Shots Fired

May 5, 2014
Bestseller Box, author of Stone Cold and 13 other Joe Pickett novels, proves in his first story collection that he’s also adept at the short form. The 10 selections, which include four Joe Pickett tales, are filled with Box trademarks: drama, darkness, surprise twists, and a palpable sense of a wild, magnificent, and sometimes cruel Wyoming. Add to those attributes a profound poignancy, as in “Blood Knot,” which captures in five pages the unbreakable bond between a grandfather and granddaughter. “Pirates of Yellowstone,” “Shots Fired,” and “The End of Jim and Ezra” introduce less familiar aspects of the Western landscape: Eastern Europeans looking for work in our national parks, solitary Basque sheepherders, and the trapper mountain men of the mid-1800s. One entry, “Le Sauvage Noble,” may be a bit too savage for some. But Box fans will be happy to see that Nate Romanowski has a story all his own, “The Master Falconer,” with just a cameo from Pickett. Author tour. Agent: Ann Rittenberg, Ann Rittenberg Literary Agency.

July 1, 2014
Ten stories-three never before published-from the best-selling creator of Wyoming Game and Fish Warden Joe Pickett (Stone Cold, 2014, etc.).Joe appears in three of these tales and has a cameo in a fourth. In "One-Car Bridge," he delivers bad news to a mean millionaire rancher whose day is about to get worse. "Dull Knife" shows him investigating the death of a former women's basketball star whose car plunged into an icy lake. "Shots Fired: A Requiem for Ander Esti" takes him into an innocuous sheep wagon from which shots have been fired at a visiting hunter's car. And in "The Master Falconer," he's on hand to lend support and comfort to his friend Nate Romanowski, whose falcons have been seized by an Arab patron whose money Nate refused. The other stories are more wide-ranging. A pair of Czech visitors to Big Sky country try to get tough with a biopirate in "Pirates of Yellowstone." A fishing expedition ends in predictable violence in "Every Day Is a Good Day on the River." A kidnapped lawyer turns the tables on a disgruntled legal opponent in "Pronghorns of the Third Reich." The short, heartfelt "Blood Knot" shows the last morning a teenage girl joins her grandfather to fish. The title character in "La Sauvage Noble ('The Noble Savage')" ships off to Paris with a Wild West show looking to get screwed, and does so in more ways than one. And the fate of the incautious trappers in "The End of Jim and Ezra," set in 1835, shows how little has changed in the years since.Box generally avoids whodunits and surprises; the title story's subtitle gives away its principal revelation. But if you're looking for rising tension played out against spectacular natural scenery, nobody does it better.

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May 1, 2014
Box isn't known for short storieshe's so busy writing full-length novels that it's hard to imagine he has time to do anything elsebut he has, over the years, published some, not all of them easy to find. This collection includes 10 in all, 3 of them new. The surprise for some readers may be that only 4 of these tie in to the Joe Pickett series. And, while those are a pleasure, it's the others that are most interesting, demonstrating the author's versatility with a diverse array of ideas. The End of Jim and Ezra, a story about two snowed-in trappers in 1835, displays both a keen eye for mundane historical detail and a wicked sense of humor. Pirates of Yellowstone is a quirky, surprising crime story about some unusual fish in the national park's waters. And, if your curiosity is piqued by the title Pronghorns of the Third Reich, read it; you'll be rewarded by a rare and surprising tale. Here's hoping we won't have to wait long for more short stuff from Box.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)

March 1, 2014

Ten short stories from the multi-award-winning Box, all Western-themed and several featuring Joe Pickett, Wyoming game warden and beloved Box character. With a national tour.

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from May 15, 2014

At last those hard-to-find Box short stories that appeared as limited editions or in anthologies, and three new ones, have been brought together in one volume that will be treasured by his fans. This collection of ten stories includes four featuring Joe Pickett and/or Nate Romanowski. The other tales are set in the Wind River mountains, Yellowstone, Wyoming Territory in 1835, the North Platte River in Wyoming, and modern-day Paris. An especially enthralling tale about a blizzard, pronghorns, and the Third Reich is based on a 1936 photo taken by Charles Belden that Box found at the American Heritage Center at the University of Wyoming. There is even a 1,000-word story that articulates the relationship among generations in one family. In the introduction, the author relates information about each piece--why it was written and where the ideas came from. VERDICT Artistry, creativity, and craftsmanship are hallmarks of Box's writing. Each story is packed with adventure and intriguing characters that his fans have come to expect in his superlative storytelling. Nonstop adventure and mystery are omnipresent with unexpected twists and turns that will leave readers begging for more. [See Prepub Alert, 2/10/14.]--Patricia Ann Owens, formerly with Illinois Eastern Community Colls., Mt. Carmel

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.