Winterkill

Wyoming is a unique place. Sparsely populated in terms of humans, it terms with wildlife. Like many sparsely populated states, its people value their freedom, and the fact that they can generally rely on themselves instead of others.
It also has a reliably corrupt political system, in which honest politicians find themselves blindsided and isolated. Like several other western states, it serves as a punishment posting for a number of federal agencies.
All of these things are captured in Winterkill, complete with the damage that the conflict between right and wrong, and politics and reality, can cause.
To write as this author does requires a willingness to acknowledge that reality, even in a beautiful place like Wyoming, has warts. I admire that. To write what he does can even be a tiny bit dangerous. I admire that too.
Long live Joe Pickett.

C.J. Box writes great novels. I’m not a big reader by any stretch of the imagination. Perhaps a book every 3-4 weeks when the mood strikes me.
With the Joe Pickett series I am absolutely hooked and read more than one of his books per week. I’ve read books one thru 5 in less than four weeks. That should tell you how terrific his books are. He makes you want to keep reading as his style often closes one scene, then opens another that is related, but not necessarily in sequence. I strongly recommend all of C.J. Box’s books.

I don’t think I will be reading any more of Box’s books. It disturbed me in the second book that the horse was killed but I could see how it sorta tied into the plot. But in this book I saw no reason whatsoever to kill the Yorkie. It had nothing to do with anything and made no sense. It’s like he needed to kill something so let’s throw in a dog and, for that matter, 2 children and 2 cows so far. I’m afraid to read any more. What or who else has to die just for drama????

This series just keeps getting better and better. I am so attached to Joe Pickett that I have to force myself to read other things; when I finish one, I often just want to move right into the next. It is, however, annoying that there is always a couple of chapters for the next installment in the series immediately following the book I’m reading on my Kindle. I always skip these because I hate to start something that I’m not going to continue right away. Also, I’d rather the book I’m reading be longer instead of using multiple pages (that I paid for, incidentally!) to show chapters of a book I haven’t bought or planned to read yet. Note to Kindle: Don’t do that!

This outing takes place in Twelve Sleep during a particularly hard Wyoming winter. It reminded me of one of my favorites: Winter Prey, an old Lucas Davenport outing by John Sandford (Aside: you should read it!!), which took place in Wisconsin, I think. Anyway, our hero here, Game Warden Joe Pickett, always too honest for his own good, ends up making a pretty good friend this time, which I really liked. There are references to Waco and other Federal screw-ups, which made the issues this time feel even more real. The enemies, however, are plentiful and very evil. The local politics in this series is true to life, hateful, and so depressing. A tragedy at the end had me in horrified tears. C.J. Box pulls no punches. I can’t stop thinking about it! Again, if you decide to read this series, be sure to start with #1, Open Season.

Joe Pickett, Game Warden extraordinarie, but really Wyoming’s all round do gooder… Saying this makes the story line rather trite but it’s anything but that. It’s an intricate plot that starts when Joe encounters and apprehends a man right after killing 7 Elk right in front of him. The guy gets away due to some slight of hand, namely handcuffing Joe to his own steering whee – oops – from there Joe gets back on the guys track after taking the steering wheel completely off and giving chase. He’s stopped in his tracks only to find the Elk butcher dead, impaled against a tree by two well placed arrows. Rather than giving away anymore of the plot, let’s just say there’s another murderer to apprehend but local Anti-Federal Waco/Ruby Ridge refugees and a crazed Fed get into the the plot mix along with Joe’s foster daughter being held against her will in a potential deadly stand-off confrontation. I read the first Joe Pickett novel and was glad I did so. I was even more glad that I got this followup book. It’s extremely well written and after the first hundred pages I really couldn’t put it down. Oh, and there Falconry and blizzards involved too! Loved it.

Galaxyaudiobook Member Benefit

- Able to comment

- List watched audiobooks

- List favorite audiobooks

- Bookmark will only available for Galaxyaudiobook member