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C.J. Box's 16th Joe Pickett novel, OFF THE GRID, is more thriller than mystery, and it features Joe's friend Nate Romanowski more than it does Pickett himself. Nate has been hiding off the grid on a rancher's land, hunting with his falcons. When his girlfriend makes a few phone calls from town to arrange to see her failing mother, she inadvertently announces Nate's location. Two members of a hidden faction of government security show up unannounced and make Nate an offer he cannot refuse. His side of the bargain has him entering the Red Desert of Wyoming to track down another falconer, Ibby, a member of Middle Eastern royalty.
What's going on in the desert is at first appealing to Nate. Ibby has put together a team of engineers and is on the verge of creating an EMP (electromagnetic pulse) device that he intends to use to destroy the NSA computers that have been recording the communications of innocent US citizens. As appealing as this use of the device is to government-phobe Nate, it appears that Ibby has lost control of the project and Middle Eastern terrorists with another plan in mind are brutally taking over. While Nate is in the midst of the terrorist group, Joe is sent to the desert without any real sense of the danger in the situation. Joe's sense of urgency is ratcheted up when he learns that his daughter is caught up in the events taking place out in the Red Desert.
The crisis comes to a violent ending that is reminiscent of Nate's time in Afghanistan and that mirrors his recent nightmares. There is a great deal of violence in this book, but it is not dwelt upon nor described in detail. Box reserves his detailed writing for characterization and location. The book should be read with a glass of water at hand, as Box brings the parched landscape to life. Nate's distrust of the government is so well written that it draws the reader into his paranoia, and Joe's ruminations help the reader connect to him and his family. The fine writing about Nate and Joe does not extend to the terrorists, however. These Middle Eastern imports are little more than stereotypes that move the plot along but provide little else.
This is a timely book, with both governmental spying and the possibility of EMP terrorism being discussed in the news. It's full of action and moves quickly. Although it's the 16th in the series, it can be read as a standalone without missing much.
§ Sharon Mensing is the Head of School of Emerald Mountain School, an independent school in the mountains of Colorado, where she lives, reads, and enjoys the outdoors.
Reviewed by Sharon Mensing, February 2016
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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