Shadow Reels by CJ Box

Dark Sky left off in the fall with Joe Pickett recovering from an episode with a wolverine and with Nate Romanowski appropriately pissed off after Axel Soledad, a fellow falconer gone rogue, had killed 3 of Nate’s birds, stolen 12 others, and more importantly, had attacked Nate’s wife and threatened his toddler daughter.

Shadow Reels picks right up there. Joe is slowly recovering, Nate is chasing Soledad into Colorado, Thanksgiving week has arrived, and his three daughters are all due to arrive in short order.

It’s Wednesday. Mary Beth Pickett, the town of Saddlestring’s library director, arrives a bit early for work, sees a man placing a package at the door of the library and then hustles off to avoid detection. She picks up the package, carefully opens it, and finds an old photo album dated 1937. Its cover is decorated with swastikas. The photos show some mid-level Nazi functionary with a who’s who of Nazis: Hitler, Himmler, Bormann, Goebbels, etc. While the pictures are disgusting, the bigger questions are who dropped the album at the library, why, and why now?

That same morning, an old rancher calls Joe saying he thinks there is a dead moose bull on the edge of his property. When Joe arrives to investigate, he quickly learns that something’s dead, but not a moose. It’s a fishing guide that has been beaten, tortured, set afire, and tossed across the fence.

While murder isn’t under the purview of the Wyoming Fish and Game, Pickett can’t help but be curious despite being told by the sheriff to butt out. Mary Beth is somewhat spooked by the presence of the photo album but manages to ultimately learn that two members of the infamous Band of Brothers company (the company that liberated Berchtesgaden) were native to Wyoming and both were known to have pilfered some of Hitler’s personal property (including photo albums). One album had surfaced years ago but the other remained hidden, until now. One of the two WY natives was the father of the man just found murdered. Someone wants the album, obviously. The ‘why’ is the question.

Meanwhile, Nate is using his falconry connections to track Alex Soledad who was just seen in Denver by another falconer named Geronimo Jones. Turns out that Soledad is high up in the antifa movement and is trying to bring down the social order of the US. Nate and Geronimo track Soledad from Denver to Idaho to Seattle and finally to Portland. (Geronimo is a tres cool character. Hope he resurfaces in future books).

It’s Thursday. Thanksgiving. The 3 Pickett girls are in for the dinner. So is Nate’s wife and daughter. So is an Asian girl/college friend (of one of the girls. Can’t remember which one is still in college). During early morning meal prep, Mary Beth sees a neanderthal-looking man peering in the window. He’s one of two brothers (from Hungary) charged with finding the photo album.

Mary Beth makes a considerable leap of faith and concludes that the peeper is the killer, is looking for the album, and is willing to do whatever in necessary to obtain it.

OK. Here’s what should be obvious. Shadows Reel has two stories running in parallel. It is less about Joe and more about Mary Beth and the girls. The Romanowski-Soledad trail is more to clean up a loose end from the previous book (Dark Sky). Personally, I liked the way Box organizes and presents the non-intersecting stories. Box is such a good writer that the story flows effortlessly into a fast read (picked it up at the library on Thursday afternoon, done at Saturday breakfast).

I looked at some reviews on GoodReads. Many weren’t too happy with Box on this one. Phrases like ‘mailed it in’ or ‘getting by on reputation’ were seen. Others weren’t happy with Joe being, for all intents and purposes, a bit player. This is Mary Beth’s book. And the girls. One person commented that maybe Joe Pickett as the lead has run its course and Box is setting up one or more of the daughters to carry on with the story. I’m OK with that. Clancy took Jack Ryan about as far as he could before bringing in Ryan’s son. Other authors have also done so. Readers need not be so angry if the author decides to venture off his previously well-worn track, give him a break; this is Box’s 22^nd Joe Pickett book.

Bottom line: This is a good book and a quick enjoyable read. Storytelling and enjoyment that is up to Box’s standard. Whether it’s the beginning of a shift in the direction of Box’s stories or not, I’m still going to be reading about Joe Pickett.

ECD