Nowhere To Run

This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader as part of a quick takes post to catch up on my “To Write About” stack—emphasizing pithiness, not thoroughness.
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Joe vs. a couple of hard-core survivalists and possibly breaking a missing-persons case that's been dormant for years. It's a great set-up—Joe stumbles onto these survivalists poaching and in the end, becomes hunted by them. He escapes, barely, but no one else can find them. So Joe and Nate gear up to go hunting for them on their own—if for no other reason, than to prove that Joe isn't making the whole thing up.

At a certain point, don't Wyoming Law Enforcement Officers need to start giving Joe the benefit of the doubt? Maybe believe his hunches, theories—at the very least give credence to the things he says he's actually seen and done? Sure, there's the petty rivalries, and I get where the local sheriff can't give Pickett any credit. But surely everyone else can—he's got a pretty solid track record.

It was a decent read, with some good tension, some good character moments. I'm not blown away by any of it, but I enjoyed it and am eager to see what's next. I'm not sure I like how the Picketts are dealing with April, but there's time to turn it around.

After you've written as many Joe Pickett novels as CJ Box has, it's important to keep them fresh. NOWHERE TO RUN succeeds on this front. By starting off the novel with the “bad guys” and putting Pickett deep into a high stakes game of cat-and-mouse, it's not a slow build mystery to a big a conclusion like his other books.

However, Box is smart enough to know that readers are not stupid, and that bad guys are rarely bad guys without a reason. Figuring out why these guys are the way they are is half the fun.

This was a worthy addition to Joe Pickett's considerable legacy.