Open Season

Three point five stars for the first book in C.J. Box's Joe Picket series.
The main protagonist, Joe Picket, is a game warden assigned to the Twelve Sleep area in Wyoming. When he finds a body on a wood pile in his back yard, Joe gets involved in a murder investigation even though neither the local sheriff nor his own bureau want him to help. The investigation soon turns up two more murders. The supposed killer is soon found and the case closed. However, Joe isn't satisfied. When he finds a connection to the attempted extinction of an endangered species, he continues the investigation on his on. This proves dangerous for both Joe and his family.
The story seemed fairly predictable for much of the book. However, Box rescued the story by putting a nice twist and some thrilling action in the last part of the book.
In the end I found that I quite like Joe Picket the game warden and somewhat unwilling detective. I will continue the series.

(The Penguin eBook version I read has a formatting problem. It has a link to other books inserted after chapter 37. That seems to indicate that the story is finished, but it isn't actually the end of the book. You need to scroll past the link page and read the epilogue that closes out the story. Bad Penguin, bad.)

CJ Box writes a good mystery. He has a simple story-telling style that I enjoy greatly. He's not going to drown you with fluid, unnecessary descriptions. He's not going to insult your intelligence, either. It's a very fitting writing style for a series of novels centered on a very blue-collar detective, Wyoming Game Warden Joe Pickett.

In the first novel in the Joe Pickett series, a trio of murders lead to Joe getting embroiled in an investigation concerning the unstoppable force of land development running into the unmovable object of the possible discovery of an endangered species. Add into that the difficulties that come with being the new guy in the county, a pregnant wife, a narcissistic mother-in-law, and two precocious daughters, and clearly, Joe has his hands full.

I don't know who came first, CJ Box or Craig Johnson (turns out, it's CJ Box), but both write in similar styles about the same general area of Wyoming. Both are very skilled with sparse prose and solid, interesting characters for whom the reader is instantly compelled to become invested.

Through both of their books, a deep-seated desire to move out to Wyoming has bloomed in me, something I never thought could happen. But, through the beauty of their books, I harbor a great need to relocate to the wide-open countryside of northeastern Wyoming. Maybe someday I'll be able to make that happen. Until then, I will continue to read about it.

I will definitely be checking out more of the Joe Pickett series. The second book in the series is called SAVAGE RUN. It will be worth a look-see, definitely.

www.cjbox.net