Trophy Hunt

★ ★ ★ 1/2 (rounded up)
This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
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Pro tip: don't read C. J. Box describing a moose corpse while eating lunch.

That aside, I had a lot of fun reading this. Joe ends up being the Game and Fish representative on the task force the governor calls for to investigate these mutilations. Sheriff Barnum is also on the task force, giving us more opportunities to be annoyed by him (I'm really looking forward to the upcoming election which should remove him from office).

I have a note to compare Nate Romanowski and his approach to spirituality and nature and Henry Standing Bear's—and I think that could be a fruitful discussion, but I think I need to see Nate wax spiritual a little more in future books. But at least at this point, Nate seems like some white dude getting a little strange, whereas Henry seems genuine (which isn't to say Nate's fake, he's just...new at it?). Regardless, it was good to see Nate again, and I like the way that he's settling into the series (if only so there's someone around who can shoot and is generally on Joe's side).

On the one hand, the constant discussion about the precarious financial situation the Picketts face is a refreshing and bracing bit of realism—but if Box would ease off on it a little bit, that'd be nice, just a bit. I like seeing Marybeth struggling to find her place in the world in a way that helps her family—if nothing else, her bouncing around from employer to employer (as her small business allows) she can be put in all sorts of interesting places to tie into Joe's cases (see these last two books).

Lucy took a bigger role than she usually gets, which sadly took a little bit of space from Sheridan. But she still gets a chance to shine, which makes me happy.

But what brings readers back is Joe Pickett. He's not the smartest, the quickest, the most insightful mystery protagonist around. But he's dogged. He's persistent. He's one of those rare good guys. He gets the job done, eventually, because that's what he needs to do. Easy to like a character like that, he's not really Everyman. He's the kind of guy an Everyman would like to be.

(which does mean that the reader figures things out a lot faster than he does, but oh, well)

This was the first Joe Pickett novel that I read instead of listening to (my library doesn't have the audiobook)—this is the first time I've gone from audio to print. It was interesting, but I think I prefer Chandler's narration to my own (but I liked getting the spelling of a couple of names).

It's a solid mystery, a good time with some characters that I liked. It's a little heavy on the “woo-woo” stuff (Joe's term), but I can live with that. I don't know that this is the best one to come to the series with, but it's a good installment for those that are familiar with the characters.

Three point five stars. C.J. Box tried to get a little spooky in this book. He didn't quite pull it off – at least not for me. Not the best of the Joe Pickett novels, but still an interesting read.