Customer Reviews

Winterkill (Joe Pickett Series)

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

This is the third book in the Joe Pickett series, and unconventional is the rule in each of the books. The author manages to make a character with a wife and kids into something of an action hero, complete with gun, pickup truck, and dog, and a series of enemies that attempt everything from annoyance to murder to thwart him.

In the current book, Pickett has a murder on his hands. In this case the murder is complicated by the fact that the victim was a local Federal wildlife officer who just went nuts and killed a whole flock of elk. Pickett arrested him, but he escaped, only to be brutally and strangely killed.

Complicating things are two factors. First, the local authorities have been preempted by a Federal investigator who has taken charge of everything. She's convinced that there's a conspiracy of right-wing nutcases, survivalists who want to kill Federal agents, and of course she's going to hunt them down, damn the consequences. One of her principle suspects is a local mountain man type who has almost no interaction with the rest of society, and raises falcons at his house. That guy turns out to be more than everyone bargained for.

I enjoyed this book a great deal, and would recommend it to anyone who likes the wilderness or detective stories. One proviso: the author isn't a conservative politically (one of his previous books involves the Endangered Species list) but this book deals with the Federal government and bureaucrats rather harshly. Just a warning.

I hated this book! Or maybe I was just rooting for C.J. to get his stuff together in the third book and have Joe Pickett ready to fly for another twenty years. It's what I expected anyhow. Didn't happen.
The first Joe Pickett story seemed a little tall and convoluted, but the yarn was spun tightly and with dexterity and wit. I couldn't put it down. You knew that C.J. Box and Joe Pickett would be around for a long while. The second book had me looking forward to more Joe Pickett yarns in spite of exploding cows. An audience was building. Word was getting around that C.J. Box could keep you interested. It was time for Pickett to settle down a bit, ease off the fantastics, and start a long career. Then he fell off the mountain.
WINTERKILL opens with a humiliating and extremely unlikely scene of a Forest Supervisor's "nervous breakdown" that contributes nothing substantial to the story. From there, it traverses a litany of extremes. Our humble, heroic game warden in remote Wyoming is forced down a gauntlet of sociopathology, psychopathology, political aberrations, weather extremes, bureaucratic obstruction and cover-up, and the killing of a carefully developed sympathetic character. Then, incredibly, staight-arrow Joe Picket becomes complicit in a felony that will never be discovered.
C.J. Box is a clever, compelling writer, but I don't see how Joe Pickett will ever recover from this dark detour.

Winterkill brings the same fine storytelling and excellent sense of character and place found in Box's previous Pickett novels. Kudos to Box, who has quickly become one of my favorites.
The only thing that prevents me from giving this book five stars is the unforgiveably sloppy editing. One character is christened both "Trey" and "Terry" - on the same page. A crucial event in the novel - the abandonment of April - is referred to as having happened three years ago, then in another mention, five years ago. The book is also filled with distracting typos, including several double words ("he saw that that the snow had melted" type things). Errors of this kind are unfortunate and distracting in a book of this caliber. I can only assume the publisher was overly eager to get the next book by this award-winning author on the shelves.

I had picked up CJ Box's first book, "Open Season" about 2 years ago without knowing anything about it. It looked like a nice light read. I was very impressed by Box as a first time author, and thought the book was much better than the marketing implied (it seemed like a pulpy, survivalist-out-for-revenge book at the time). Then came "Savage Run" and I was pleased that Box had avoided the sophomore curse. Clearly not a one-hit-wonder, this Box guy.

So, when "Winterkill" appeared for pre-order on Amazon[.com], I knew it would be worth the money. I had no idea what was to come. In this, the 3rd Joe Pickett book, Box has shown that, as a writer, he is just getting warmed up. Rather than being more-of-the-same, as many of these recurring character series are, "Winterkill" breaks the rules and delivers a few surprises that I defy anyone to predict. At a point in the series when his main characters risk becoming predictable and 2-dimensional, Box has instead raised the bar, giving them depth, conflict and soul. Clearly the best of the 3 novels so far, Box has given much more insight into his cast, especially Joe. And he's laid enough groundwork to continue a few story lines for several more books. The surprises and twists in this one are nothing short of courageous for a writer this early in his career. Box pulls off plot developments that many a seasoned writer would avoid like the plague. This guy is one to watch.

CJ Box, you're on my list of writers who's books I will buy sight-unseen. I don't need to know anything about the plot or even the title. Just tell me it's a new CJ Box book and I'm grabbing my wallet!

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 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

The third Joe Pickett mystery once again finds trouble brewing in the wilds of Wyoming, but this time there is an added obstacle to maintaining peace and tranquility in this beautiful part of the world - the harsh winter storms have closed the place down. In the first two books by C.J. Box, (Open Season and Savage Run), we have been treated to mysteries with strong environmental themes. In Winterkill Joe turns his attention to a murder investigation and then a more pressing personal crisis.

Joe Pickett is the game warden with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department living in the small town of Saddlestring, Twelve Sleep County. He is a quiet and easy-going family man, husband to Marybeth, father to 11 year-old Sheridan, 6 year old Lucy and foster-father to 9 year-old April. A fair, hard-working man he stands up for what he believes in even when that means leaving himself and, occasionally, his family open to get hurt.

While out on his regular patrol one winter's day, Joe witnesses a hunter who flouts the 1 elk bag limit by running amok through a herd, taking down 7 animals before Joe can get to him. When he does he is shocked to find that the hunter is none other than Lamar Gardiner, the district supervisor for Twelve Sleep National Forest, the person who makes the hunting laws, not the person who breaks them. In a typically Joe Pickett moment, Lamar escapes his custody and rushes into the forest in the middle of a worsening snowstorm. By the time Joe finds him again, he has been brutally murdered.

Coinciding with the murder is the arrival of a ragtag group of people in SUV's and camper-vans who take up residence in the National Park outside of town; they call themselves Sovereigns and are a mixture of anti-government protesters and dropouts. Among the Sovereigns is Jeannie Keeley, April's mother, a bitter and angry woman who abandoned April when she was a toddler. Joe and Marybeth are faced with the prospect of losing the little girl they had come to love as their own daughter.

The murder results in the arrival of another Forest Service agent, Melinda Strickland, supposedly sent to investigate her fellow officer's death. But she's bad news, you can tell that straight away when, moments after being introduced to Joe he watches as she barely restrains from kicking her dog in a moment of anger. Dog-kicking proves to be the least of her sins though. She is a self-centered woman with little regard for the safety of others, a dangerous woman when dealing with murderers and harsh climactic conditions.

Joe is dragged into the mess as a potential bloodbath looks a likely result of the standoff between the Sovereigns and the Federal Agents. To start with he is merely a concerned local citizen whose concern is primarily for a peaceful existence, but it becomes personal when April is placed right in the firing line inside the Sovereign camp.

Winterkill starts out at a very relaxed pace and we are allowed to settle in and enjoy a snowed-in Christmas with the Picketts, giving us a chance to feel comfortable with them. We are also given ample opportunity to enjoy the descriptions of the spectacular scenery surrounding them. This soon changes to the mounting tension and frustration levels as Strickland and the feds take over the town. Finally, we are thrust into a dramatic race against time through atrocious conditions ensuring a breathless ending.

It was established in the earlier books of the series that Joe Pickett is a "good" man. He always takes the passive option, often to his own detriment, and is ruled by his conscience. This is carried on in Winterkill, but it tends to restrict his effectiveness as a protagonist, particularly when he comes up against completely morally bankrupt people, as he does here. Enter a new character and eventual ally for Joe, Nate Romanowski. Nate oozes confidence and violence and adds a touch of the maverick for the good guys. He's a perfect foil to Joe's upstanding philosophy and, although we don't learn a lot about his past, every time he entered the scene he was a breath of fresh air.

A murder investigation, a Ruby Ridge style stand-off on Battle Mountain and a desperate bid by a father to protect his daughter makes Winterkill a thrilling book. Add to that Box's ability to paint the Wyoming landscape with wonderful clarity that gave me a strong sense of place and you've got a very enjoyable book.

A severe winter storm bears down on Joe Pickett's town of Saddlestring but another type of storm--purely a human creation--is in the works as a ragtag band of "Sovereigns" camp in a national forest, much to the consternation of local law enforcement. The book begins with the unlikely killing of Lamar Gardiner, whom Joe arrests after he kills several elk. His pursuit turns more personal when his foster daughter April is kidnapped by her white trash mother, Jeannie Keeley, who's involved with the Sovereigns.

Box's characterizations are as hard as the Wyoming landscape that he details. The villains of the piece are deeply amoral people: federal bureaucrat Melinda Strickland and FBI sociopath Dick Munker. They're both vicious in their own ways and, as is the case with all of Box's novels, they each get their comeuppance.

I started reading this series backwards (starting with "Blood Trail") and reading this makes me understand why Nate Romanowski is a wanted fugitive and how Pickett's daughter Sheridan becomes involved with falconry. This series makes for great reading and deserves a wider audience.

I've read all except two of C.J.Box's novels, and Winterkill is one of my favorites. C.J. writes with passion and details that leave me breathless. I am usually up all night with his books, and this one was no exception. I love Game Warden Joe Pickett, he is a hero in my mind. If you like adventure, if you love the west, you will enjoy all of C.J.Box's novels. This one in particular, I thought was especially fine