Penzler Pick, July 2001: Mystery debuts are both exciting and problematic. Exciting, because one may always be about to discover the next Hammett or Chandler (or so the copywriters and publicists would have us believe), and problematic because originality in such a well-grooved genre is becoming more and more at a premium.

In advance reviews, Open Season has been pronounced "something special," (Booklist), and it lives up to the billing. It is not C.J. Box's skill at plotting (the story of greedy business interests and local corruption is fine, but familiar), but rather the character of hero Joe Pickett, a Wyoming game warden, that makes this a series kickoff to remember. Like all the best mystery protagonists, Pickett is stubbornly ready to risk everything when his own personal sense of morality is at stake. But Joe is also a guy who sometimes gets things wrong, and this characteristic of messing up adds a dimension of humanity to the book.

C.J. Box makes the town of Twelve Sleep, Wyoming (where Joe and his pregnant wife and his daughters have come to live in a tiny house that could be a lot nicer if Joe only had a job that paid better), come alive to the extent that one can almost smell the crisp mountain air and pine needles. The locals display an impressive array of grudge holding and "don't mess with us" attitudes, but Joe is unwilling to forget he's sworn to uphold and enforce a full battery of laws that many of these neighbors have no intention of obeying.

When a well-known poacher, with whom he has humiliatingly tangled, suddenly turns up dead in his own backyard, Joe finds himself at the top of a downward path that, first, will lead to more bodies and then will put his entire family into peril. Open Season doesn't pull its punches, and Box does allow bad things to happen to good people. Read it and find out how skillfully he handles both his hero's complexities and also the ambiguities inherent in a life dedicated to law enforcement. --Otto Penzler


From Publishers Weekly
Enthusiastic blurbs even from luminaries such as Tony Hillerman, Les Standiford and Loren Estleman can sometimes leave readers feeling as if they must have read a different book altogether. Not this time. Box's superb debut, the first in a series introducing Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett, should immediately make him a contender for best first novel or even best novel awards. Young Joe is struggling to fill the shoes of his mentor, legendary Vern Dunnegan, as warden of Twelve Sleep County, and trying to support his wife and growing family on the meager salary he makes. The hours are long, the work hard but satisfying, and Joe's honesty and integrity would pay off if he could avoid "bonehead moves" like ticketing the governor of the state for fishing without a license, for instance, or allowing a poacher to grab Joe's firearm from him. When that very same poacher turns up dead and bloodied in Joe's woodpile with only a cooler containing unidentified animal scat, his life, livelihood and family will never be the same. Upping the excitement are a couple of murders, local political and bureaucratic intrigue, a high-stakes pipeline scheme and an endangered species that Joe's eldest daughter "discovers." No one has done a better job of portraying the odd combination of hardy and foolhardy folk that make their homes in Wyoming's wilderness areas, or of describing the dichotomy between those who want to develop the area and those who want to preserve it. Without resorting to simplistic blacks and whites, Box fuses ecological themes, vibrant descriptions of Wyoming's wonders and peculiarities, and fully fleshed characters into a debut of riveting tensions. Meet Joe Pickett: he's going to be a mystery star. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
The publisher is really excited about this debut mystery, set in Wyoming and featuring game warden Joe Pickett. Events center on a desperate battle to save an endangered species, lifting this work above standard genre fare. Box is president and CEO of Rocky Mountain International Corporation, which manages tourism for several Western states. Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
Every few years a first novel appears that immediately sets itself apart from the crowd. As readers, we feel that special shock of recognition that announces, "Here is something special." Taking dead aim with his first sentence ("When a high-powered rifle hits living flesh it makes a distinctive--pow-WHOP--sound that is unmistakable even at tremendous distance"), Wyoming first-novelist Box remains square on target throughout this superb debut. Joe Pickett, game warden of Twelve Sleep County in Wyoming, is just the kind of everyman hero we can't help but identify with: something of a plodder, even a bit of a bungler (he loses his gun to a poacher in the novel's opening scene), he is nevertheless the kind of man who responds to a crisis with courage and the ability to act decisively (just the way we like to think we would respond). And Joe faces a major-league crisis in his rookie year as game warden: when three elk hunters are killed under suspicious circumstances (one of them dies in the warden's backyard, apparently on his way to deliver something), Joe can't understand why his colleagues seem to want to sweep the case under the rug. When he looks under that rug, however, he finds a many-tentacled scam involving an oil pipeline and an endangered species. Soon Joe's career is in jeopardy and his family in mortal danger. The plot is constructed with airtight precision, generating remarkable suspense while drawing us completely into a vividly realized world. The Wyoming high country is a palpable presence here; its ruggedness plays a crucial role in the story, and its grandeur is continually set against the venality of most human concerns. The endangered-species theme, often a plot element is crime fiction, is explored with impressive complexity and no shortage of villains on all sides of the issue. And, best of all, the soft-spoken Joe Pickett is a Gary Cooper for our time: flawed, insecure, but a stand-up guy when it counts--the perfect mix of dream and reality. Open Season will please both mystery buffs and mainstream fiction readers; give it with confidence to anyone who likes either Nevada Barr or Ivan Doig. Bill Ott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

FROM THE PUBLISHER

The debut of a writer hailed by Tony Hillerman as "a greatstoryteller" -- the first book in an engaging and gritty mystery series featuring Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett.

"C. J. Box has hit the bull's eye his first time up."
--Margaret Maron

"A fabulous debut -- a great crime novel and a great modern-day Western rolled into one. All the elements are here -- a tremendous sense of Wyoming's scenic grandeur, vivid characters, and a high-stakes plot that moves like a rifle bullet. C. J. Box is a keeper."
--Lee Child

Few first mysteries have been welcomed as enthusiastically as Open Season, or with better cause.

"When a high-powered bullet hits living flesh, it makes a distinctive -pow-WHOP-sound that is unmistakable even at tremendous distance." And so it begins for Joe Pickett, a Wyoming game warden who, with the shot of a rifle, is thrust into a race to save not only an endangered species, but also the life and family he loves.

C. J. Box knows the wilderness and he knows how to create a wonderfully authentic, vividly alive sense of place. Most of all, he knows how to create a memorable new hero: a man who is full of failings, but strong and honorable. This is mystery writing at its best-and the beginning of a brilliant new career.

Author Biography: C. J. Box, a native of Wyoming, has worked as a ranch hand, a surveyor, a fishing guide, and as a small-town newspaper reporter and editor. Box is the president and CEO of Rocky Mountain International Corporation, a company that coordinates marketing for the state tourism departments of Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota, North Dakota, and Idaho.

FROM THE CRITICS

New York Times

Box writes as straight as his characters shoot, and he has a stand-up hero to shoulder his passionate concerns about endangered lives and liberties.

Washington Post

Open Season is a very promising debut. Here's hoping the author's restraint and intelligence carry over into future Joe Pickett novels.

New York Daily News

The unusual setting and flawed characters make for an enlightening, as well as suspenseful, read.

Boston Globe

...an appealing first novel...

Denver Post

Box's varn is full of the kind of grittiness a reader can expect from a place where blood and bone are not just the stuff of crime fiction, but of sport and survival, too. Read all 9 "From The Critics" >

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

CJ Box is a great story teller. — Tony Hillerman

CJ Box has hit the bull's eye his first time up. Riveting suspense mingle with flash of cynical, back-country humor.... — Margaret Maron

...a lean, fast-moving thriller that proves you don't need an urban landscape to make the pages turn...a truly outstanding read. — Loren D. Estleman

Open Season is a wilderness thriller...This one is a hunting trip and then some. — Les Standiford

Open Season is Western Deco, vividly painted and fun as hell...CJ Box is superb guide-and also a very good novelists. — Randy Wayne White

Open Season is a twisting, turning trail ride of a book. Readers won't want the ride to end. I didn't. — Gerry Boyle

A fabulous debut-a great crime novel and a great modern-day Western rolled into one. — Lee Child