C. J. Box has written four free-standing novels, but I was
only familiar with the 13-book Joe Pickett series which have always been a
favorite for me and MRB. This non-Pickett book, The Highway, is his latest work, just published in 7/13. It is a
winner.
Cassandra Dewell is the protagonist, an overweight single
mother who got promoted to Investigator in the Helena, Montana Police
Department. Her promotion came in part through diversity hiring, so the
expectations for her were low. Then, her partner Cody Hoyt ran afoul of the law
himself. It was not his first difficulty with authority. Although he had a
remarkable arrest and conviction record, his standards for achieving that were
sometimes less than ethical. He had already been run out of a couple law enforcement
gigs because of his tactics, and now he was in the process of getting fired
from the job in Montana – probably his last chance to make it as a cop. But, a
couple teenage sisters went missing and one of them was his son’s former
girlfriend. Despite his suspension from the force and despite just falling off
the wagon, Cody decided that he needed to figure out the girls’ disappearance.
However, while his detective work was spot on, he got in over his head with the
bad guys, and it was Cassandra (Cassie), who had never used her gun outside of
a firing range, who was suddenly called into action.
I thought the book developed a little slowly, but perhaps
that was because I didn’t know that this was not a Joe Pickett book, and I kept
expecting him to pop into the story. Once I realized that was not going to
happen and the character development was underway, the book took hold of me. It
was one of those stories that I did not want to put down. Now, I’m ready to
read the other free-standing novels. Box is a great story teller, and this book
gets my recommendation.
I agree with WCD’s assessment of this book. It was a slow mover initially with all the character development... almost too much at times I thought. But the suspense picked up as time marched on and hooked you in for the finale. Personally though, the story was too much of a downer for me. All the characters... good and bad... had sad stories. They seemed to all be failing at something... jobs, relationships, marriages. Like WCD I kept wondering when Joe Pickett was going to show up to ‘save the day.’ Even the protagonist felt trapped in her personal situation, had low self esteem, and in the end abandoned her ethics like her partner had taught her. I found this all very unsatisfying. Please bring back Joe Pickett. At least his indiscretions come off as noble somehow… like he is justified in the decisions he makes and the world is a better place because he is in it.
ReplyDeleteYes, Cassie had her problems, and she was ultimately a positive although portly and lonely character. And Gracie helped save the day and she provided some balance to all the very disturbed characters, including her airhead, bimbo, pathetic sister.
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