Lead Review (plus link to C J Box talking about Wyoming)
- Book: Vicious Circle
- Location: Wyoming
- Author: C J Box
Vicious Circle is the 17th in the hugely successful Joe Pickett series by C J Box (for my review of number 16 – Off the Grid – and an interview with CJ (Chuck) Box – please click here). Joe Pickett is a Game Warden in Wyoming. He deals with poachers and many a game violator – but also has a propensity for getting involved with, and solving, murders and other mysteries. In Vicious Circle, he is up against 
Dallas Cates and his attorney, Marcus Hand (who just happens to be Joe’s step father-in-law). Three years previously Joe had, all in the course of duty, killed half of the Cates family – and sent Dallas himself off to jail for a while. Dallas is now out – and seeking revenge for his family by planning to wipe out Joe and his. He is an ex rodeo star, and ran off with a star-struck April, one of Joe’s daughters… until she saw the error of her ways. So, there is history of another type as well between the two. The violence plays out – with much intrigue, death, torching of property (and a touch of local politics). Joe is, as ever, helped by his friend Nate Romanowski in his quest to protect his own family and put Dallas back behind bars. Nate is, as explained more fully in the previous book, someone who likes to operate ‘off the grid’. He sort of fades away when the real lawmen show up…
The book is real page-turner (which I read in around 3 hours…). It moves to a quite startling climax, and leaves you wanting more (number 18 perhaps?). The characters are well drawn and the action is frenetic.
What, though, sets the book – and the whole series – apart for aficionados of the TripFiction site is the wondrous way in which Chuck describes the Wyoming setting. He was brought up in and lives in the State, and you get a great feel for the wide open spaces, the forests, the mountains – and the wildlife itself. It sounds the ideal location for a real outdoors ‘off the grid’ adventure holiday – if Joe isn’t busy hunting down killers at the time!
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