A SNEAK PEAK AT THE FIRST NINE CHAPTERS OF PARADISE VALLEY BY NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR C.J. BOX She almost caught him once. Now, he’s back. For three years, Investigator Cassie Dewell has been on a hunt for a serial killer known as the Lizard King whose hunting grounds are the highways and truck stops where runaways and prostitutes are most likely to vanish. Cassie almost caught … likely to vanish. Cassie almost caught him…once.
Working for the Bakken County, North Dakota sheriff’s department, Cassie has set what she believes is the perfect trap and she has lured him and his truck to a depot. But the plan goes horribly wrong, and the blame falls on Cassie. Disgraced, she loses her job and investigation into her role is put into motion.
At the same time, Kyle Westergaard, a troubled kid whom Cassie has taken under her wing, has disappeared after telling people that he’s going off on a long-planned adventure. Kyle’s grandmother begs Cassie to find him and, with nothing else to do, Cassie agrees–all the while hunting the truck driver.
Now Cassie is a lone wolf. And in the same way that two streams converge into a river, Kyle’s disappearance may have a more sinister meaning than anyone realizes. With no allies, no support, and only her own wits to rely on, Cassie must take down a killer who is as ruthless as he is cunning. But can she do it alone, without losing her own humanity or her own life?
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Being from a MN Park Rangers background, I find all in this series realistic, with wonderful characters and superb storylines!
When you are as experienced and talented as C.J.Box it’s hard to get it wrong. Paradise Valley is the 4th book in the Highway Novels and it’s a good one! Investigator Cassie Dewell is back on the hunt for the truck-driving, serial killer The Lizard King. Will she get him this time? Buy a copy and find out. Cheers Lynda L. Lock (Isla Mujeres Mystery series).
I have read most of C J Box books, entertaining…
Nothing CJ Box writes is ever boring. I’ve read them all and long for more in the near future. These characters are unforgettable.
Love C.J. Box. Love Joe Pickett. Cassie is no Joe Pickett.
Cassie has been chasing a serial killer for a few years now. She thinks she is setting a trap for him, but who really gets caught in the jaws. Something goes wrong, Cassie is disgraced and fired. On the day she is cleaning out her office, an elderly grandmother is at the station waiting to talk to someone about her missing grandson. Everyone keeps blowing her off, won’t even bother to take her seriously. This is the same special needs kid that was involved in the botched drug deal in the last book.
Cassie agrees to try to find the kid, since she is unemployed and has no idea what she is going to do to surport herself, her mother and her son.
Dead cops, headless corpses, missing kids, missing local women. What is going on? If Cassie lives thru it, maybe she will find out.
Waiting for next Pickett book. Out next spring, long wait.
I am reading the book now. Can not sleep if I read it before bed, too suspenseful. I have read all his books, and like the Joe Pickett series best, but his standalone ones are great also. He is a wonderful writer.
As always C J Box has written a masterful read. Very hard to put down. I highly recommend any book by this author.
CJ Lyons is a great author with incredible stories and characters. I have read all of his books and watch for the next one to read. You can’t stop reading until the end and then hate when it does end. The book is full of excitement and action.
Cassie is no Joe Pickett, no wonder though since he is one of my favorite charters.
The book has it moments but is just not up to Box standards.
I recommend you read it but don’t expect it to be a hard hitting Joe Picket type book
As usual a very good read
Cassie Dewell is an amazing and original protagonist who has been chasing a killer, The Lizard King, for C.J. Box’s past two novels and through two jobs in two different states over nearly three years. I really wanted her to succeed this time, because the chase was getting a bit old for me. I rated it four stars out of five because it was too, too slow through the middle and because I was so destroyed after the events of the first 30% of the book. Really, I almost put it down even though the writing was as excellent as always. But then I recognized this author’s writing pattern, also clear in the Joe Pickett novels, to have the terrible things, devastating and hurtful things, happen in the first half, and then to have the denouement satisfy the reader by the end. Nobody writes a satisfying denouement like C.J. Box, and this one was stunning. I finished the last page as satisfied as I could possibly be. And now I want to read The Bitterroots, which I believe is the fourth Cassie Dewell novel. And I’m still working my way through the many stories in the Joe Pickett series. I’m a lucky woman to be looking forward to such excellence in reading.
“You and me, we know what it’s like to look out at the world from a dark place. And when people see us coming they see something damaged.”
C.J. Box is one of my favorite authors. I’ve read every book he’s written, I do believe, and he’s one of the few authors I keep in my permanent library.
Just to refresh my memory, I went back and re-read the first three books of this HIGHWAY QUARTET series – BACK OF BEYOND, THE HIGHWAY and BADLANDS. I am so glad I did because I enjoyed them just as much this time around as I did when they first came out.
I’ve always said that Box’s Joe Pickett series was my favorite of his but after re-reading the first three books and then PARADISE VALLEY, I just am not as sure any more because this series is seriously bal*s to the wall. Action packed, full of unforgettable characters, set in countryside that I love – well, the balance is teetering toward the HIGHWAY QUARTET side of the greatness scale.
Cassie Dewell has been working for the Bakken County Sheriff’s Department as their Chief Investigator for three years in Grimstad, North Dakota and is being pushed by her boss, the Sheriff, to consider running for his position when he retires shortly. The oil boom is now in a slump in their area so things have calmed down a bit since Cassie, her son and mother first moved there. So Cassie has been finding plenty of time to try and track down the Lizard King, the long-haul trucker serial killer that slipped through her fingers three years previously.
I love the character of Cassie. She’s not perfect but she’s a bulldog when she’s on the trail of bad guys. I also love the character of Kyle, the boy with fetal alcohol syndrome, who was also in BADLANDS and plays a major part in this book.
I know that this is called the HIGHWAY QUARTET series but I hope this isn’t the last we’ll see of Cassie. I hope C.J. Box continues her story like he has that of Joe Pickett.
I received this book from St. Martin’s Press through Net Galley in exchange for my unbiased review.
Excellent and keeps the reader guessing . A page turner.. Love this book..
I had to go back and reread BACK OF BEYOND and THE HIGHWAY to remember the first part of the story. I had hated THE HIGHWAY because my husband was a long distance trucker. The language I learned driving with him was not same as in this book. I also found the book to sicking. I was glad to feel a little different as I read PARADISE VALLEY. I much prefer Joe Pickett books to these.
Typical CJ Box – Very good read!