Badlands

Starred review from May 18, 2015
Edgar-winner Box’s superior thriller carries some characters and themes over from his two previous standalones, The Highway and Back of Beyond, as investigator Cassie Dewell relocates to North Dakota’s boomtown oil fields. In the subzero prairie, the little town of Grimstad is bursting with thousands of roughnecks, its infrastructure and law enforcement system are almost overwhelmed, and ruthless drug dealers are flocking to a wide-open new frontier. Cassie arrives just as a series of brutal murders signals a war between drug gangs—although the missing duffle bag the criminals are searching for has accidentally wound up in the hands of a special-needs paperboy, 12-year-old Kyle Westergaard. Kyle just wants a stable home life, but his possession of the bag full of drugs and money sets off more violent deaths. The story’s brisk action is broken into alternating sections as Cassie and Kyle try to figure out what’s going on and what they must do. The vulnerable boy’s plight gives emotional heft to the criminal investigation, balancing cynicism with warm empathy. 250,000 first printing; author tour. Agent: Ann Rittenberg, Ann Rittenberg Literary Agency.

April 15, 2015

After the events of 2014's The Highway, Cassie Dewell leaves behind dark memories of Montana, the death of her partner, and the escape of the mass murderer known as the Lizard King, to take a new job as a special investigator in the Grimstad, ND, police department. Thanks to hydraulic fracture drilling, or fracking, Grimstad has been transformed into an oil boomtown with the social problems of any large city. Cassie is quickly embroiled in the investigation of a car crash, drugs, a gang war, and corrupt police officers. It is her job to determine how all these are tied together and what part a 12-year-old special-needs boy named Kyle plays in the tangled story. Cassie's keen observations, nerves of steel, and Kyle's bravery solve the mystery and bring a new beginning for both Cassie and Kyle. As for the Lizard King, the hunt continues. Keep an eye open out there. VERDICT Fracking brings new energy to the surface, and Box does the same with another intriguing character whom Joe Pickett fans will want to know better. Suspenseful--you can't put it down. [See Prepub Alert, 2/2/15; 250,000-copy printing; library marketing.]--Patricia Ann Owens, formerly with Illinois Eastern Community Colls., Mt. Carmel

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from May 1, 2015
Box has been making a series of sorts out of his stand-alones. Following the death of Cody Hoyt in The Highway (2013), Hoyt's partner, Cassie Dewell, now takes center stage as the new chief investigator in Grimstad, North Dakota, in the heart of the Bakken shale oil fields. Though she's still trying to catch the Lizard King, the truck-driving serial killer, she's instantly plunged into a whole new set of troubles as rival gangs clash and body parts are strewn all over town in the dead of winter. Caught in the middle is Kyle Westergaard, a 12-year-old born with fetal alcohol syndrome, who sees and knows more than anyone would ever suspect. Box's brilliant choice of setting is both timely and the perfect frozen hellscape for his story; the modern-day boomtown's runaway inflation, man camps, and pent-up masculine energy hearken back to lawless days on the western frontier. And although he's placed kids in danger in other books, this could be the most effective of his thrillers since his Edgar-winning Blue Heaven (2008). The temperature on the northern plains may fall to 40 below, but the engine of this thriller races red hot, providing plenty of warmth to keep readers going all night. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: The publisher is banking big on this one by printing a quarter of a million copiesdouble that of The Highway. If Box isn't a household name yet, he will be.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)