A riveting new novel from New York Times bestselling and Edgar Award-winning author C. J. Box. The ties that bind can burn you. Former sheriff’s investigator Cassie Dewell is trying to start her life over as in private practice. She’s her own boss and answers to no one, and that’s just the way she likes it after the past few tumultuous years. All that certainty changes when an old friend calls … certainty changes when an old friend calls in a favor: she wants Cassie to help exonerate a man accused of assaulting a young woman from an influential family.
Against her own better judgment, Cassie agrees. But out by the Bitterroot Mountains of Montana, twisted family loyalty runs as deep as the ties to the land, and there’s always something more to the story. The Kleinsassers have ruled this part of Montana for decades, and the Iron Cross Ranch is their stronghold. They want to see Blake Kleinsasser, the black sheep of the family, put away forever for the assault. As Cassie attempts to uncover the truth, she must fight against a family whose roots are tangled and deadly–as well as the ghosts of her own past that threaten to bring her down.
With The Bitterroots, master storyteller C. J. Box delivers another searing novel of loyalty, lies, and lethal retribution.
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A gritty, compelling mystery set in the beautiful and isolated Bitterroot Mountains of Montana. C.J. Box has created some really nasty villains…I took great pleasure in reading as his beleaguered heroine took them down.
Not Joe Picket, but still a pretty good read.
Cassie is back after leaving the oil fields of North Dakota. Now a P.I., working for herself, she’s on retainer for an attorney. Rachel, the attorney, asks her to investigate the case of a man accused of raping his niece. Although Cassie hates the idea, she agrees to pay off the debt, though she wants nothing more than for him to be convicted.
The investigation leads her places she never expected.
“The Bitterroots” by C. J. Box is the fourth book in the Cassie Dewell series. Each book can be read individually, and all feature Cassie Dewell, whose previous career in law enforcement was intense and tumultuous as she pursued and apprehended a serial rapist and murderer who operated as a long-haul trucker. She is still haunted by his menacing presence every time an eighteen-wheeler thunders by her on the highway. A quick but thorough history of the events between the last book and this one details just how Dewell reached her status as a licensed private investigator in Bozeman, Montana.
Dewell finds herself with a case far removed from her usual skip-trace clients when a friend asks her to investigate the arrest of Blake Kleinsasser, the oldest son in a prominent family who owns a huge ranch near Bitterroot Range. Kleinsasser, who left the family business to run a successful hedge fund, is charged with scandalously inappropriate behavior with a minor relative. Dewell’s job is not to determine his guilt or innocence, but to assure that every step taken by the prosecutor is legal, one hundred percent by the book.
Box pulls readers into the distasteful investigation as Dewell interviews participants and learns more than she ever wanted to know about the Kleinsasser Family Trust. The Kleinsassers remind her more of a cult than a family. Dewell discovers that what really binds the family together is envy, resentment, and hate.
The geography of Montana plays an important part in the story with mountains, valleys, rivers, and plains, pushed together as if jammed against a wall. It is the “Summer of Fire” in Montana, with long fire lines that extend across the mountains and layers of smoke that give the impression of truncated buttes not mountains.
“The fire seemed like a living thing, a snake, a nocturnal beast more alive at night than during the day. It burned bright enough that it stained the bellies of low-hanging clouds with pink hues.”
Readers can use Google Earth to absorb the intensity of the massive mountains and the intervening valleys; follow the road as Dewell choses to leave Interstate Highway 90 after Butte and cuts south and west on two-lane state roads, or take a casual look around Deer lodge prison farm and Lolo Hot Springs.
Box keeps Dwell’s sense of justice and respect for the law remained intact, but pushes her to the limit as she uncovers inconsistencies in the statement of a girl who was likely traumatized and contends with a family that is toxic, twisted, and paranoid. Box pushes readers to the limit as a massive eighteen-wheel tractor-trailer, a black Peterbilt tractor, with a boxy cab and long nose like the lizard king’s, idles on a suburban street and the driver watches a neighborhood school with his eyes.
“The Bitterroots” starts as a routine investigation for Dewell and gains momentum until it the crushing, traumatic ending. When the Montana smoke clears, there is surprise for everyone. I received a review copy of “The Bitterroots” from C. J. Box, St. Martin’s Press, and Minotaur Books. Box has written a detailed, intense story that moves quickly and authoritatively. The geography is stunning, the characters complex, and the plot compelling. It is a book for new readers and die-hard Box fans alike.
Not my normal genre, but that’s why I picked it — I needed something different.
It’s set in Montana, but it reminds me a bit of some Southern fiction that I’ve read in that it has a slower pace/feel to it. That doesn’t detract from the suspense, though. It just gives it a different feel.
Overall, a good read — I was able to guess on a couple of things, but a few things really surprised me. The author did a good job pulling me in so that I felt the main character’s frustrations with her and had to keep reading to find out what would happen next. It’s everything I expect from a suspense novel; did not disappoint.
R-rated for language and themes.
I’ve enjoyed all of the Joe Pickett series, and Box doesn’t disappoint in another in the series. It’s another good tale of a game warden solving a mystery, and wasn’t at all boring.
Never read a box of his I didn’t like
I’m always happy to see Cassie Dewell show up, although I did not find this book quite as well-paced as most other C.J Box novels. Still, so much better than most other thrillers!!
Thank you to Minotaur Books and St. Martin’s Press for the chance to read this ARC. Book publishes on August 13, 2019.
This is the first book I’ve read by this author and I was not disappointed. It is the 4th book in a series about a female private investigator, Cassie Dewell. (I will have to add the first 3 books to my TBR list).
Cassie is hired by an attorney to look into the arrest of a man named Blake Kleinsasser. Blake is accused of assaulting his niece on the family ranch. Cassie heads into the Bitterroot mountains where a fire is raging to get more information about the incident, while leaving her son, Ben, behind with Isabel Cassie’s mother. While she is investigating she has to determine who she can trust and who she cannot trust. Also, a mysterious black Peterbilt 18-wheeler has taken to mysteriously appearing near her (apparently, this is a tie to an earlier Cassie Dewell book) and she needs to determine how this applies to this case, if at all.
Overall, the book is very well-written and quite engaging. I thoroughly enjoyed it and will be reading the other books in this series.
This is a great series, highly recommend this author.
I live in northern Colorado, and have loved CJ Box’s books about the mountains and western characters and situations for many years. Very entertaining.
Great story! Cassie Dewell is a private investigator now. She grudgingly takes a case in Lochsa County that ends up being way more than she bargained for. Interesting characters and an excellent mystery. I highly recommend!
C.J. Box’s latest novel THE BITTERROOTS tells a dark story of an evil case of rape of a 15 year old set in Bitterroot County. Is the law corrupt, indifferent, or just incompetent? Can there be a fair hearing? Dark and suspenseful book that takes you an a walk on the seedy side of life. Highly recommended.
Surprise ending. I would not have guessed the ending.
I read every book he writes.
Toxic family extraordinaire
This is the fourth book in the Cassie Dewell series. It takes place two years after the events in PARADISE VALLEY.
Cassie got her Private Investigator license. The family, including 14 year old Ben and grandma Isabel are now living in Bozeman, Montana.
Cassie is called by an old friend and talked into looking into a rape case, which Cassie does not want to take. But she ends up taking the case and heads to a small town in Montana and a region ruled by the huge landowner there. And things get more dangerous day by day while she’s there, not knowing who to trust.
I still like the Joe Pickett series by author Box the best – I’ve read all of his books. But Cassie is a favorite of mine, too.
This tale is full of some truly nasty people. The old saying about ‘being able to choose our friends but we’re stuck with our family’ really holds true on these pages.
As always, Box has created three-dimensional characters, both good and bad, and also, he gives quite a tour through the state of Montana.
This was a great story and I highly recommend it.
I received this book from Minotaur Books through Edelweiss in the hopes that I would read it and leave an unbiased review.
An exceptional book by C.J. Box. This is the 4th book in the Cassie Dewell series about a Sheriff investigator that goes into private practice. The storyline was great it is a “can’t put down” read that keeps you guessing. The story is set in Montana where she goes to help a friend that has called in a favor. While trying to exonerate a man accused of assult she comes accross stuff that has been covered up. Interesting characters and great imagination. Hope to read more from this author.
Opening up a C. J. Box book is like turning on your favorite movie.
The intense anticipation is one of a kind, one you know you’ll be pulled in and held captivated until the final scene.
Now that she has her own Private Investigative Company, Cassie Dewell is trying to piece her and Ben’s lives back together after the harrowing ordeal with a serial killer, The Lizard King, a notorious long haul truck driver who wrecked havoc across the country’s highways and truck-stops.
However, her peace of mind may be cut too short.
Cassie has taken on a case up in The Bitterroots Mountains, a case that will lead her into an evil cliquish territory.
C. J. Box has created an amazing plot, intertwined with a nail-biting conclusion, which will raise the hair on the back of his reader’s necks.
I received an arc copy of Bitterroots in exchange for an honest review from Netgalley.