Book Review: Trophy Hunt

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Trophy Hunt     Amazon US PB Amazon US HC Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada HC
C. J. Box
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Police Procedural   Government Agency
Series: Joe Pickett # 4
Putnam, July 2004, $24.95, 384 pp.

In Saddlestring, Wyoming, game warden Joe Pickett and his two daughters are fishing when they see dead fish floating in the water. As they walk the river, he finds a man who is taking the fish for sport and throwing them back in the water. While Joe lectures him about the ethics of what he is doing he smells something rancid. The angler points him in the direction of a dead moose. When he goes to investigate, he finds that the moose was mutilated with surgical precision; his organs removed as if someone took them for a trophy.

Not long after that a call comes in that some cows were killed, just like the moose with no signs of predator or clues to who or what did it. People in Saddlestring are very nervous and property values plummet even though there is an economic boom going on thanks to new technology that allows natural gas to be taken easier out of the ground. When two men are found in the same condition as the cattle and the moose, a task force is formed but Joe goes his own way to find out what is turning his town upside down.

Award winning author C.J. Box has a natural gift for describing the beauty of nature contrasting it to the depravities of man. This is a very cleverly constructed mystery, with many different sub-plots tying back to the main storyline. A touch of mysticism and the supernatural enhance the battle between good and evil and it is judiciously applied so readers will have no trouble believing in it. TROPHY HUNT is must reading for cerebral mystery fans.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner