Breaking Point: A Joe Pickett Novel Book 13

By: C. J. Box

Narrated by: David Chandler

Length: 10 hrs and 37 mins

Publisher's summary

The recipient of Edgar, Anthony, and Macavity Awards, New York Times best-selling author C. J. Box has won almost every honor in his field. In Breaking Point, Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett is glad to catch up with old friend Lyle Pendergast, but then the man goes missing and is named a suspect in the death of two EPA employees. All signs point to Lyle’s guilt, but the more Joe digs into the case, the more he realizes he’s stepped into the middle of a deadly power play.

©2013 C.J. Box (P)2013 Recorded Books

Another amazing adventure

Keeps you on the edge of your seat. Sometimes I sit in my truck, in my driveway listening because I can’t wait to hear what’s going to happen.

Exciting through out

As a big fan of this series, I’m re-listening and reliving the great stories, the humor and the emotion. One time is not enough.

great story

I kinda skipped ahead a few books and landed on this one. thoroughly enjoyed the story and the narrator. motivated me to go back and get the ones I missed!!

the story really grabs you

With the federal government being as they are you really hate the bureaucratic B.S. that really shoes up in this installment

well. that wad crazy

More suspense than normal with a surprise twist. Very good story in the series.

The Sins of the EPA

Joe Pickett's decency. The surprise ending.....the daughter was the one who shot the EPAagents. The climb down the canyon and the massive forest fire

Some Things to Love, Some Things to Hate

I enjoy the way Box writes some of the rural characters and life. Great to hear about hunting, fishing, wildlife etc. But he really has some weird ideas about nobility sometimes. The ending of this one is really over dramatic. I won’t spoil it - but good grief!

My favorite author does it again!!

I just can't get enough of C J Box's writing! I've often said that a good book for me, is one with a great story line, or one with great writing, Box's books are always the best of both! Each successive Joe Picket, Wyoming Fish and Game Warden, novel just gets better and better. Characterization, descriptions, conflicts between good and evil, and the pull between legal justice and moral justice are enhanced by stories that connect to headlines of the day. Box mixes each mystery, with a continuing family story, and a fictional accounting of non-fiction reality.

When one of Joe's friends is accused of murder, Joe becomes involved in ways that he'd never imagined. Lyle, and his wife, have finally gotten a piece of land on which to build their own home. Permits in hand, Lyle begins grading the land when EPA employees come and demand that he return the land to exactly as he's found it previously. The fine for not doing so will be $70,000 a day. And why is this happening? Lyle is told it's because his land has been declaimed 'protected wetlands'. With no water at all on his land, he questions this declaration. But no one at the EPA has any paperwork , nor are they answering his repeated phone calls. So this story begins, and ends in disaster when two EPA agents are murdered, and an all out man hunt is begun by the EPA to "kill the murderer."

This case is based on a real case in North Dakota, that bends credulity. There are other actions , also based on "truth" that just may blow your mind. Joe is caught up in the manhunt, as determined by the Governor, but the more and more that things progress, Joe begins to realize that there is something more that just doesn't make sense. An edge of your seat story keeps the suspense until the very last page!! I think I love you C J Box!!!! Never stop telling stories in books!!

Why is the name of a major character different?

In the Publishers Summary and in at least one review, one of the protagonists the plot evolved around, besides Joe Pickett, is said to be Lyle Pendergast versus Mark Robertson which is the name used in audiobook version I listened to and the name referenced by most reviewers. Very weird, but doesn’t impact the quality of this audiobook.

It is a very well performed good listen with plenty of scary information (note at least one reviewer disputed some information as fully factual) demonstrating through an admittedly extreme plot example (with a twist CJ Box always delivers) that the concentration of Federal government power can be a very bad thing to behold. Once unleashed on purpose or even by simple administrative error, government bureaucratic power can lead to highly inequitable and potentially devastating consequences for citizens at receiving end of that unstoppable force using fines or other persecutions. Including those penalties imposed based not strictly on the laws Congress passes but, based on agency created regulations Congress blithely allows those enforcement agencies to promulgate. So they get to make up a lot of their own rules? Paths to appeal government agency enforcement decisions are tedious and slow moving and procedurally and usually financially biased against the accused. When do you ever see a US Federal agency apologize except when caught red handed in a high profile miscarriage of justice?

But I do know many hard working US Federal employees or former ones who operate and conduct themselves with honor and dedication to serve and protect the public though to almost a person they can relate stories of massive government inefficiency and needlessly wasted taxpayer dollars. CJ Box does present one someone sympathetic bureaucrat who refuses to move forward with an unjust order.

But in terms of a story, the complete plot resolution is not hard to foresee but a key plot element is not provided to the reader until very late in the game, though at least a few major hints are seamlessly inserted that some new game changing data is on the horizon.

The scenes with Joe being in the midst of a sea of mindless government bureaucrats and a huge number of highly trained trigger happy law enforcement or paramilitary types where Joe is one of a few few reasonable characters present is getting a touch repetitive in the series.

But the writing style, the backdrop descriptions of landscapes, wildlife along with the personalities and their relationships of the recurring characters have me looking forward to next book in the series. I hope CJ Box doesn’t tire of the Pickett family and let’s us see all the girls grown up. Love to see the oldest daughter as the featured star of a future book with Joe in the supporting background.

Edgy Suspense

One would not think that tales of a Wyoming game warden, Joe Pickett, would be as riveting as an old James Bond thriller. This definitely has that appeal. Anyone interested in Wyoming, its people and politics will love this.