A review by cnorbury
Badlands by C.J. Box
4.0
Rock-solid mystery/thriller featuring a sympathetic heroine, Cassie Dewell, who fights both resistance in her sheriff's department as a new hire and a female, and cagey, ruthless villains who are hell-bent on keeping their multi-million-dollar methamphetamine business thriving in the 21st-century oil boomtown of Grimstead, North Dakota.
Dewell is a single mom of a young son, with a old-hippie mother who disapproves of most of her decisions. That's stressful enough, but when she starts a new job and runs into resistance from fellow employees, her stress level ratchets up. But she uses her instincts in a unique way to get to the truth and find the key to solving the case--young Kyle Westergard.
Box writes beautiful, tight prose and doesn't waste many words on needless details. I thought she oversold the brutal cold of a North Dakota winter, yet she described it perfectly (says this MN reviewer who has experienced -30 degree winter days many times in the past.
I've read two of the Highwayman Quartet series now. It feels like the last two books will be just as solid as the first two. You can't go wrong reading CJ Box.
Dewell is a single mom of a young son, with a old-hippie mother who disapproves of most of her decisions. That's stressful enough, but when she starts a new job and runs into resistance from fellow employees, her stress level ratchets up. But she uses her instincts in a unique way to get to the truth and find the key to solving the case--young Kyle Westergard.
Box writes beautiful, tight prose and doesn't waste many words on needless details. I thought she oversold the brutal cold of a North Dakota winter, yet she described it perfectly (says this MN reviewer who has experienced -30 degree winter days many times in the past.
I've read two of the Highwayman Quartet series now. It feels like the last two books will be just as solid as the first two. You can't go wrong reading CJ Box.