Below Zero by C.J Box

As a recent addition to the MRB power rotation, we have a bunch of titles by C.J. Box to catch up on. My latest long haul trip was made tolerable with Below Zero.

Joe Pickett gets the job done, but sometimes at the expense of his supervisors good nature. Good thing he has the Governor on his side or his career as a Wyoming Game Warden might've ended a long time ago. Our boy Joe has been banished hours away from his former assignment to what fellow game wardens view as the last stop before being shown the door.

He's out hunting down what's been termed The Mad Archer, a nut using a bow on various critters, domesticated and wild. While he's made good progress, he still can't catch this guy in the act. But a clue leads to a tip leads to a canyon and a pickup in a narrow arroyo with tires that match his castings and a cab full of incriminating archery items.

During booking, his wife, still living back in Saddlestring, texts Joe to call NOW. Their oldest daughter has received a text from April Keeley.

(Guessing from an earlier book) April Keeley was the Pickett's foster daughter before the state is its wisdom, ordered her back with her birth mother. April's mother was part of a cult called the Sovereigns, one of those survivalist groups that dot the Montana-Wyoming-Idaho mountains. In a standoff eerily like Ruby Ridge, the FBI screws up (again), the cabin with a bunch of Sovereigns goes up in flames, dozens escape on snowmobiles, and 3 body bags are filled, one of which contained a child. The guilt of that day years ago continues to plague Joe's family.

But now, April has made contact with Sheridan Pickett. The texts describe an older man and son heading from Chicago to Wyoming. The old guy saved her from a Chicago brothel and sees her as a rebirth of his own now dead daughter. The son runs one of those carbon credit websites for those feeling guilty about global warming to send money to reduce their carbon footprint. And the son doesn't like the dad.

See, the dad is a Chicago mobster and represents everything that save the planet types resent. But the dad is dying of cancer and trying to make amends with his son. To do so, they cut a path across the upper midwest killing people whose carbon footprint continues to expand. The title refers not to a temperature, but to achieving the global warming fanatics nirvana of a negative carbon footprint.

Joe takes time off work and tries to put the pieces together about whether this really is April or someone pretending to be April is sending the texts to Sheridan. The FBI in Wyoming (no great friends of Joe) joins the hunt because there are hints of domestic terrorism plus this mobster has been on the FBI's list for years; the head of the state office is having a wet dream about solving this and getting sent to DC and far away from the Cheyenne backwater outpost.

Since being alerted to Box, his work quickly climbed to power rotation status. I think all three of us would say that each story has been a winner. Every book has been a solid story about a real black/white, right/wrong standup guy who also has a penchant for destroying state property. I think I can honestly say that if you like your mysteries spiced up a bit by its locale (rural Wyoming) you can pick up any title by Box and not be disappointed.

East Coast Don