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Three-Inch Teeth – C.J.Box (Joe Pickett #24) A Great Addition to the Series!

Three-Inch Teeth – C.J.Box (Joe Pickett #24)

Book 13 for 2024

Three- Inch Teeth  is the 24th book in the Joe Pickett series from C.J.Box, It is also the 23rd book I have read in the series. The only book in the series I haven’t read is Cold Wind. (Note to self read Cold Wind this year!). As a long-time fan of the series, while Three- Inch Teeth is one of his best books, it is for me one of the most disturbing. 

About Three-Inch Teeth

The story begins when a rouge grizzly bear attacks and kills a fly fisherman in Joe Pickett’s territory. Everyone is surprised by the grizzly;s presence because they aren’t supposed to be in the area. The other surprise is the victim could have been Joe’s future son-in-law!  read more

Three-Inch Teeth – C.J.Box (Joe Pickett #24) A Great Addition to the Series!

Three-Inch Teeth – C.J.Box (Joe Pickett #24)

Book 13 for 2024

Three- Inch Teeth  is the 24th book in the Joe Pickett series from C.J.Box, It is also the 23rd book I have read in the series. The only book in the series I haven’t read is Cold Wind. (Note to self read Cold Wind this year!). As a long-time fan of the series, while Three- Inch Teeth is one of his best books, it is for me one of the most disturbing. 

About Three-Inch Teeth

The story begins when a rouge grizzly bear attacks and kills a fly fisherman in Joe Pickett’s territory. Everyone is surprised by the grizzly;s presence because they aren’t supposed to be in the area. The other surprise is the victim could have been Joe’s future son-in-law!  read more

Storm Watch (Joe Pickett #23). – C.J.Box

 

Storm Watch (Joe Pickett #23). – C.J.Box

So far I have finished two books this month. The first Blind Justice was my first visit to the world of Detective Sargent Aector McAvoy from David Mark. While the second Storm Watch was my 22nd visit to the world of C.J.Box‘s Joe Pickett.

I first met Joe Pickett and his family in 2003, when I read Savage Run the second book in the series. I soon read the Open Season book one in the series and I’ve only missed one book in the series! You can check out more here

Storm Watch (Joe Picket #23) -C.J. Box

Storm Watch begins with Joe performing his typical Game Warden duties. Joe receives a call regarding an elk cow that has been hit by a car and Joe responses and track the elk far into the mountains. After finding the elk Joe finds a mysterious building, when he explores it further he finds it is filled with a ton of computers. Oh, there is also a dead body stuck halfway in a window! Soon Joe is called by the Governor and told not to investigate the murder.

Meanwhile, Joe’s friend Nate Romanowski is approached by an ex-black ops operator  to join an anti-government group that’s planning some big action.

So can Joe and Nate stay out of trouble? Are the murder and Nate’s request the join the Sovereign Nation group connected?

Bottom Line

I was somewhat disappointed with Shadows Reel (book 22) in the series. I just didn’t think it was one of Box’s best. However, I do think he redeemed himself with this one! The only thing that didn’t happen was Joe’s truck finished  the book unscathed!

Links for the Further Explorations of the Books of C.J.Box

Author’s Website
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Goodreads
Goodreads:Joe Pickett Series

As a side note, I finally watched the first episode of Paramount’s Joe Pickett. Overall, I thought it was very good and I will continue watching. So check it out!

Dark Sky -C.J. Box (Joe Pickett #21)

I have been reading c.J. Box‘s  Joe Pickett books for a long time and Dark Sky the 21st book in the series is in my opinion one of his best!

About Dark Sky

In =&1=&  Joe must lead an elk hunting trip for a famous tech mogul. Steve Price, better known as Steve-2, the founder of Aloft and the social media platform  ConFab. Steve-2 wants to track, kill and dress an elk. Needless to say things don’t go well almost from the beginning. As the hunting party begins the hunting party are being watched by the Thomas  family. Seems the father Earl has a score to settle with Steve-2 and he’s brought along his to sons Kirby and Brad to help him settle it!

Meanwhile Nate Romanowski and Sheridan Pickett Joe’s daughter who is also Nate’s falconry apprentice have their own problems. Seems someone is stealing from their falconry nests. And Nate is none to happy with that situation!

Thoughts about the Joe Pickett Series

I have enjoyed this series since I read my first Joe Pickett book back in 2004. I started with Savage Run the second book in the series and I quickly went back and read book one =&3=&! And I’ve read every book with the exception of =&4=& (Book # 11). I started reading =&5=&when it came out. However, I ended up returning Cold Wind to the library unread. The most likely reason was being distracted by another book.

The one aspect of the series that has made it most enjoyable is that Joe and his family along with Nate Romanowski have aged! Joe is now 51 and he’s not moving real well. And while age may be a part of his problem the main reason he has a limp is he was shot a while back. And now Joe is going to use all his wiles to keep both himself and his clients safe.

The Bottom Line

The bottom line is =&1=& is a fast-paced exciting novel with well developed characters. And while it may be more enjoyable if you know the characters, I think Box provides enough info for the reader to recognize and like Joe Pickett’s character. Box does a good job of developing the other characters i.e. Steve-2 and Earl Thomas and his sons are well.

So go find it read it and then you only have 20 more books featuring Joe and his family to enjoy! As for me, I need to go back and read =&8=&

Links for the Further Explorations of the Books of C.J.Box

Author’s Website
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Goodreads:Joe Pickett Series

Where My September Reads Took Me – Part I

Where My First Three Reads in September Took Me…..

Ok so now that we are eight days into October I think it’s about time that I took you on a little trip. On the trip we will visit the places I was taken by the books that t I read in September.

Night of the Living Demon Slayers - Angie Fox

New Orleans – Night of the Living Demon Slayer – Angie Fox

Our first stop is New Orleans, which was the location of  the seventh adventure of Demon Slayer Lizzie Brown chronicled in Night of the Living Demon Slayer. The adventure was put to paper by Angie Fox. In this adventure Lizzie’s is requested by a necromancer Evan Carpenter to go with him to New Orleans and aid in figuring out what voodoo bokor Osse Pade is up to. So because Lizzie owes Carpenter big-time she is off to New Orleans to face down Pade. And as always Lizzie’s grannie and her biker coven of witches go along to provide support. Lizzie also gets some aid from her shape-shifting husband, Dmitiri!  This is only the second book I have read from  Ms. Fox but they both have been a fun adventure!

Rating 3 stars out of 5. (Really liked it and I will read more when I need to escape from more grizzly adventures)

Paradise Valley - C J Box

Paradise Valley, Montana – Paradise Valley – C.J. Box

The next stop on my month-long adventure was Paradise Valley, Montana where Cassie Dewell and the Lizard King face-off in Paradise Valley, the fourth book of C.J. Box’s Highway Quartet. Cassie has been chasing the Lizard King, a long-distance trucker and serial killer for three years. The Lizard King, was so named because he preys on prostitutes on the nation’s highways. The prostitutes are known as lot lizards.

Cassie almost caught The Lizard King once but he got away. Now working for the Bakken County, North Dakota sheriff’s department she thinks she has created the perfect trap to catch him.But when things go south Cassie loses her job. Meanwhile, Kyle Westergaard, a troubled teen and a friend have finally taken off down river on their great adventure. Soon Kyle turns up missing and Cassie sets out to find him. However, it soon appears that the trail to Kyle may also lead Cassie to the Lizard King and back to Paradise Valley where the hunt began!

C.J. Box is one of my must read authors. I usually am quick to read the latest Joe Pickett novel! My hope is that we will hear more about Cassie Dewell!

Rating: Four stars – (really, really liked it!!)

White Rage - Carol Anderson Ph.D tops on my September reading list

 

Across America – White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide, by Carol Anderson 

The next book White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide, by Carol Anderson Ph.D.was my first of four non-fiction books that I read in September. This short book took me around America in time and space. While it is a short book it packs a lot of punch! Ms. Anderson traces America;s racial divide from the south’s Reconstruction period though the Jim Crow years and the Great Migration right up to the current events that seem to have widen that divide. Along the way she presented to me many things about the black experience in America that I didn’t know , or knew and forgot. This is a book that should be read in every high school and college across America! And maybe then we can take a hard look at ourselves and all work towards narrowing that divide!!

Rating: Five Stars out of 5! That means it was an amazing book! Read it Damn It!

 

 

 

Vicious Circle – Joe Pickett vs. the Cates Family Part 2 – C.J.Box

Vicious Circle – C.J.Box (Joe Pickett # 17)

 

Earlier in the week, I finished Vicious Circle the latest book In the Joe Pickett series from C.J.Box. It’s the seventeenth book chronicling the adventures of Joe and his family. Like all of the books in the series. It’s a great read.

If you are unfamiliar with the series, Joe Pickett is a game warden living in Saddlestring Wyoming. Joe has a way of being in the wrong place at the wrong time which makes for many exciting adventures and the loss of a lot of government trucks.g

Typically, somewhere along the way Joe is assisted by his friend the shadowy Nate Romanowski. Nate operates on the edges of the law and serves to offset Joe’ Dudley Do-Rightish nature.

Joe is also a family man with a wonderful wife, Marybeth and three daughters. Natural daughters Sheridan and Lucy and adopted daughter April, He even has the mother in law from hell – Missy(surname whichever man she is married to now) Missy believes that her daughter unlike herself has married down.

The Beginnings of the Vicious Circle

 

Two books ago in =&0=& Joe’s adopted daughter April ran away with Rodeo Champion Dallas Cates. The Cates family is bad news. If something bad happens in the county the first people the police look for are members of the Cates family.

So when Joe’s daughter April ran away with Dallas Joe was rightly upset. And when Dallas she is found beaten on by the side of the road and she ends up in the hospital. Dallas becomes the focus of Joe’s wrath. Needless to say things didn’t end well, with Dallas ending up in jail!

Now Dallas has been released from prison and he is back in Saddlestring. And He’s coming for Joe and his family!

Bottom Line

like most of its predecessors Vicious Circle is  a four star book for me. One of the best aspects of the Joe Pickett series has been the development of the characters over the  course of the series. Joe has been Joe with a few changes through the years. But all three of his girls have grown from little girls to young women. In addition, wife Marybeth has gone from library volunteer to the library’s head administrator. Other characters have also changed. Nate Romanowski has gone from an ex-Seal on the run from the law to a free citizen, who may still be willing to operate outside the law. While Joe’s mother in law is now on her sixth?? husband as she continues to marry up and up. So if your willing start at the beginning and enjoy the ride.

At a minimum read Endangered first. Now you still may be able to read and enjoy Vicious Circle without reading Endangered, but I still think it’s better if you know what happened in the first half of the vicious circle!!

Either way check it out!! As for me, I’m moving on the Marked for Life by Emelie Schepp!!

Links for the Further Explorations of the Books of C.J.Box

Author’s Website
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Goodreads:Joe Pickett Series

Off the Grid – C.J. Box

Off the Grid – C; J  Box  – (Joe Pickett #16)

Soon after finishing The Hunting Wind by Steve Hamilton, I received notice that C J Box’s new novel Off the Grid was available for pick-up at the library. So I hurried over to the library and then I came home and quickly devoured the book! Yes, Off the Grid, book 16 in the Joe Pickett series is a good one! I finished Endangered book 15 in the series last April and it took me a little while to remember what happened in that one but Box as always kept revealing little bits of that storyline, which jogged my memory and brought that story back to me. But while it is definitely better if you know the back story and the relationship between Nate Romanowski and Joe and his family it is not essential to the enjoyment of this book.

In this installment two Federal Agents approach Nate, who has been living off the grid since escaping from the hospital at the end of Endangered (Book 15 Joe Pickett), and present a proposal to him. The agents want Nate’s help in destroying a suspected terrorist cell in Wyoming’s Red Desert. If the operation is a success the agents will make Nate’s criminal record disappear!! So Nate soon finds himself alone in the Red Desert facing the biggest challenge of his life a group of “patriots” led by a charismatic falconer who have created a weapon that could wreak havoc, if it falls in the wrong hands, and those wrong hands may be within the group!

Meanwhile, Joe has his hands full with a grizzly bear before Wyoming’s governor sends him on a special assignment to find out what they Feds and Nate are up to in his state! So now Joe and Nate are facing down the terror cell and to make matters worse Joe’s oldest daughter and her roommate end up on old sheep ranch that serves as the base for the group.

The Joe Pickett series has been a favorite of mine for a long time now and the great thing about the series is that the books are just getting better and better and Off the Grid is one of the best!  I think what sets the Joe Pickett books apart from other books in the genre is the Pickett Family, Over the course of the series, the reader has watched the two Pickett girls Sheridan and Lucy grow up. In addition their adopted daughter April has become a central character in the series. Even Joe’s mother-in-law Missy has been key in several books!! Here’s what Booklist says……

“Is there a crime-fiction family as fully fleshed out as Joe Pickett’s? In singing the praises of Box’s series, we often praise the plotting, pacing, and the down-to-earth hero’s friendship with force-of-nature Nate Romanowski But Pickett’s supporting cast – wife Marybeth and daughters Sheridan. Lucy and April – lends a continuity to this series that sets it apart.” read more

Badlands – C.J. Box

Badlands author C J BoxBadlands – C.J. Box – Cassie Dewell Book #2

 

After finishing Windigo Island, I read Badlands from C.J,Box. Box is the author of the Joe Pickett series, another of my favorite series.During his career Box has written several outstanding standalone thrillers A while back The Highway one of the standalones features Detectives Cody Hoyt and Cassie Dewell. and a terrific villain the Lizard King, A long-distance trucker who preys on the women who service long distance truckers a rest stops along the nation’s highway. The women are known as “lot lizards”. Badlands is book two in the Cassie Dewell series and while I wished that there was more about the Lizard King in the storyline, the rest of the storyline made up for it.

Grimstad, North Dakota – a place people used to be from, but were never headed to – has struck oil. As pipelines snake across the prairie, oil flows out and men and money flow in. And with them, comes crime. North Dakota’s new oil capital has a serious law and order problem and newly qualified detective Cassie Dewell has just been assigned as its deputy sheriff…..

….With the temperature dropping to 30 below and a gang war heating up, Cassie fears she might be in over her head but the key to it all will come in the most unlikely form: an undersized boy on a bike who keeps showing up where he doesn’t belong. Read More read more

The Highway – C.J.Box Another Winner from Box!

C.J. Box – The Highway -Cody Hoyt #2 – Cassie Dewell #1

 

Last week I saw that C.J.Box would be releasing a new box on the 28th of this month titled Badlands. The book is the sequel to his release The Highway. Now I am a fan of C.J Box’s work and have read all but one of one of the Joe Pickett novels  and why I never finished Cold Wind, I really can’t say, but I have stayed away from The Highway. Why? Again, I can’t say, But with the second book of this Cassie Dewell series coming out, I thought better get on the stick and read The Highway! When I went to Amazon, I discovered that the Kindle edition of the book was only $2.99 and well that sealed the deal!! Last Tuesday, I finished the book and all I can say is that I should have known better!! C.J.Box is a terrific author and The Highway is as good as any of his Joe Pickett books or his stand-alone books!!

The Highway introduces the reader to a new character Cassie Dewell, a young detective new to the Lewis & Clark County Police Department. When the story opens Cassie is waiting to catch her partner Cody Hoyt, a splendid and somewhat rogue detective, planting evidence at a murder scene! She succeeds and soon Hoyt is suspended from the force.

Meanwhile, a long distance trucker known as the Lizard King, a psychopath who preys on prostitutes, who work the truck stops has accidentally killed his last conquest. In his haste in leaving the truck stop he almost kills two young girls. Those two young girls, Danielle and Grace Sullivan are traveling from their Colorado home to Omaha to visit their father, only Danielle decides to visit her boyfriend in Montana on the way! That boyfriend just happens to be Cody Hoyt’s son Justin. Soon the two girls are kidnapped by the Lizard King and Cody Hoyt is off to save them with Cassie helping at home!

Cody Hoyt, Justin and the Sullivan girls all appeared in Box’s Back of Beyond, which was another great book by Box! All of these characters are well drawn the damaged Hoyt and the spunky Grace Sullivan and her ditsy sister Danielle. Additionally, the new character Cassie Dewell is one that you can definitely root for!!

Bottom Line: The Highway while darker than the Joe Pickett novels was a great read! The pages flew by and the story twisted and turned until the very end! There was one twist that I didn’t see coming and I still don’t believe happened. I can’t wait until the 28th for the release of Badlands!! So don’t do what I did, go and get The Highway now!! Rating: ****

Links for the Further Exploration of the Books of C.J.Box

C.J Box Website
Twitter
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Goodreads: C.J. Box, The Highway
Amazon: C.J.Box

 

 

Endangered – C. J. Box

Endangered – C.J.Box – Joe Pickett Series # 15

 

Stealing an idea for a friend of Goodreads, I am going to start this review with the first paragraph of Endangered the latest Joe Pickett novel from C.J. Box….

When Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett received the call every parent dreads, he was standing knee-high in thick sagebrush, counting the carcasses of sage grouse. He was up to twenty-one

That simple paragraph sets the stage for the whole book and tells the new reader a lot about Joe Pickett. For those who don’t know Joe it lets you know that he lives in Wyoming and he is a game warden, but it also tells you that he is a caring parent Throughout the fifteen plus books in the series, Joe’s wife Mary Beth and children Sheridan, Lucy and April have been there, along with Joe’s mother-in-law Missy.now Templeton and Joe’s right-hand man and the families protector Nate Romanowski..If you do know Joe you know that the presence of those dead sage grouse will not make Joe happy and he won’t quit until h discovers who killed them. Oh and also that their slaughter may be associated with the book’s title Endangered.

The call Joe received told him that a young girl was found badly beaten in a roadside ditch and she looked like his adopted daughter April. April had runaway a while back with a young rodeo star Dallas Cates. Joe never liked Dallas who was a member of a family that Joe has had numerous run ins with as game warden. Dallas of course is the prime suspect and Joe is out to make sure he pays for his crime!!

Meanwhile Joe’s friend Nate Romanowski, an ex-special forces soldier is set to be released from prison and used as bait to flush out the missing Wolfgang Templeton whose murder for hire business Nate had worked for (see Stone Cold) Soon after Nate is released he is ambushed and shot!!

Soon Joe has a lot of problems – will April survive and did Dallas beat her? To solve that puzzle Joe has to go up against the Cates family and that is no easy task. Led by Mama Brenda the family is about as dysfunctional as you can get. Dallas brother Bull lost his livelihood thanks to you know who – yes Joe Pickett.and brother Timber is in prison!!

Joe also has to worry about Nate. Could what happen to Nate and April be related??? And don’t forget those sage grouse. The species were ready to be placed on the endangered species list so a lot of people have a reason to eliminate members of the dwindling species, but who did it??

Joe won’t quit until he finds out and this time finding out just may cost Joe his life!!

Bottom Line: Endangered is a winner!! Several books ago I set aside Cold Wind. I just couldn’t get into it and I thought that I would quit this series. But since then C J Box has come back roaring with four great books and Endangered may be the best of the four! Bookpage says….

“C.J. Box moves from strength to strength with each new installment. I would say that he is at the top of his form, but the top just keeps moving ever upward” read more