Free Fire

Free Fire was a book I didn’t want to put down! It was great. The whole series is action packed with surprise endings! My cup of tea!!

This is the best Joe Pickett novel in the great series. The plot is clever, and all too believable. The characters are engaging, empathetic, complex and continue to develop through the series. (If you are new to the series, please do start with the first novel.) The science is real, accurate and up to the minute. I really wish there was an index or references at the end of the book.

C. J. Box has created a flawed hero in Forest Ranger Joe Pickett that reminds us of ouselves. But Joe is maturing, asserting himself, and gets fired for standing up to the self-oriented bureaucrats over him. In Free Fire, the governor gives him another chance to shoot himself in the foot, but he survives by doing the right thing. Joe's family continues to grow, and their closeness is enviable. If you like outdoor adventure, run, do not walk to the nearest bookstore and buy Free Fire and all the other Pickett novels.

Attorney Clay McCann walked into the Bechler River Ranger Station in Yellowstone National Park holding a still warm weapon while informing the ranger that about a half hour ago he killed four campers. A few months later Wyoming Governor Spencer Rulon visits former State Game and Fish Department Game Warden Joe Pickett, who was fired by the agency's Director Randy Pope (see IN PLAIN SIGHT), at the ranch of Joe's father-n-law to ask a favor. Though McCann got away with murder on a technicality, Rulon shows him a note from one of the victims just before he was murdered that implies the illegal stealing of resources that could impact the revenues of the state. He wants to look into whatever this "Yellowstone Dick" was alluding to as a state has no jurisdiction in a national park. Joe begins his quiet investigation with the help of his friend falconer Nate Romanowski. They soon obtain the assistance of park ranger Judy Demming, who like most of her peers remains reeling that the cold blooded killer freely roams Yellowstone while four caring environmentalists are dead. They begin to find a link between the homicides and questionable bio-mining rights that would destroy Yellowstone's famous hot springs, but McCann and his partners do not mind adding three more murders to their count. In his seventh Joe Pickett mystery, C. J. Box is at his best as he describes the "Stone" with adulation for its exquisiteness while also using a loophole over jurisdiction between the Feds and the state. The story line is fast-paced as Joe and his teammates begin to uncover the contemptuous illegal waste of natural renounces to make a profit without regard by stripping the beauty from the "Stone". Fans and environmentalists (except perhaps the EPA political appointees) will appreciate FREE FIRE as Joe investigates as a private citizen what some amoral avaricious antagonists are doing to make millions. Harriet Klausner

When local attorney Clay McCann walks away scot-free after murdering four campers because of a loophole in the law governing Yellowstone National Park, maverick Wyoming Governor Spencer Rulon decides he needs to institute his own investigation into the matter. Rulon approaches former Wyoming Game Warden Joe Pickett (check out Box's previous novel OUT OF SIGHT for the details behind Joe's firing) with a simple proposal: he will reinstate Joe as a game warden if he agrees to look into things at Yellowstone. Depressed since losing his job, Pickett readily agrees. Pickett throws himself headlong into the investigation, persevering despite the lack of cooperation from park residents and local law enforcement. Digging into the details, Pickett comes to realize that the campers' death was meant to hide a conspiracy to exploit natural resources unique to Yellowstone; he also realizes that the desperate conspirators will not hesitate to add to their kill count in order to conceal their perfidy. FREE FIRE is a fascinating example of how an author takes an idea and turns it into a full-blown novel. The inspiration for the book came from, of all places, a Georgetown Law Review article by Michigan State law professor Brian C. Kalt. That piece, titled "The Perfect Crime", posited the notion that one could literally get away with murder inside the confines of Yellowstone National Park. The theory, picked up on by media outlets such as the BBC and NPR, was brought to author Box's attention by helpful readers and friends. He was immediately struck by the possibilities. The desire to do a Yellowstone book had its origins in Box's deep affection for the park, a love which comes from a profound familiarity with Yellowstone and its origins. Box, who has been to Yellowstone over 50 times in his life, has hiked and fished all over the park, including some very remote locations. He's also gotten to know both park rangers and employees, and can thus appreciate their special bond and connection to Yellowstone. Box's familiarity with the park certainly shows, as reading FREE FIRE is as much a learning experience as it is a wild thrill ride of a mystery novel. Besides the customary mayhem that can be found in a Pickett novel, readers learn, among other things, about Yellowstone's unique culture, and, surprisingly, that Yellowstone is actually a dormant volcano. They also learn of the research that Yellowstone has inspired in the biotech field--there are attributes and organisms in the park that have caught the attention of scientists around the world, although the uses Box posits in FREE FIRE are speculative. Of course, when it came time to explore these ideas in a novel, it was natural for Box to use Wyoming Game Warden Joe Pickett as his fictional "point man." The star of a best-selling and critically acclaimed series that has now reached its seventh installment, Pickett is at heart a simple "everyman" who tries to do what is right, whether