CJ Box is back with another Joe Pickett novel and like all of the other Joe Pickett novels it doesn’t disappoint!! It’s full throttle from start to end.

We start the novel with Joe Pickett on horseback looking for something or someone who had skinned and butchered an elk that a hunter had injured.  This ride into the back country is special for Joe as it’s his last one based out of Baggs, his assignment for the last year.  He’s been assigned his old post back in Saddlestring where his family has been living.  However things quickly go wrong on the trail and we are tossed into a rough and rumble ride for Joe, Joe’s family, Nate and a variety of other characters.  It all culminates with a shoot out that Joe will not soon forget and neither will we as readers!

Have you read Nowhere To Run?  I’d love to hear what you thought about it.  At the end of this one I was left thinking a bit.

I’m a creature of habit and my habits usually include reading the same authors when they release new books.  However on occasion a book cover or an except on the back will catch my eye.  Black Widow was one of those books.  Actually I believe it was another book of White’s that caught my eye, but this was the one I brought home.

Black Widow stars Doc Ford, a former CIA agent I believe, who is now a biologist/detective in Florida.  In Black Widow he’s asked by his goddaughter to deliver some money to someone whose blackmailing her and some of her friends.  With as little details as possible Ford is told that they had a bachlorette party on an island (yup a bunch of rich girls!) and things got out of hand with some of the island boys and apparently they were taped and are now being blackmailed with that tape.  Doc steps in and begins working his way to the bottom of the case.  Along the way he meets a few new people that help him discover who is really behind the blackmail.

On the main scale I give this a 3 out of 5.  It’s got some action.  There’s no outright sex scenes in it, but it’s hints at it here and there at just the right time which keeps the male mind going!  Overall a good read, but not one that really sucks you in.  It took me awhile to read this one.

454 Casull! That’s all you need to know about this book!! Well not really, but take a look at that beast! Can you imagine someone pulling that sucker out (not sure why someone like Nate would need a scope, but hey) and aiming it at your head? Kaboom!

This book, Below Zero, is the latest Joe Pickett novel by C.J. Box. It brings back some past characters that we’ve seen before and watched die. Or did they? I won’t ruin it for you, but that’s part of the premise of this story. Out of the blue, Sheridan Pickett (Joe’s oldest daughter), gets a text message from someone claiming to be April, who was in Winterkill and thought to be dead. But that’s not all. There’s a Chicago gangster going around killing people with his son. All for the sake of being more green. And of course there’s big Nate Romanowski who we haven’t seen a lot of in the more recent books because the law’s still after him. But he’s back in form in Below Zero.

On the man factor I give this 3 stars (out of 5). It’s fast paced and a quick read. However it’s gritty in some places, but I tend to like a bit of reality with my fiction. Most of the Joe Pickett novels stand by themselves, but in this case it would help to have read Winterkill before.