SHOWDOWN IN THE NEW WEST: C.J. BOX'S BATTLE MOUNTAIN

In C.J. Box's last Joe Pickett novel, Three Inch Teeth, he stunned fans with a devastating change in the series. Old adversary Axel Soledad used an ex-con with a grudge against Pickett and pal Nate Romanowski, putting Joe's family through a nightmare and killing Nate's wife Liv. In the new follow up, Battle Mountain, Box gives us several threads weaving into a showdown with the creep.

He kicks it off with a killer action set-piece with Nate slicing through a house full of criminals connected to Soledad. He gets some information from a survivor that keeps him going. Geronimo Jones, a fellow falconer with a lethal history, locates Nate in the Wyoming Wilderness, with knowledge of Soledad's whereabouts with a plan he's hatching. It is connected to The B-Lazy-U, a sort of dude ranch for the Skull & Bones crowd, near the historic natural site Battle Mountain. Geronimo has his own reasons for go after Soledad, so the two team up.

Meanwhile, a hunting party has been taken hostage. One of the outfitters is the son in law to Governor Rulon. Runlon asks Joe Pickett to see if he can find the man, only known to be missing, wanting to keep it on the down low. With the help of a game warden in the area, Susan Kany, he hunts for the hunters, leading to Battle Mountain, just as Soledad unhatches his plan and Nate and Geronimo close in.

Box has written for Joe and Nate for so long, he both knows how to relate to them and know how the readership he serves relate to them. He expresses Joe's descencey and touch of fallibility that always has us rooting for him. We buy how he survives on his set-of-the pants ingenuity and moral compass, hoping he will survive and not get in too much trouble with his superiors and wife Mary Beth. Nate is a cold, calculating, professional badass, who struggles with true human connection to where he cherish it when he has it and loses a part of him when it's taken.. we want Nate to get his revenge, but not be consumed by it.

C.J. Box serves up, another satisfying western thriller with Joe Pickett and Nate Romanowski. Battle Mountain delivers great action set pieces, an engaging plot that has us putting the pieces together, and even some humor in this tale of harsh retribution. More than anything it keeps us invested in our two heroes, As he keeps it moving like a great novel, he keeps us caring like a great novelist.