Endangered by C J Box

Published: 2015, Penguin Random House

Genre: Fiction

Themes: Crime, thriller, American west

My rating (out of 5): ❤❤❤

This is one of those books that reads as though the story was written up after somebody watched the film, although that is not actually the case. Endangered by C J Box is a thriller in the same sort of style as the Jack Reacher novels by Lee Child and I can well imagine it sells well at airports in America.

C J Box is the number 1 New York Times Best Selling Author, and Endangered is part of a series written about Joe Pickett who is a game warden in Wyoming. All the characters are so stereotypical that you could pick them out in a game of misfits and there is a clear demarcation between the bad guys, who beat up and mistreat women, and the good guys who chase after them and ensure 'justice' is done.

Warden Pickett works in and around the law as it suits him, but this is apparently ok as he is a good guy and the bad guys had it coming to them. The story begins with his foster daughter April being found beaten and unconscious by the roadside, and naturally all eyes turn to her unsuitable boyfriend, who is a champion rodeo rider, and who also happens to belong to a 'white trash' family that live in a remote spot in the mountains. April is only just clinging to life and has been placed in an induced coma, so she can't tell anyone what happened, but clearly someone left her for dead and Joe Pickett will not rest until he finds (and preferably kills) whoever was responsible.

The writing has a good pace to it but very little time is wasted on descriptive passages except when it comes to makes of car/SUV/truck and weapons. Weapons are everywhere, but if none are close to hand in an emergency then rocks, snowmobiles and a ceramic kitchen knife are used to good effect. As we get to the second half of the book when all the evidence is being pieced together, the plot relies heavily on coincidences. Everything takes place in a very wild area of forest and rock but somehow someone is always around to witness vital clues. By the time we get to the final pages reality is cast aside completely and a very unlikely series of events allow Joe Pickett to consider the case closed to his satisfaction.

This is not really my sort of book, so I don't think I will be looking out for the others in the series, but clearly a lot of people do like the Joe Pickett books and C J Box has hit on a winning formula despite what I might think about it. You might like it if you need something to read on a plane.

Comments

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