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.
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?
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
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!
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!
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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.
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, Montana – Paradise Valley – C.J. Box
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
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.”
Badlands – 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
I enjoy C.J.Box’s books because of his ability to create believable characters that you want to root for. like Joe Pickett, and his family and Nate Romanowski. Of course there are also some you want to root against like Joe’s Mother-in-law Missy. In Cassie Dewell Box has created another one to root for, a war widow with a young son, who does her job with grit, and determination and some empathy for the people she serves.
Since Box’s last Joe Pickett novel Endangered just came out in March of this year, I guess we have a little while to wait for Joe’s next adventure so it would be a good time to pick up Open Season the first the 16 Joe Pickett books, or maybe just
Back of Beyond
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
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
