Savage Run by C. J. Box

Several months ago, I discovered the novels of C. J. Box and have read several. I finished one this morning that was everything a good adventure novel should be—a real page turner.

Savage Run is, I believe, the second novel in Mr. Box’s Joe Pickett series. Mr. Box puts us, his readers, in the middle of a conflict able to see both sides of the problem. Joe Pickett is a game warden in Wyoming. He is drawn into a murderous situation between the Stockman’s Trust, with its roots going back to the infamous Tom Horn, and modern environmental terrorists.

Mr. Box also allows us to see the conflict between the killers hired by the Trust. (This is not a spoiler moment; you know almost from the beginning who’s doing what to whom.) One, who fancies himself a modern day Tom Horn, seems to enjoy the act of killing while the other sees himself as a righteous man trying to stop the environmentalists destroying his and others ranchers’ way of life.

One of the environmentalists rhapsodizes about the beauty of a herd of elk stampeding through the forest. She sees beauty in the wolf pack following behind the elk maybe not realizing that the wolves are following to cull the herd for their next meal. When she sees the savagery of the wolf kill, she is unprepared for the reality of Nature. Perhaps it forces her to see her cause in a different light.

There is a murder by an exploding cow, a harrowing chase through the mountains, and a canyon crossing that made my fear of heights to kick in big time. It left me a little queasy; it is written that well. (Nausea is my criteria for well-written, descriptive material? I never said I wasn’t a little strange.)

Joe Pickett is a nice, if not stubborn, guy with a loving family who is thrust into situations as a result of his wanting to do the right thing. I can hardly wait to get to the library to share another of Joe’s adventures and to get Mr. Box’s stand-alone, Blue Heaven.