Pun Salad

Yay, another C. J. Box novel. This one is a signed copy, obtained via an author event given by the Portsmouth Music Hall a couple years back. (Which means I'm almost caught up with his latest.)

Game warden Joe Pickett is having a contentious relationship with Wyoming's new governor. He's sent to investigate the disappearance of a rich British businesswoman who drove off from a high-end dude ranch after a dream vacation, but did not show up in Denver for her flight home. This is British tabloid fodder, and the guv is (he claims) disturbed by the bad publicity given the state.

And, oh yeah, in one of those Dickensian coincidences, Joe's oldest daughter Sheridan has a job at that same dude ranch. (She has a major role here. In fact… naw, that's too much of a spoiler.)

But there's apparently some (related?) skulduggery in the area as well: a attendant at the incinerator is being paid off to look the other way while a couple of shady characters are disposing of … something in the fierce flames. And there's an unusual smell in the air afterward.

A great page-turner, as Box-usual. Sorta spoiler: while getting near the end of the book, I mentioned to Mrs. Salad that I didn't see any way that everything could be resolved in the few pages I had left. Guess what? Some things were not resolved. Ah well, I was going to read the subsequent books anyway.

Sorta gripe: the action takes place in the coldest part of Wyoming's winter, and the cover doesn't reflect that at all. And there's all these random white scratchy lines going every which way on the cover. I thought maybe they were a printing flaw, but (you'll note) they appear on the Amazon book pic too. What's up with that?