Tag: joe-pickett

Book Review: Some Family Dramas Can Turn Deadly

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

In Plain Sight is another thriller from C.J. Box, featuring Joe Pickett and his family, and is a compelling, enjoyable addition to the genre.

Joe Pickett has been a Wyoming game warden for a few years now and is happily married with two daughters. Since this is a crime novel, he and his family have endured more than their share of unwanted attention from some nasty characters. In this novel, it gets a little more personal when some threatening and gruesome pranks are being committed against the stalwart and dedicated game warden. Also, Pickett is keeping his eye out for a missing ranch owner who has left behind three peculiar sons at odds over her property and legacy. He also is getting a tough serving of Wyoming politics when his new director has little appreciation for what could be a little too much of Pickett’s honesty and integrity. Pickett is getting tested in a variety of unpleasant ways, but none of that is going matter if he cannot keep himself and his family alive.

Box is a very solid and reliable writer, and this novel helps to cement that impression. I am enjoying my occasional figurative visits to Pickett’s neck of the woods. I found the plot with this strange yet influential family rather interesting. The Joe Pickett series is best read in order of release since there is a progression in his professional and marital life. I have mentioned this before, but I like reading of a protagonist who remains committed to his wife and children in the midst of perilous people and circumstances swirling around his homestead.

There are some pretty good twists and turns that get pretty gruesome at times. This novel was released in 2006, so I have a ways to go before I am caught up to the current entries into the series, and so far, I plan to stick with this.

As for now, my journey of literary indulgence will detour back to the twenty-fourth century to visit some old friends aboard the USS Enterprise-D in the latest Star Trek: The Next Generation novel by Dayton Ward entitled Pliable Truths.

Book Review: Someone Has Been Skinning Something More Than Big Game

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

Trophy Hunt by C.J. Box is the fourth thriller to feature game warden Joe Pickett and turns out to be pretty good but not groundbreaking. The novel was first published in 2004.

Joe Pickett finds the mutilated corpse of a moose and learns of some ranchers having similar discoveries among their cattle. Two men are killed and inflicted with similar gruesome wounds which prompts the local law enforcement in Wyoming to form a task force. Pickett is a somewhat controversial inclusion in this, but his instincts and experience with unexpected murder investigations manage to help them land on the proper solution.

I like Joe Pickett because he’s not a disheveled alcoholic or a social misfit. I don’t mind characters like that, but the trope gets a little overused by many crime writers. Pickett is a bit of an odd one out in today’s detective fiction for being quite conventional. He is a loving husband and father, and his wife, Marybeth, supports him and worries about him when he’s the midst of a misadventure. He has two daughters who are depicted quite charmingly as well. Pickett is a character who is easy to root for because he remains steadfast in the midst of often tragic challenges. His family has already endured a pretty serious tragedy so early in the series.

Anyway, there are some pretty decent twists in the story. The other thing I appreciate about Pickett is that he sometimes makes mistakes during an investigation, and Box is not afraid to show that his protagonist is not an experienced detective. Indeed, Pickett seems to be a reluctant detective at times. Some of these elements does make Pickett a bit more endearing and relatable.

Box is not really an extraordinary writer, but he is competent. I am still reading the earlier entries in this series, so I look forward to seeing how the characters and plots evolve. Basically, Box is good enough to keep me interested enough to try out some more Pickett novels.

I have watched some of the television series, but it’s now time to meet the print version of Detective Inspector Vera Stanhope in the first novel, The Crow Trap, by Ann Cleeves.