Out of Range (Joe Pickett Series #5) Book

One thing I love about reading is discovering a book you love by an author you've never read before. C. J. Box is one of those authors. (Ann Patchett is my other new favorite author.) I've never read his work even though I had seen his books in bookstores. Out Of Range is a great story. I picked it up because the story takes place in Jackson, Wyoming (where my WIP takes place. I wanted to read how a Wyoming native wrote about the same location).

Box is a storyteller, in the best sense of the word. His writing is pure and never gets in the way of the story. Specifically, the hero Joe Pickett (this is apparently his fifth Pickett novel) is a fully developed, complicated man. He seems authentic and yet relateable, even for someone who's never personally dealt with a game warden. But my favorite element of this novel is the number (at least five, maybe seven) of "bad guys" in the story. Box kept me turning the pages because so many of his characters made me nervous - I was anxious to find out who did what, and what they were going to do next.

I read this book in a couple days, and I'm very glad I did. I might even read another C. J. Box novel in the near future. I can't give it five stars because it seems a little cookie-cutter, but believe me when I say: I love cookies.

Four stars.