Stone Cold by C.J. Box

Stone Cold by C.J. Box is his 14th Joe Pickett novel. Pickett is a Wyoming game warden with a code all his own and a reputation for finding trouble. Wyoming’s governor has taken a liking to Joe and named him his special ‘range rider’. For a measly bump in pay from his already meager salary, Joe is to continue as game warden in Saddlestring but must be available for the governor’s special projects.

The governor calls Joe when the wealthy owner of a massive ranch in Wyoming’s Black Hills comes under suspicion by the FBI. Wolfgang Templeton is suspected of running a murder for hire operation… the targets all wealthy elites. Joe is summoned to remote and desolate Medicine Wheel to inconspicuously gather information and report back to the FBI but NOT to engage the perpetrators only report back. Yea right, that sounds like Joe. Joe is given a plausible wildlife project as cover and off he goes. Within 48 hours of arriving in the Black Hills he has plenty to report. Templeton has become a philanthropist for the poor citizens of Medicine Wheel and they all protect him… including the sheriff, judge and local game warden. Several bad boy locals are employed to work on Templeton’s ranch and other businesses and to provide private security. They are all exempt from the law… including hunting and fishing laws. Of course Joe can’t tolerate that so he manages to provoke most of Templeton’s staff. Ironically Joe’s tactics are the perfect means to gather information for his mission. He quickly identifies Templeton’s gang and even finds his ‘lost’ buddy Nate Romanowski in the mix. Before Joe can call in the FBI, Templeton sends his thugs after Joe. This time Joe has found more trouble than he can handle alone.

Stone Cold is another winner in C.J. Box’s Joe Pickett series. I was fortune to see Mr. Box on his book promotion tour in St Louis this past week. Clearly he has a fan base that adores him. The 200 plus crowd was three fourths male and nearly all baby boomers… lots of gray beards, orthopedic shoes, and bellies over the belt. Several praised him for creating the clean cut image that is Joe Pickett. Here are a few tidbits the author shared. 1) Box lives on twenty acres near Cheyenne, Wyoming and actually wears a cowboy hat. 2) His given name is Charles James Box and as a young journalist went by the name Chuck. One day someone complimented him on his clever pseudonym for writing… such a western flare. He learned a 'chuck box' is actually a box on a chuck wagon for carrying tools. He thought it sounded ridiculous like his name was Wagon Wheel or something so he started writing as C.J. Box the next day. 3) In his previous book, The Highway, a dark story of a predatory trucker, Box spawned the idea for the plot when his 20 year old daughter continually drove her car with the check engine light on. 4) Box has learned to include Nate Romanowski in small doses because his bigger-than-life personality would over power Joe. 5) Box is currently under negotiation to make his Joe Pickett character into a TV series. Wonder who will play Joe. His fans all want to know.