Badlands: A Cassie Dewell Novel

by C. J. Box Narrated by January LaVoy

Overview

Edgar Award-winning, New York Times best-selling author C. J. Box is back with a masterpiece of suspense set in a time and place that listeners won't soon forget.

Twenty miles across the North Dakota border, where the scenery goes from rolling grass prairie to pipeline fields, detective Cassie Dewell has been assigned as the new deputy sheriff of Grimstad — a place people used to be from but were never headed to. Grimstad is now the oil capital of North Dakota. With oil comes money, with money comes drugs, and with drugs come the dirtiest criminals hustling to corner the market.

In the small town resides 12-year-old Kyle Westergaard. Even though Kyle has been written off as the "slow" kid, he has dreams deeper than anyone can imagine. He wants to get out of town, take care of his mother, and give them a better life. While delivering newspapers, he witnesses a car accident and takes a mysterious bundle from the scene. Now in possession of a lot of money and packets of white powder, Kyle wonders if his luck has changed.

When the temperature drops to 30 below and a gang war heats up, Cassie realizes that she may be in over her head. As she is propelled on a collision course with a murderous enemy, she finds that the key to it all might come in the most unlikely form: an undersized boy on a bike who keeps showing up where he doesn't belong. Because a boy like Kyle is invisible. But he sees everything.

A Macmillan Audio production.

Editorial Reviews

Orlando Sun-Sentinel on The Highway

The Highway is the summer's most terrifying novel... Prepare to be scared.

New York Journal of Books on The Highway

One of America's best thriller writers...the reader is taken for a terrifying ride.

Toronto Globe and Mail on The Highway

Be warned: This is one scary novel.

USA Today on The Highway

If C.J. Box isn't already on your list, put him there.

From the Publisher

“A violent, tension-packed, well-written thriller spiced with Box's vivid portrayal of the Western landscape that he loves...Box seems to get better with every book.” —Associated Press on The Highway

“If C.J. Box isn't already on your list, put him there.” —USA Today on The Highway

“A non-stop, action-filled race against time. Rolling down the superhighway of suspense, this thriller will leave readers breathless.” —Library Journal (starred review) on The Highway

“Filled with believable characters and hard, realistic dialogue, Edgar winner Box's perfectly paced novel offers a suspenseful story laced with more than a few shockingly unexpected plot twists.” —Publishers Weekly Signature Review on The Highway

“Be warned: This is one scary novel.” —Toronto Globe and Mail on The Highway

“One of America's best thriller writers...the reader is taken for a terrifying ride.” —New York Journal of Books on The Highway

“The Highway is the summer's most terrifying novel... Prepare to be scared.” —Orlando Sun-Sentinel on The Highway

Library Journal

★ 04/15/2015
After the events of 2014's The Highway, Cassie Dewell leaves behind dark memories of Montana, the death of her partner, and the escape of the mass murderer known as the Lizard King, to take a new job as a special investigator in the Grimstad, ND, police department. Thanks to hydraulic fracture drilling, or fracking, Grimstad has been transformed into an oil boomtown with the social problems of any large city. Cassie is quickly embroiled in the investigation of a car crash, drugs, a gang war, and corrupt police officers. It is her job to determine how all these are tied together and what part a 12-year-old special-needs boy named Kyle plays in the tangled story. Cassie's keen observations, nerves of steel, and Kyle's bravery solve the mystery and bring a new beginning for both Cassie and Kyle. As for the Lizard King, the hunt continues. Keep an eye open out there. VERDICT Fracking brings new energy to the surface, and Box does the same with another intriguing character whom Joe Pickett fans will want to know better. Suspenseful—you can't put it down. [See Prepub Alert, 2/2/15; 250,000-copy printing; library marketing.]—Patricia Ann Owens, formerly with Illinois Eastern Community Colls., Mt. Carmel

Product Details

BN ID:	2940169427714
Publisher:	Macmillan Audio
Publication date:	07/28/2015
Series:	Highway Quartet Series , #3
Edition description:	Unabridged
Sales rank:	943,538

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