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Summary: Another Powerful Entry in the Joe Pickett Saga
Review: 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.
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Summary: A Wyoming Winter's Tale
Review: Joe Pickett, C.J. Box's Wyoming game warden, returns in an icy tale of double-dealing and revenge. The Wyoming winter becomes a central character in the latest of Box's boots and saddles morality plays. I read the novel amidst one of Denver's heat waves, and still shivered a bit. The characters and settings are beautifully drawn, and illustrate one of the last truly unique reqions of our increasingly homogeneous country. In this, his third Pickett novel, the author weaves several disparate plot lines into an explosive, and oddly ironic, conclusion. Of course, the strong "everyman" character of Joe Pickett husband, father, and warden shines through. This is a protagonist that we can actually like. We can struggle with him as he faces moral and ethical dilemmas with courage and faith. Do yourself a favor, cool off with Winterkill.
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Summary: C.J. Box Has Produced a Definite Must-Read
Review: 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 previously numbered perhaps six. Joe, who is not convinced the sheriff is holding the right man in the jail for murder, sees this passing by and leaves his family in the car while he checks on the situation in the church. The minister tells him that the people --- all of whom are strangers to this small community --- have set up a winter camp on public land outside of town. Their group is composed of survivors of places like Ruby Ridge and Waco, including two children orphaned in the Waco fire. These people claim to be innocents who have banded together for mutual support and protection, but in their numbers there is one woman with a bad past --- she's the abusive mother of Joe's foster daughter, previously absent for three years. He and his wife are both fiercely determined to protect the girl whom they've been trying to adopt. Joe Pickett is something rare in the world, and in current fiction. He's a family man who just wants to do the right thing. He loves his wife and daughters. He tries to be polite to his mother-in-law, even though she seems to be suddenly living with them, unexpected and uninvited, in their small house. Joe likes to cook pancakes for breakfast and chili (with elk meat) for supper. He'd rather be at home than anywhere else. But he also has a clear moral compass --- and he will follow his own course wherever that compass leads. The most remarkable thing about WINTERKILL is the way C.J. Box pulls you into Joe Pickett's world so thoroughly, so immediately, that you will neither want to leave it nor care to remember your own world until you've finished the book. You can read it in one night or a couple of days at most --- but what you've read will stay with you far longer. This is an author with something important to say, letting his characters do it for him. His books add a new dimension not just to mysteries, but to the whole literary scene in our country. WINTERKILL is a must-read. --- Reviewed by Ava Dianne Day
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Summary: A riveting read
Review: Once in awhile I run across a book that causes me to forget to do the laundry, to burn the dinner, and to ignore the husband when he is talking. Winterkill is one of those books--I couldn't put it down.
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Summary: A winter's night entertainment.
Review: One villain is a cartoon, but the author has nevertheless created a page turner. Joe has the help of a new character- to do what Joe cannot, be vengeful and murderous. A series that is getting better all the time.
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Summary: Avid Reader
Review: Outstanding. Superb pacing, plausible plot and a wonderfully flawed protagonist. Establishes this author in the same league as James Lee Burke, which is about the nicest thing I can say.
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Summary: Go, Joe!
Review: Real, gritty, tough...and gutsy. C.J. Box has done it again. Winterkill was a great read! The characters are believable because they're real; all of us know a Joe, a Marybeth, a Nate, a sheriff Barnum, or a Melinda Strickland. Like C.J.'s previous books, you know what SHOULD happen but you stay on the edge of your seat because "should" rarely wins. Make no mistake, these stories do not start or end like fairy tales because they're not. The hero doesn't gather up the bad guys and ride off into the sunset with his family at the end. Your heart will break but you'll find yourself wondering how you can protect Joe and his family from further injury...and waiting anxiously for the next chapter in their lives.
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Summary: Actually 4+
Review: The ending cost a partial point here. The strength of his previous novels were in the Joe Pickett's character, his love of his family and the balance in which the author presents both sides of an issue. In this book he (Box) goes overboard in presenting the federal government officials as "evil". And Pickett no longer does "the right thing" in the end. Still most of the thing that made the two previous Joe Pickett novels "5"s are still there. His family, great descriptions of an uncompromising country and a story that will keep you glued to your seat. So, do as I did. Read this book.
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Summary: From thriller to agitprop
Review: The first two Joe Pickett novels were wonderful thrillers. I felt like I had entered the wilds of Wyoming. The protagonist was and remains an everyman who simply tries to do the right thing-from citing the Governor to clashing with the local powers that be-including the Sheriff and some criminal deputies. The Pickett family characters remain superbly drawn. The crisis with foster daughter April is gripping. Unfortunately, the author has now created caricature villains. The central evildoers, rogue federal employee Melissa Strickland and her FBI "enforcers" are simply not credible. The characters are overdrawn. The novel moves from thriller to anti-federal government propaganda piece.
I was disappointed and do not highly recommend this Pickett outing.
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Summary: Another Homerun for CJ Box
Review: 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!
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