming and he looks young so perhaps he thinks this makes him look strong - no I lived in Wyoming for several years and never felt that my family had to kill animals to be strong and smart. If he is a new author, maybe he could find some better ways to show off Wyoming, since it is a beautiful state.

The third installment of the Joe Pickett series keeps up the pace set in books one and two. Box gives us a look into his character's heart, and we see that Pickett is a man struggling like all of us to separate good from evil and make the right choices. Box refuses to get caught up in a simple polly-anna approach with Pickett. We see the good and the not so good in his character. But what is wrong with that? Box has created a character right out of the old west. Someone who loves his family and wants to do the right thing in the face of a growing opposition. In WInterkill, we see more of Pickett and his family, and much of the evil that exists in the real world. Joe Pickett isn't superman, nor is he Sherriff Andy. He is a man with passion, pride and conviction who is working in real situations. In Winterkill, Box brings us closer to Pickett than before. If you are looking for a real hero, not a TV, politically correct model, then Joe Pickett is your man. If honest, most readers would admit that they have a lot of Joe Pickett inside. Thanks CJ for giving us a realistic character to which we can relate! Write on!

I have loved each of the Joe Pickett novels to date, and with Winterkill C.J. Box opens with a bang and then floors it. Joe Pickett and his family are taken to the limit in frightening and completely believable ways, and this novel shows how scary it can be to be up against a force of practically pure evil, even if she's wearing a green Forest Service skirt. It is easy to miss the humanity and beauty of the novel because of the tension and pace, but I know it's there if I want to go back. In his third outing, Joe seems angrier, and more determined than ever before. This time, he gets some help from a charismatic loner named Nate Romanowski whom, I hope, we'll see again. This is one the best new series in crime fiction, and the suspense is unbearable -- as is the sad, if realistic, sense of inevitability at the end. Powerful. I eagerly await the next Joe Pickett novel.

I too found the government officals a little to "evil". But, I realize giving a small person a little power can, and often does, create a monster. As happens in this story. So, having said that the author again has drawn his main characters so well, they can become part of your life, and become "friends" that visits once a year.So, if you haven't yet discovered C.J. Box you are in for a treat. If you have here's another outstanding story for you to enjoy.P.S. For those who find Nate Romanowski and interesting character rumor has it that he will appear in later Pickett novels and may be the center piece of his own.

Maybe you think you've lived your whole life without knowing what life might be like in a place called Saddlestring, Wyoming and that's okay with you. Saddlestring is in the Twelve Sleep Valley --- for which Twelve Sleep County is named --- and even in the dead of winter, it's a place that people like Jackson Hole tourists never get to see.Well, guess what? If that's what you thought, then you were mistaken and C.J. Box can prove it to you in one night. He can probably do it with any of his books, but so far I've read only his latest, WINTERKILL. Certainly I'll soon be looking for the previous two, OPEN SEASON and SAVAGE RUN, in paperback.Joe Pickett is a game warden. He works alone in a remote, mountainous, heavily wooded area of Wyoming. His job is 1/3 public contact, 1/3 field collection and 1/3 law enforcement. The government provides his house, which includes a small office and his long-bed pickup truck. The tools of his trade are a few rifles and a field telescope mounted on the side of the truck. Oh, and a handgun he'd rather not have to use because he's a poor shot with it. And Maxine --- but Maxine is a yellow Labrador retriever, the family pet when she's not riding around in the truck with Joe.It is four days before Christmas, the first big winter storm is coming, and Joe has been watching a herd of elk move down the mountain to graze. In Joe's territory, hunting is legal --- it's even encouraged within the law --- and there are many people who depend on the meat from elk and deer to make it through the winter. Most hunters respect the animals and each other, but on this day, something goes horribly wrong. Elk are slaughtered, and so is a man. And the storm moves relentlessly in.The local sheriff takes over the murder investigation, which gets off to a slow start due to the storm's severity; during the delay, a U.S. Forestry Service official arrives and all but takes over the investigation. The victim was the local Forest Service employee, an entrenched bureaucrat who made arbitrary decisions about things like road closures that affected people's lives daily. So the victim was heartily disliked by many, but only one man was seen coming down the mountain near the time of the murder and he is arrested as quickly as the weather allows. The official sent by the Forestry Service is a woman, trailed by a magazine reporter doing a feature story; the reporter is attractive but the woman is a heartless power-grabber. So Joe Pickett wonders what she is doing in the high country of Wyoming in the Twelve Sleep Valley, which is kind of an outpost beyond which lies the Point of No Return.On the same day that the elk and the man were slaughtered up on the mountain, in the town of Saddlestring, Joe's three children have watched as a caravan of campers, trucks and odd-assorted vehicles with license plates from several different states drives through town. Then on Christmas Day, many of these vehicles are parked outside a little church whose congregants