Wyoming Gov. Spencer Rulon has a problem. His son-in-law hired a guide, disappeared into the southern Wyoming wilderness to hunt elk, and hasn鈥檛 been heard from since.
So once again, Rulon turns to game warden Joe Pickett, whom he鈥檚 come to regard as his own private problem-solver.
But that鈥檚 far from all that goes on in 鈥淏attle Mountain,鈥� the 25th novel in crime fiction series featuring Pickett.
Corporate and government leaders of America鈥檚 military-industrial complex are gathering for a secret meeting at a remote Wyoming resort near the elk hunting grounds.
Pickett鈥檚 off-the-grid pal Nate Romanowski is trying to track down a violent criminal named Axel Soledad, who killed Nate鈥檚 wife in violent rampage in a previous novel, 鈥淭hree-Inch Teeth鈥� (2024).
And Soledad, it turns out, has surreptitiously recruited a small army of terrorists to attack the secret meeting.
Unbeknownst to any of them, they are all on a collision course as they venture into the wilderness in the shadow of a towering peak called 鈥淏attle Mountain.鈥�
As faithful readers of the Pickett series know, Nate is a falconer, and he carries his birds with him on his hunt for Soledad. But this time, when Nate launches his birds into the sky, he 鈥渟ees鈥� the landscape through their eyes. This unexpected introduction of mysticism may be off-putting to some readers.
Nevertheless, Box does a fine job of pulling the disparate threads of his complex story together; and he keeps readers guessing about who will live and who will die as the suspenseful, fast-paced tale heads to a violent conclusion. However, the novel contains so many references to incidents in previous books that first-time Box readers may feel a bit lost.
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winner of the Mystery Writers of America鈥檚 Edgar Award, is the author of the Mulligan crime novels including 鈥淭he Dread Line.鈥�
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AP book reviews:
Bruce Desilva, The Associated Press
