Blood Trail

March 17, 2008
When an elk hunter is shot and gruesomely gutted in Box’s solid eighth Joe Pickett novel (after 2007’s Free Fire
), Wyoming governor Spencer Rulon assigns Joe to the investigative team headed by Joe’s nemesis, game and fish director Randy Pope. The authorities suspect a group led by antihunting activist Klamath Moore, but Joe thinks an enigmatic clue near the body points to a serial killer. As usual, Joe stands alone against official protocol, placing his career and life in peril by following his hunches. He persuades Rulon to release his pal, iconoclast Nate Romanowski, who’s awaiting trial on spurious charges, to help him on the case. Writing beautifully about the mountain West and its people, Box takes care to present both sides of the controversial issue of hunting. The narrative alternates between the searchers and the killer, whose identity will keep readers guessing up to the surprising climax. Author tour.

April 28, 2008
Box's disappointing eighth installment of the celebrated Joe Pickett series is a suspenseful journey which casts our hero in a brutal murder investigation that may lead to his own demise. David Chandler reads with great dedication and clarity to the tale, but he is simply not Joe Pickett. Chandler's voice is that of a Broadway star, not a Wyoming game warden, and the story suffers because of it. There is no attempt at even the slightest mid-western dialect here; Chandler drones on and on in a monotone voice that is more likely to put listeners to bed than at the edge of their seats. When the narrator seems less than enthused with a story, the audience stands no chance. A Putnam hardcover (Reviews, Mar. 17).