LoveReading Says
LoveReading Says
As you may expect by now, in the eighth of a series following Wyoming Game Warden Joe Pickett, hunting takes centre stage in this tense new thriller. But this time the target isn’t big game. The story opens on a hunt, the practised stalk becoming more sinister as we realise this is the voice of our killer. When Joe Pickett takes the call that a hunter has been killed, field dressed and hung like an elk, it puts the rest of the hunting season in jeopardy and levelling a massive blow to the state. Is the killer part of the anti-hunting crowd, now amassing among the media frenzy, or someone with a more personal vendetta?
We meet some familiar faces from previous books, their connections to Joe are explained but better explored by reading the rest of the book in the series. Although having said that Blood Trail holds its own perfectly well as a standalone. C. J. Box creates a rugged, untamed Wyoming landscape that calls to characters and readers alike. It's the perfect backdrop for him to masterfully build suspense, cutting away or killing off key people at just the wrong (or right) time to keep us from getting a grasp on the case. The perspective changes grant us access into the mind of our killer, offering a faint trail of cryptic clues to follow as we track down the hunter of hunters. The answers kept eluding me right up until the frenzy of climatic perspective shifts in the final chapters. Blood Trail is an energised thriller with plenty of bite and a worthy trophy for any thriller reader’s shelf. I look forward to seeing what the next hunting season brings.
Charlotte Walker
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Blood Trail Synopsis
A gripping read from C.J. Box, author of the Joe Pickett and Cassie Dewell series, now adapted into the hit TV shows Joe Pickett and Big Sky. It's elk season in the Rockies, but this year one hunter is stalking a different kind of prey.
When the call comes in on the radio, Wyoming Game Warden Joe Pickett can hardly believe his ears: game wardens have found a hunter dead at a camp in the mountains: strung up, gutted, skinned, and beheaded, as if he were the elk he'd been pursuing. A spent cartridge and a poker chip lie next to his body. Ripples of horror spread through the community, and with a possibly psychotic killer on the loose, Governor Rulon is forced to end hunting season early for the first time in state history, outraging hunters and potentially crippling the state's income from the loss of hunting licence revenue. But when the brutal murders eerily coincide with the arrival of radical anti-hunting activist Klamath Moore, Pickett knows the Governor's ruling is the least of his worries. Are the murders the work of a deranged activist or of a lone psychopath with a personal vendetta? As always, Joe Pickett is the governor's go-to man, and he's put on the case to track the murderous hunter, as more bodies - and poker chips - turn up.
About This Edition
| ISBN: |
9781837931989 |
| Publication date: |
12th September 2024 |
| Author: |
C. J. Box |
| Publisher: |
Head of Zeus -- an Aries Book an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing PLC |
| Format: |
Paperback |
| Pagination: |
340 pages |
| Series: |
The Joe Pickett Series |
| Primary Genre |
Crime and Mystery
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| Other Genres: |
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Press Reviews
C. J. Box Press Reviews
Compares to Hemingway’s best hunting and ?shing narratives.' - Michael Ray Taylor,The Nashville Scene
Author
About C. J. Box
C. J. Box is the winner of an Anthony Award, the Prix Calibre .38, the Macavity Award, the Gumshoe Award, the Barry Award and the 2009 Edgar Award for Best Novel. His novels are US bestsellers and have been translated into 21 languages. Box lives with his family outside of Cheyenne, Wyoming.
Author photo © Roger Carey
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