Book #13 in the Joe Pickett series.

Joe Pickett always liked Butch Roberson—a hardworking local business-owner whose daughter is friends with his own. Little does he know that when Butch says he is heading into the mountains to scout elk, he is actually going on the run.

Two EPA employees have been murdered, and all signs point to Butch as the killer.

Soon, Joe hears of the land Butch and his wife had bought to retire on—until they are told the EPA declared it a wetland—and the penalties they charged Butch until the family was torn apart by debt.

Finally, it seems, the man just cracked.

cjBox.net

When a worker goes missing from a North Sea gas platform, DC Smith is flown out to decide if it was an accident, a suicide, or … MURDER.

Like the first two books in this series, I find DC Smith very appealing. Smart. Passionate. A superb detective.

I enjoyed his efforts at trying to pass the annual physical so as not to be turfed out of the Force for old age.

But like the first two books in this series, an interesting premise is developed too slowly for my liking.

AND is DC Smith so consistently incompetent with the many interesting women who seem to throw themselves in his path?

Each book in the Cork O’Connor series has gotten better, so far.

Mercy Falls is #5.

Back in the saddle as sheriff of Tamarack County, Cork O’Connor is lured to the nearby Ojibwe reservation on what appears to be a routine call — only to become the target of sniper fire.

Soon after, he’s called to investigate a mutilated body found perched above the raging waters of Mercy Falls. The victim is Eddie Jacoby, a Chicago businessman negotiating an unpopular contract between his management firm and the local Indian casino. …

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The two incidents are somehow connected. But how?

Very entertaining.

Book #11 in the series about Wyoming Game Warden Joe Pickett.

Each book is based around one big issue in Wyoming. This time it’s wind turbines.

When Earl Alden is found dead, dangling from a wind turbine, it’s his wife, Missy, who is arrested.

Unfortunately for Joe Pickett, Missy is his mother-in-law, a woman he dislikes heartily, and now he doesn’t know what to do—especially when the early signs point to her being guilty as sin.

But then things happen to make Joe wonder: Is Earl’s death what it appears to be? Is Missy being set up? He has the county DA and sheriff on one side, his wife on the other, his estranged friend Nate on a lethal mission of his own, and some powerful interests breathing down his neck. …

CJBox.net

One of the hottest books of 2021 is great.

Though the writing is average … AND the book could have been shorter … the PLOT is excellent. It kept me going. I didn’t see the twist coming until close to the end.

… “The Plot” is her gutsiest, most consequential book yet. It keeps you guessing and wondering, and also keeps you thinking: about ambition, fame and the nature of intellectual property (the analog kind). Are there a finite number of stories? Is there a statute of limitations on ownership of unused ideas? These weighty questions mingle with a love story, a mystery and a striver’s journey — three of the most satisfying flavors of fiction out there.”

— The New York Times

Jacob Finch Bonner was once a promising young novelist with a respectably published first book.

Today, he’s teaching in a third-rate MFA program and struggling to maintain what’s left of his self-respect; he hasn’t written―let alone published―anything decent in years.

When Evan Parker, his most arrogant student, announces he doesn’t need Jake’s help because the plot of his book in progress is a sure thing, Jake is prepared to dismiss the boast as typical amateur narcissism. But then…he hears the plot.

… When he discovers that his former student has died, presumably without ever completing his book, Jake does what any self-respecting writer would do with a story like that―a story that absolutely needs to be told. …

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