The Interrogative Mood

Starred review from January 30, 2012
Edgar-winner Box’s breakneck 12th Joe Pickett novel (after 2011’s Cold Wind) focuses on Joe’s outlaw buddy, Nate Romanowski. Nate’s been hiding in the foothills of Wyoming’s Bighorn Mountains from cruel and powerful enemies, harmlessly communing with his falcons, except when assisting game warden Joe on a case. Unfortunately, Nate’s sociopath former Special Forces commander, John Nemecek, a fellow falconer, comes after him with merciless efficiency and a crew of fanatical thugs, and Nate responds with measured but startling ferocity. When Nemecek begins interrogating—and eliminating—people connected to Nate, Joe’s family members become targets, forcing Joe to decide how far he can go to help his friend. The struggle between loyalty and law has always been at the heart of this series, set far from big-city legal support systems, and it’s especially impressive in this superior entry. Author tour. Agent: Ann Rittenberg, Ann Rittenberg Literary Agency.

August 3, 2009
Powell (Mrs. Hollinsworth's Men
) is in playfully provocative, top form in this slender book fashioned solely as a series of questions beginning with his limpid first: “Are your emotions pure?” and ending with his prickly last: “Are you leaving now? Would you? Would you mind?” Thoughtful, cajoling and absurdist, Powell's random non sequiturs are not without their method, sounding some tenderly recurring themes, such as a middle-aged ruefulness for simpler times, a longing for more elegant forms in clothes, tools, cars and looks and a tenderness for elephants, dogs and children. At moments the questions become self-revelatory, as if the narrator is interviewing for a partner or friend (“Would you believe me if I tell you that I am a little fragile, psychologically speaking...?”), while also challenging the reader with pointed questions regarding ethical gravitas: “Are you bothered by your cowardice?” Hilarity, irony, and sheer perverseness vie to question essentially what we know and how what we know makes us what we are.