One of the connections I like to make between books and summer vacations is to read a story set in the place that you'll be visiting. Today I'm recommending author C.J. Box and his mystery series featuring Wyoming fish and game warden, Joe Pickett. Reading any of the Joe Pickett series will transport you to the Wyoming and Montana mountains.
C.J. Box writes a gritty thriller-mystery that gives his old-school game warden modern issues to confront. Take the 2013 novel Breaking Point where bureaucracy run amok drives construction company owner Butch Roberson to the breaking point. Pickett learns that Roberson, his family's friend, is the prime suspect in the killing of two armed agents from the Environmental Protection Agency. A vindictive EPA regional director quickly arrives on the scene and calls in a lot of manpower, while Game Warden Pickett leads a team on horseback into the mountains to find Roberson. Wilderness chases, chilling stories of the abuse of power, and Pickett’s indomitable frontier spirit power this explosive novel.
In C.J. Box's earlier book, Cold Wind, the use of wind turbines as a clean alternative to Wyoming's abundant fossil fuels is the underlying issue when Pickett's mother-in-law is accused of murdering her husband on his sprawling wind farm. In Cold Wind the reader gets to know Pickett's family better as the series' characters become entangled in new ways. And, by the way, Joe Pickett's wife works in a library.
So let a C. J. Box mystery take you on a fast-paced mountain adventure. Or ask our librarians for recommendations set in the locale that you’ll be visiting. Stop at the Sioux City Public Library to check it out.
Support for Check It Out comes from Avery Brothers.
