Nowhere to Run

Starred review from February 15, 2010
Inspired by a real-life Wyoming game warden's encounter with sinister mountain-man twin brothers, Edgar-winner Box's outstanding 10th Joe Pickett novel (after Below Zero
) takes Pickett into darker territory than ever before. Pickett's eerie last patrol as a temporary game warden in a remote mountainous area turns into a savage brush with death, followed by a crisis of conscience that drives the decent Pickett back into the same mountains to rescue Diane Shober, an Olympic runner who vanished there—and to bring Caleb and Camish Grim, twin brothers suspected of poaching (and maybe worse) to justice. Box inexorably builds Joe's harrowing personal quest into a complex meditation on human greed and government corruption. A lone black wolf, possibly Box's symbol for the wilderness within and without the human soul, tracks Joe throughout this terrible, beautiful tale of courage and compassion and culpability. Author tour.

Two years earlier, an Olympic track athlete disappeared while altitude training in Wyoming's Sierra Madres. More recently, campsites have been trashed, an elk has been found butchered in the high country, and there's growing talk of evil spirits. Game Warden Joe Pickett's investigation puts him face-to-face with the Grim brothers, psychotic backwoods twins with a sadistic bent. As Pickett drags his badly beaten body from the woods, David Chandler's performance captures every agonizing moment. Chandler's intensity and pacing are on target as he portrays Pickett's altruism and the more practical wisdom of his outlaw pal, Nate Romanowski. C.J. Box has written another rip-snorting Western adventure, complete with despicable villains and a flawed but valiant hero well worth rooting for. S.J.H. (c) AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine