From Barnes & Noble
The Barnes & Noble Review
C. J. Box's first novel,
Open Season, introduced heroic game warden Joe Pickett and earned Box an Edgar nomination right out of the gate, setting a high bar for this suspense novelist, who uses harsh landscapes as a symbolic backdrop for his hero's struggle between the rule of law and the primal code of nature.
In Savage Run, Pickett is called into Wyoming's Bighorn National Forest when ecoterrorist Stewie Woods and his new bride are apparently murdered by an exploding cow while spiking trees. As the leader of the extreme environmentalist group One Globe, Stewie made plenty of enemies, but which one would go to such lengths to get him out of the way? Even more confounding is that Joe's wife, Marybeth, once dated Stewie and is now receiving phone calls that seem to be from him. Meanwhile, other members of One Globe are also being killed off in bizarre ways, and Pickett must sort out who's responsible, who's actually dead, and who the true criminals are.
Box puts the treacherous Wyoming wilderness to wonderful use, giving us a tale filled with lush beauty and fierce hardship. The vivid landscape goes hand in hand with the perilous atmosphere the author creates. His narrative voice is sure, fiery, and often humorous, especially where the novel's villains are concerned. Their dialogue is funny, haunting, and hard-hitting, adding yet another dark facet to this already gripping, original, and powerful story. Though Box unavoidably will be compared to Nevada Barr for his scenic choice of setting, he's got a honed style and unique voice all his own -- one you won't soon forget. (Tom Piccirilli)
New York Times
...jaunty and thought-provoking...
People Magazine
This fresh (and fresh-air) thriller skillfully balances issues of conservation vs. landowners' rights...
Rocky Mountain News
Box takes real issues - the goals and ideals of ecoterrorists and their rancher and logger foes - and deftly presents them...
Publishers Weekly
Box's second novel offers more graceful writing than his overhyped debut, Open Season, along with a little humor and a more fluid plot line. Wyoming Game Warden Joe Picket is still fallible, his strong sense of duty, honor and justice again naOvely running afoul of the greedy villains bent on misusing the exquisite, vividly described landscape. A pair of well-drawn, unconventional hit men, one a conscienceless killer, are murdering environmentalists. First, a powerful explosion blows up "infamous environmental activist" Stewie Woods and his new wife while they're sabotaging logging in the forest near Saddlestring, Pickett's headquarters. The sheriff thinks it was an accident, but Pickett is unsure. Then a proenvironment congressman, a writer, a lawyer and an animal-rights activist all die under questionable circumstances. When Pickett's wife, Marybeth, who grew up with Woods, receives mysterious phone calls from "Stewie," Pickett starts his own investigation. A spectacular chase through a treacherous, isolated canyon with a secret escape route is well paced and riveting. The suspense ratchets up another notch as Pickett and an unexpected ally confront the man who ordered the crimes. The author shows both sides of environmental issues - the activists' insistence on a pristine natural habitat countered by the Westerners' view of the land as their livelihood - and pulls no punches when describing how humans can brutalize one another. This fine follow-up reinforces Box's status as a first-class talent. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.
Library Journal
Two creepy, cold-hearted guys carry out orders from an unseen other as they murder a famous environmental activist, a noted environmental writer, and the country's most powerful "green" congressman. Called in after the first murder (by explosion), which also killed several animals in his part of the Wyoming wilderness, game warden Joe Pickett begins to suspect a broader conspiracy. With a few clues from his part-time librarian wife, Pickett moves the investigation forward. Picturesque detailing, admirable prose, and agitating suspense demonstrate the appeal of this follow-up to Box's Edgar-nominated debut, Open Season. Fan of Nevada Barr and Michael McGarrity will enjoy. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
In his time, Stewie Woods was the most active environmental activist imaginable. No dirty anti-establishment trick, from spiking timber to disabling bulldozers, was beneath him. So when he and his bride become casualties of an exploding cow, their passing is doubly ignominious. And that's only the beginning of a series of equally inglorious deaths of tree-huggers. Woods biographer Hayden Powell is found dead drunk in the basement of his burned-out house; Green Congressman Peter Sollito is apparently killed by a hooker who got carried away; wolf-reintroduction advocate Emily Betts crashes her plane and becomes food for her own cargo; bears feast on litigious attorney Tod Marchand. All these silly, grisly stories are only a front, of course, for a homicidal pair of killers who've been paid to stamp out environmentalists from Washington to shining Washington. But Stewie's death in Wyoming's Bighorn National Forest catches the eye of local game warden Joe Pickett, a man who's "not very good about letting things drop" and has the scars to prove it. Starting with Jim Finotta, the hobbyist rancher whose hot-wired livestock made Stewie Woods's quietus, Joe battles every human power in sight, eventually taking on Mother Nature herself in a bravura high-country chase, in order to make things right. If the bad guys' posturing makes them just a little too obvious from the beginning, Box still displays a gimlet eye for zealots, hypocrites, and poseurs of every stripe, from gentlemen ranchers to squeamish wolf-huggers—proving that Joe's sizzling debut (Open Season) was no fluke.
