Badlands – C.J. Box – Cassie Dewell Book #2
After finishing Windigo Island, I read Badlands from C.J,Box. Box is the author of the Joe Pickett series, another of my favorite series.During his career Box has written several outstanding standalone thrillers A while back The Highway one of the standalones features Detectives Cody Hoyt and Cassie Dewell. and a terrific villain the Lizard King, A long-distance trucker who preys on the women who service long distance truckers a rest stops along the nation’s highway. The women are known as “lot lizards”. Badlands is book two in the Cassie Dewell series and while I wished that there was more about the Lizard King in the storyline, the rest of the storyline made up for it.
Grimstad, North Dakota – a place people used to be from, but were never headed to – has struck oil. As pipelines snake across the prairie, oil flows out and men and money flow in. And with them, comes crime. North Dakota’s new oil capital has a serious law and order problem and newly qualified detective Cassie Dewell has just been assigned as its deputy sheriff…..
….With the temperature dropping to 30 below and a gang war heating up, Cassie fears she might be in over her head but the key to it all will come in the most unlikely form: an undersized boy on a bike who keeps showing up where he doesn’t belong. Read More
I enjoy C.J.Box’s books because of his ability to create believable characters that you want to root for. like Joe Pickett, and his family and Nate Romanowski. Of course there are also some you want to root against like Joe’s Mother-in-law Missy. In Cassie Dewell Box has created another one to root for, a war widow with a young son, who does her job with grit, and determination and some empathy for the people she serves.
Since Box’s last Joe Pickett novel Endangered just came out in March of this year, I guess we have a little while to wait for Joe’s next adventure so it would be a good time to pick up Open Season the first the 16 Joe Pickett books, or maybe just Back of Beyond the first Cody Hoyt book or a standalone like Three Weeks to Say Goodbye. I guarantee you won’t be disappointed!!