Vicious Circle (Joe Pickett Series #17)

by C. J. Box

Overview

Don’t miss the JOE PICKETT series—now streaming on Paramount+

The past comes back to haunt game warden Joe Pickett and his family with devastating effect in this thrilling novel from #1 New York Times–bestselling author C. J. Box.

The plane circled in the dark. Joe Pickett could just make out down below a figure in the snow and timber, and then three other figures closing in. There was nothing he could do about it. And Joe knew that he might be their next target.

The Cates family had always been a bad lot. Game warden Joe Pickett had been able to strike a fierce blow against them when the life of his daughter April had been endangered, but he’d always wondered if there’d be a day of reckoning. He’s not wondering any longer. Joe knows they’re coming after him and his family now. He has his friend Nate by his side, but will that be enough this time? All he can do is prepare...and wait for them to make the first move.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781524756086
Publisher:	Diversified Publishing
Publication date:	03/21/2017
Series:	Joe Pickett Series
Edition description:	Large Print
Pages:	480
Sales rank:	532,023
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

C.J. Box is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of seventeen Joe Pickett novels, most recently Off the Grid; five stand-alone novels, most recently Badlands; and the story collection Shots Fired. He was won the Edgar, Anthony, Macavity, Gumshoe, and two Barry awards, as well as the French Prix Calibre .38 and a French Elle magazine literary award. His books have been translated into twenty-seven languages. He and his wife Laurie split their time between their home and ranch in Wyoming.

Read an Excerpt

 Chapter One
(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "Vicious Circle"
by .
Copyright © 2018 C. J. Box.
Excerpted by permission of Penguin Publishing Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Editorial Reviews

★ 01/16/2017
At the start of Edgar-winner Box’s crackling 17th Joe Pickett novel (after 2016’s Off the Grid), the Wyoming game warden is aboard a small plane in search of hunter Dave Farkus, “currently an unemployed layabout collecting dubious disability checks,” who has gone on the run in the frozen high country. With the aid of an infrared spotting device, Joe locates Dave—right before the fugitive is fatally shot. Joe quickly settles on a suspect: erstwhile rodeo star Dallas Cates, just released from the prison where Joe helped send him 18 months earlier. Dallas’s motive? Scorched-earth revenge on Joe. To that end, the diabolically clever Dallas has recruited a gang of psychopathic miscreants for the ages. A sequence in which a female meth head attempts to kill Joe’s wife and daughters with an ax ranks as the scariest in any Pickett novel to date; a close second goes to a confrontation between Joe and Dallas’s imprisoned, quadriplegic mother. In short, this outing is the most suspenseful yet in this world-class series, setting a new standard for Box. Author tour. Agent: Ann Rittenberg, Ann Rittenberg Literary Agency. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for Vicious Circle

“The unexpected, suspenseful turns will keep readers enthralled.  Another winner for Box.”—Library Journal (starred review)

“Bracingly familiar pleasures expertly packaged...first-timers will be intrigued and fans amply rewarded.”—Kirkus Reviews

“This outing is the most suspenseful yet in this world-class series, setting a new standard for Box.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“We’ve noted previously how the fully fleshed family dynamic is one of this series’ enduring strengths, and that pays dividends here as we viscerally feel Joe’s fear for his loved ones and his powerlessness to protect them. Box masterfully tightens the suspense until we’re caught in a vicious circle of our own and unable to stop reading.”—Booklist

“C. J. Box is back and better than ever.”—Providence Journal

Praise for Off the Grid

“With this exceptional entry, Box solidifies his place at the upper end of the crime fiction pantheon.”—Publishers Weekly (starred, boxed review)

“Filled with high suspense, formidable characters, and an action-packed ending more vivid than most movies. Off the Grid never falters as Box again delivers an exceptional thriller.”—South Florida Sun-Sentinel

“You can’t help turning the pages and holding your breath until you find out where this scary, all-too-plausible caravan is heading.”—Kirkus Reviews

“A terrorist thriller with a uniquely western flair...This is a breakneck story that Pickett fans will want to read in one sitting.”—Booklist

“Picking up a new C. J. Box thriller is like spending quality time with family you love and have missed....It’s a rare thriller series that has characters grow and change. An exciting reading experience for both loyal fans as well as newcomers.”—Associated Press

“A terrific read yet again from C. J. Box.”—Suspense Magazine

“Box is a master.”—The Denver Post

“Off the Grid is a warning of sorts in that it shows how U.S. national security is vulnerable to a terrorist attack. It is not only informative, but challenges people’s minds as they learn about western culture. To date this might just be one of Box’s best.”—Military Press

“C. J. Box continues his spectacular roll with the darkly mesmerizing Off the Grid....Pickett and Romanowski have become the gold standard, playing off each other perfectly as different sides of the same coin.”—The Providence Journal

From the Publisher

★ 02/15/2017
In the 17th installment of the "Joe Pickett" series (after Off the Grid), the Wyoming game warden faces familiar adversaries including the Cates family and his mother-in-law, Missy. In a previous antagonistic encounter with the Cates family (in Endangered), Joe had managed to survive but he isn't sure what will happen now that Dallas Cates has been released from prison, but surely it will be revenge. A twisted, interlocked series of events that includes the murder of a hunting guide, a kidnapping, a hefty insurance policy, the stalking of Joe's family and Missy's new husband, lead Joe to face off against Dallas and his quadriplegic mother, Brenda, who is incarcerated in the Wyoming state prison for women. The outcome is explosive with a sustained impact on the Pickett family. VERDICT The unexpected, suspenseful turns will keep readers enthralled. Another winner for Box. [See Prepub Alert, 9/26/16.]—Patricia Ann Owens, formerly with Illinois Eastern Community Colls., Mt. Carmel

Library Journal

2017-01-23
In his 17th adventure, Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett (Off the Grid, 2016, etc.) goes another 15 rounds with surviving members of the toxic Cates family.Joe has run into ex-everything Dave Farkus too many times in too many unsavory ways to expect any favors from him. So he's doubly surprised when Farkus phones him from Stockman's Bar to say he's overheard a conversation about Joe and his family before he's abruptly cut off. Joe's concern turns to alarm when Farkus disappears from a hunting trip, and his blood is curdled by the discoveries of dead Farkus and disconcertingly alive Dallas Cates, the disgraced rodeo star who ran off with Joe's daughter April, dumped her out of his truck, and ended up in the prison he's just been released from, hungry for vengeance for the deaths of his father and two brothers. County attorney Dulcie Schalk has no trouble linking Dallas to the dead man, but high-priced defense attorney Marcus Hand, now married to Joe's scheming, useless mother-in-law, Miss Vankueren, has even less trouble getting the charges dropped, leaving Dallas and his two hirelings free to roam the trails of Ten Sleep County, virtually immune from prosecution, as they ponder new ways to menace the Picketts. Can Joe gather enough evidence to neutralize Dallas before the charismatic sociopath, whose paralyzed mother, Brenda, is the queen bee of the Wyoming Department of Corrections' Women's Center, neutralizes Joe and his whole family? Bracingly familiar pleasures expertly packaged. The two families' fraught history, tangled enough to fuel a whole season of high-country soap opera, keeps this installment from being the best place to take the initial plunge into the franchise, but first-timers will be intrigued and fans amply rewarded.

Kirkus Reviews