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Badlands

ebook
0 of 1 copy available
Wait time: About 4 weeks
0 of 1 copy available
Wait time: About 4 weeks

In C.J. Box's New York Times bestseller, Badlands, the town of Grimstad used to be a place people came from but were never headed to. Now it's the oil capital of North Dakota. With oil comes money, with money comes drugs, and with drugs come the dirtiest criminals Grimstad's new deputy sheriff Cassie Dewell has ever encountered. . .
Twelve-year-old Kyle Westergaard dreams of getting out of Grimstad and leading a better life. Even though Kyle has been written off as a "slow" kid, he has dreams deeper than anyone can imagine. One day, while delivering newspapers, he witnesses a car accident and takes a mysterious bundle from the scene. Suddenly he's in possession of a lot of money—and packets of white powder—and Kyle can't help but wonder whether his luck has changed...for better or for worse.
"Suspenseful—you can't put it down.''—Library Journal
When the temperature drops to 30 below and a gang war heats up, it's up to Cassie to help restore law and order. But is she 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: a boy on a bike named Kyle. He keeps showing up where he doesn't belong. And he seems to know something that Cassie does not about what lies beneath the surface of this small and troubled town...
"The unrelenting cold makes this the perfect beach read."—Kirkus Reviews

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    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from May 18, 2015
      Edgar-winner Box’s superior thriller carries some characters and themes over from his two previous standalones, The Highway and Back of Beyond, as investigator Cassie Dewell relocates to North Dakota’s boomtown oil fields. In the subzero prairie, the little town of Grimstad is bursting with thousands of roughnecks, its infrastructure and law enforcement system are almost overwhelmed, and ruthless drug dealers are flocking to a wide-open new frontier. Cassie arrives just as a series of brutal murders signals a war between drug gangs—although the missing duffle bag the criminals are searching for has accidentally wound up in the hands of a special-needs paperboy, 12-year-old Kyle Westergaard. Kyle just wants a stable home life, but his possession of the bag full of drugs and money sets off more violent deaths. The story’s brisk action is broken into alternating sections as Cassie and Kyle try to figure out what’s going on and what they must do. The vulnerable boy’s plight gives emotional heft to the criminal investigation, balancing cynicism with warm empathy. 250,000 first printing; author tour. Agent: Ann Rittenberg, Ann Rittenberg Literary Agency.

    • Library Journal

      April 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

      Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

    • Booklist

      Starred review from May 1, 2015
      Box has been making a series of sorts out of his stand-alones. Following the death of Cody Hoyt in The Highway (2013), Hoyt's partner, Cassie Dewell, now takes center stage as the new chief investigator in Grimstad, North Dakota, in the heart of the Bakken shale oil fields. Though she's still trying to catch the Lizard King, the truck-driving serial killer, she's instantly plunged into a whole new set of troubles as rival gangs clash and body parts are strewn all over town in the dead of winter. Caught in the middle is Kyle Westergaard, a 12-year-old born with fetal alcohol syndrome, who sees and knows more than anyone would ever suspect. Box's brilliant choice of setting is both timely and the perfect frozen hellscape for his story; the modern-day boomtown's runaway inflation, man camps, and pent-up masculine energy hearken back to lawless days on the western frontier. And although he's placed kids in danger in other books, this could be the most effective of his thrillers since his Edgar-winning Blue Heaven (2008). The temperature on the northern plains may fall to 40 below, but the engine of this thriller races red hot, providing plenty of warmth to keep readers going all night. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: The publisher is banking big on this one by printing a quarter of a million copiesdouble that of The Highway. If Box isn't a household name yet, he will be.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)

    • Library Journal

      February 15, 2015

      The small North Dakota town where 12-year-old Kyle lives with his mother is booming, thanks to the discovery of oil nearby. But oil money means drug money, which means gangs. No one's more aware of that than Cassie Dewell, the new deputy sheriff, who's been running into body parts clearly placed to shake her. Meanwhile, Kyle, who may be considered slow by the townsfolk but who really wants to help his mom, pins his hopes on a package, left behind after a car wreck, that his mom's boyfriend says will make their fortune. The author of the award-winning Joe Pickett series does something different; with a one-day laydown on July 28 and a 200,000-copy first printing.

      Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

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