Book Review: Endangered
Endangered
by C.J. Box
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I’d never heard of C.J. Box, author of “Endangered (A Joe Pickett Novel)
” (Putnam 2015) when this book appeared in my Amazon Vine list. I picked the book because it got good reviews and is the fifteenth in the Joe Pickett series. More importantly, Lee Child recommended it–‘one of today’s solid-gold, A-list, must-read writers.’ I wasn’t about to argue with Jack Reacher’s right hand man.
Now I have to read the rest, it was that good. I’m up to #11 out of #15 so far.
Joe Pickett is an easy-going, easy-to-know Wyoming game warden and family man. He takes his job seriously and has a reputation for solving mysteries rather than settling for the easy answer. Joe never is bigger than life, but he’s always true to life. In this story, he’s in the middle of mystery dealing with poachers who killed an entire lek (community) of sage grouse when his 18-year-old daughter is found unconscious in a ditch, beaten and left for dead by her assailant like so much trash. While Pickett tries to unravel this mystery while working on who killed the sage grouse, he finds himself at odds with one of the nastiest local families you’d ever want to meet. For them, anything is fair game if they can get away with it.
This is not a hard-charging, fast-paced thriller with a complex plot that constantly whips you around like a roller coaster. The wonder of this book is the author’s voice, through the character of Joe Pickett. He’s kind and non-judmental, but strong and firm in his beliefs. He’s natural and uncomplicated, the type of person you’d want for a friend. The power of his personality drives the story, tinges every action, and kept me turning pages. Through Box’s magnificent pen, I got to not only know Joe Pickett but understand his motivations. I’ve already ordered the rest of the series.
If you’d like to order this book, you can find it on Amazon:
Endangered (A Joe Pickett Novel)
For more about Joe Pickett, the character, visit his page on the author’s website. For an interview with the author, visit Mystery Scene.
More mystery reviews:
Book Review: A Cold and Lonely��Place
Book Review: The House at Sea���s��End
Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman
, the story of her daughter���s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is the author/editor of dozens of books on integrating tech into education, webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com and TeachHUB, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, monthly contributor to Today���s Author and a freelance journalist on tech ed topics. You can find her book at her publisher���s website, Structured Learning.��
Filed under: book reviews Tagged: mystery
