Paradise Valley by C J Box

 

I read this in July 2021, when I was introduced to this author at a book sale.  Paradise Valley was published July 2017 and introduces another character to the author's repertoire, Investigator Cassie Dewell formerly with the  Bakken County, North Dakota sheriff's department.   Cassie has been pursuing a serial killer known as the Lizard King who kills along highways and truck stops where runaways are most likely to vanish.  But for years all has been quiet and then a new murder.  Cassie loses her job but will not give up looking for the Lizard King.  She has befriended a troubled youth, Kyle Westergaard, who disappears.  His grandmother begs Cassie to find him and being now unemployed Cassie agrees to search for Kyle.  She is alone and in pursuit. 

Flap of Book

 Cassie doesn't have an over fondness for attorneys,  pages 217-218,  "...most attorneys were under the general impression that they were the smartest people in the room and therefore they were always in control of it.  They liked processes to be complicated and stacked in their favor and they didn't enjoy uncertainty or chaos.  Nothing made a prosecutor or defense attorney more uncomfortable than the unknown."  

The writing is good, clear and clean.  The plot was intriguing and kept my interest, there were 340 pages in this hardback edition.  This is an author I will read more of at times.  I give this book 4 ****

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Out of Range by CJ Box

Paperback published 2005, 351 pages.  This is a new to me author but one I will be reading more of, especially his game warden Joe Pickett, featured in this novel.  Well written and good solid mystery with twists.   It opens as Joe Picket, game warden for the Saddlestring region is settled with his wife Marybeth and teenage daughter, Sheridan.  They are attending the wedding of Joe's mother in law, Missy a 69 year old who trades husbands periodically and who is marrying a big shot rancher, Bud Longbrake.  The wedding is attended by all politicos of who's who.  Joe learns that his friend, Will Jensen, warden of the Jackson/Tetons area is dead.  Reportedly by suicide.  Joe is tasked with leaving Saddlestring for Jackson to fill in.  He has a sense that this was no suicide and will track the killer and expose the ever crooked links in the agencies.  

The opening sentence, "Before going outside to his pickup for his gun, the Wyoming game warden cooked and ate four and a half pounds of meat."  Wow, who eats that much meat, I thought.  

From the author's website:

Back cover

"Jackson, Wyoming, is a far cry from Joe's hometown of Saddlestring—it's the epicenter for many environmental extremists and an elite playground for the rich and powerful—and Joe quickly finds himself in over his head. Yet despite the pressures of his new job, he can't get his friend's suicide out of his mind. By all accounts, Will had changed in the last few months, becoming violent and unpredictable. The closer Joe comes to the truth about Will's death, the more his own life spirals out of control-and he realizes that if he's not careful, he may end up as Jackson's next victim."

Page 5, "Forlorn was a word he had come to like, in recent months. It was a word that sounded like what it described." This is descriptive of some of Will's final thoughts.  has more than enough to do as elk season is about to begin and a busy time for the warden, checking hunters licenses, guides, etc.  But he has to leave for Jackson and give his duties over to another. 

A 4 **** read, good writing, moves along, lots of characters and many sub plots happening., 

Author  CJ Box