By Robert McCool, Icon columnist
This is the latest book in the impressive string of twenty-two Joe Pickett novels by C. J. Box. Shadows Reel (Random House, ISBN: 978-0-593-55635-1) is part of the long tangled story of the Pickett family and their friends. Although it can be read as a stand-alone book, it is enriching to know about the characters’ lives from previous novels. Regardless, these books are about Joe Pickett, a game warden in the state of Wyoming.
The action begins immediately when Joe is called to investigate the body of a moose shot out of season, which turns out to be a human body burnt beyond all recognition. The subject had been set on fire as an ending to a torture session.
The whole story takes place during Thanksgiving when family and friends get together and Joe and Marybeth's three daughters are home from their individual lives elsewhere.
The story includes Nate Romanowski, Joe's friend and owner of YARAK, INC., a hunting raptor service. Nate is chasing after Axel Soledad, who stole Nate's birds and fled the area to be the shaman of the Antifa movement in the west. Axel wants to tear down society and build chaos in its place. Nate meets a like-minded Soledad hater who wants to kill Axel for the crimes he committed against the man's birds, just like Nate. Together they take off on a cross-country hunt for Axel and the birds.
Another plot thread involves Marybeth, who goes to work at the library and finds an old man leaving a package on the building's front steps. Inside the package is a photo album of a Nazi officer. The photos are of upper-echelon Nazis, including Hitler himself. With a little investigating, she finds the album belonged to Julius Streicher, an intimate of Hitler himself. She is fascinated by the album and continues to explore deeper into its history.
Joe is drawn deeper into the killers’ tracks. They are two Hungarian brothers who have been charged with the task of retrieving the book, regardless of who gets hurt during their hunt. They become leisurely killers without morals, hunting Marybeth, who has the book with her.
The two showdowns happen in Saddlestring, Wyoming, and Portland, Oregon. The climax of the story takes place late in the book, but is satisfying nonetheless.
This is pure pop fiction, well written and an entertaining read. I find myself fascinated with the Pickett family and their friends, especially Nate Romanowski, and anticipate each book as it comes out. They simply are a good time.
C. J. Box never fails in his telling of the Wyoming landscape with its mountains and wildlife, making me envious of the Pickett family's surroundings and its natural beauty.
