Nowhere to Run

A Joe Pickett Novel

By: C. J. Box

Narrated by: David Chandler

Length: 10 hrs and 13 mins

Publisher's Summary

Joe Pickett's in his last week as the temporary game warden in the town of Baggs, Wyoming, but there have been strange things going on in the mountains, and his conscience won't let him leave without checking them out: reports of camps looted, tents slashed, elk butchered. And then there's the runner who simply vanished one day.

Joe doesn't mind admitting that the farther he rides, the more he wishes he could just turn around and go home. And he is right to be concerned. Because what awaits him is like nothing he's ever dealt with, like something out of an old story, except this is all too real and too deadly. When he'd first saddled up, he'd thought of this as his last patrol. What he hadn't known was just how accurate that thought might turn out to be.

He's game: solve another mystery with Joe Pickett.

©2010 C.J. Box (P)2010 Recorded Books, LLC

Critic Reviews

"Box inexorably builds Joe's harrowing personal quest into a complex meditation on human greed and government corruption. A lone black wolf, possibly Box's symbol for the wilderness within and without the human soul, tracks Joe throughout this terrible, beautiful tale of courage and compassion and culpability." ( Publishers Weekly)

" Nowhere to Run, the tenth in the series, ranks with his best books....Readers should take note of their surroundings before opening this book: once they start reading, they won’t know what hit them." ( Booklist)

Joe and Nate's excellent adventure.

This, IMHO, is the best book in the Joe Pickett series. The two brief blurbs in the listing say it best. There is a whole lot of plot, as usual, and the standard list of characters. However, the interweaving plots concern some very high level government corruption, which permeates down to the very local level. The fine details I will leave to you, but the nexus of the corruption concerns a large piece of Upper Peninsula Michigan real estate, a Michigan senator's devious plans to combine federal interests with his own venal motives, and the property owners whose land is being taken away by fiat because the federal government wants it. Two brothers of the fight over this land survive and go west, settling in the mountains in the north of Wyoming. Some local communities have been victimized by some bad behavior, and the governor recruits Joe to go up to the mountains to find these two guys, who have become recluses. There is also a young woman involved. Plot OD.
The search for these two guys, who call themselves the Grimm Brothers (not the Brothers Grimm), becomes so exciting and dangerous that you are glued to every chapter of it. One thing you notice about the book is that Nate opens up about himself and his beliefs in a way that is much more satisfying than the skeletal portrait of him that has appeared in prior books. The relationship between the two men also becomes richer, as they carry out this very dangerous assignment. MaryBeth also plays a part as researcher for the men, as well as mother of the fast-growing trio of daughters. I humbly believe that MaryBeth could serve as the protagonist of one of these books, not to diminish Joe's importance.
The ending of the book, which I certainly will not spoil for you, is genuinely moving. Joe and Nate will live, of course, but the line between the "good guys" and the "bad guys" has never been so hazy. Dave Farkas appears as a figure of fun, as usual, a liar of epic proportions. The Grimm Brothers prove to be masters of the mountain territory that they inhabit, and they set cunning traps for Joe and Nate, and anyone else who might have the nerve to think that he or she can catch the brothers. Another group is also tracking them, having come from Michigan and likely having been funded by the ultra-rich senator.
David Chandler does his usual great job of voicing these stories; he is Joe as much as George Guidall is Walt Longmire. By the time you put this book down your admiration for CJ Box will have increased, as if you weren't already an admirer. I recommend this book whole-heartedly. It's a winner.

Exciting

If you are an hunter and outdoors person this book is for you. My wife and I have listened to all the Joe Picket books we can find. All have made me want more. Chandler helps to make these books great.

JP needs to go to Absaroka County with Longmire!

I love Joe Pickett stories but I think the protagonist sheriff line needs to fade away. First it was Bud Barnam and now its McLanahan. There is always a real bad guy in these books why does the sheriff always have to be adversarial? It would be nice for Joe and family to move to Absaroka County (yes I know its fictional) and have Walt Longmire as Sheriff. Nate would get along great with Henry. I can picture Mary Beth and Vic chatting over lunch haha.

The Best Yet

As a Wyoming born and raised and now a 70+ yr old retired Law Enforcement guy I have enjoyed all of Joe Pickett's adventures. This one is the Best. I don't know how C.J. keeps coming up with great stories.

One of Box's Best

If you could sum up Nowhere to Run in three words, what would they be?

Exciting. Action. Intrigue.

What about David Chandler’s performance did you like?

Chandler's performance of Box's books is outstanding. Since he has done the whole Joe Pickett series, he is 'Joe Pickett' and the other characters. Well done on this one, as usual.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

The hunters, become... The hunted.

enjoyable rural mystery thriller

This is part of the Joe Picket series, following the game warden in Wyoming. The start of this was edge-of-your-seat intensity, as Joe fights for his life to escape two crazy, rural brothers. Much of the rest of the novel focuses on who are those brothers, and why are they causing trouble. Is there a connection to a jogger who had disappeared in that area of the mountains? This part was less engaging but I still liked it. I enjoyed this novel mostly because I really like the Joe Picket character. He is a decent, believable character who does what he loves in spite of the tiny wages it pays for he and his wife to raise their girls. I like the rural setting as well. This is a rare time I listened to a second in a series, and will probably try another in the series at some point.

Joe Picket makes some hard choices.

Wow, this was a gripping Joe Picket story. His struggles are epic, his decisions tough, the consequences dire. How will he continue? Thank you C.J. Box!

No Where to Run

Good story, I liked the way it was told. It was pretty close to how things go with the government and our freedom and rights.

Best one since the first

I am working my way through the Joe Pickett series and the is my favorite one since the first. Couldn't stop listening. Great story.

Better and better

Another Joe Pickett winner! I don’t know what I’m going to do when I reach his last adventure!!
Probably go back to book one and catch details I missed the first time around!