Two thriller/suspense novels set in The Great Outdoors. By two different authors. One’s set in the Cowboy State. The other, Big Sky Country. One is by an outdoor/Western author we know well. The author is by someone we’ve heard of before. Both pack a wallop. Here’s why:
Battle Mountain
By C.J. Box (G.P. Putnam, February, 2025)
Via: Library
Pages: 400
When master falconer Nate Romanowski teams up with Geronimo Jones you know something’s about to go down in this high-octane thriller set amid the feral beauty of Wyoming. Something Big.
Intent on revenge after family members have been murdered or come close to losing their lives, the ex-military duo are as dangerous and determined as they come. With the possible exception of their mutual friend Joe Pickett. A “Dudley Do Right,” straight-arrow and by-the-book kind of guy, Pickett is a Wyoming game warden. And a huge dog lover. (Kimber: Bonus points! Big time!)
‘Yo! Wassup?’
After
Well. After the campaign of destruction Axel Soledad and Dallas Cates wreaked on Nate Romanowski and Joe Pickett, Nate has gone to ground. Wondering if the civilized life left him vulnerable to attack, Nate’s dropped off the grid with his falcons in tow to prepare for vengeance.
When Joe gets a call from the governor asking for help finding his son-in-law, who has gone missing in the Sierra Madre mountain range, he enlists the help of a local, a rookie game warden named Susan Kany.
Closing In
As Nate and fellow falconer Geronimo Jones circle closer to their prey, Joe and Susan follow the nearly cold trail to Warm Springs. Little do Nate and Joe know that their separate journeys are about to converge. And that things are about to “get Western” … at Battle Mountain.
Action
The story is multi-pronged. The action shifts between Pickett and Kany as they search for two missing elk hunting guides, the guides who are being held captive by Soledad, and Jones and Romanowski as they close in on Soledad. It’s all back-stopped by the rugged grandeur of the Cowboy State. As in, “yellowed grass and gray sagebrush” where “the sky was huge and broken up by long parallel strands of cirrus clouds that looked scratched into the blue by cougar claws.” And “The early evening was cool, and shadows from the standing aspen were growing long across the meadow and making the grass look like it was overlaid with jail bars.”
Kimmi: Almost makes me want to move there! Almost!
Also
There’s also Abbeygate. “Wars we don’t fight to win anymore.” And Nate saying stuff like, “to risk our lives for nothing, for a country that forgets why we were ever there in the first place. We know what it’s like to accept losing, when every time we could have and should have won.” And what’s up with “the Centurions”,” a “military-industrial complex in cowboy boots”?
As with most Box books, Battle Mountain lassos you around the collar right out the gate. Ropes you in. Doesn’t let go until the very end. Expert writing propels a riveting plot like jet fuel, rocketing you from one page to the next in record time. Yes, Battle Mountain is a little rough around the edges. But it’s also a skillful blend of mystery, suspense, intrigue, falconry, the Great Outdoors, and Wyoming beauty. Yarak!
Our Rating: 4.0
***
North of Nowhere
By Allison Brennan (St. Martin’s, 2023)
Via: Library
Pages: 490 (large print. For when Mom can’t find her glasses. What?)
Family is complicated. Especially when you’re born into a notorious crime family like Kristen and Ryan McIntyre.
Sixteen-year-old Kristen Reed and her ten-year-old bro Ryan are on the run. Trying desperately to escape the clutches of their evil and ruthless grandmother, Frances “Frankie” McIntyre. Kimber: This chick makes pit vipers look good.
After five years in hiding from their murderous father, Kristen and Ryan have been discovered in a small Montana town. Dad Boyd McIntrye is minutes away from kidnapping them. The kids barely escape in a small plane, but gunfire hits the fuel line. The pilot, a man who has been raising them as his own, manages to crash land in the middle of the Montana wilderness. The siblings hike deep into the woods, searching desperately for safety—unaware of the severity of the approaching storm.
Boyd’s sister Ruby left Los Angeles for the Army years ago. She cut off contact in order to help keep her niece and nephew safe and free from the horrors of the McIntyre clan. So, when Ruby gets an emergency call from rancher Nick Lorenzo that the plane has gone down with the kids inside, she drops everything to try save them.
As the storm builds, Ruby isn’t the only person looking for them. Boyd has hired an expert tracker to find and bring them home. And Lorenzo, who knows these mountains better than anyone and doesn’t understand why the kids are running, is on their trail too.
Greater
But there’s a greater threat to Kristen and Ryan out there. It’s more volatile than the incoming blizzard. More dangerous than the family they ran from or the natural predators they could encounter. Who finds them first could determine if they live or die.
Intense, Full
Intense and engaging, North of Nowhere is populated by rich, full-bodied characters. Like the McIntyre matriarch and family crime boss Frances “Frankie” McIntyre. (Kimber: Her name should really be “Maleficent.” But let’s not get picky here, okay?)
Strong women have always ruled the McIntyre roost and run the “family business.: As Frankie’s only granddaughter, Kristen is expected to take over. In fact, she has no choice in the matter if she wants to stay alive and save Ryan. Kimber: told ya grandma was a loser.)
Gripping
There’s plenty of action in this gripping and compelling read. A plane crash-landing in a remote Montana lake. A bunch of bad guys tracking the two kids on ATVs. Swirling snow coming down in buckets. Plummeting temperatures. Parachuting into the mountains. Trying to figure out which law enforcement members and Lorenzo ranch hands are on the McIntyre payroll? Moose. (Kimber: You soooo don’t want to mess with a moose! Especially a mama moose. Bad idea! Very bad!)
The Star
There’s also a budding romance between Nick Lorenzo’s 17-year-old son, Jason, and Kristen. But the real star of this show? Big Sky Country. Also, you sooooo do not want to be caught outside unequipped and unprepared during a Montana blizzard, bub.
Taut as a piano wire, the story reeled us in from chapter 1. Didn’t let go until the final page. Expertly written and briskly paced, it unloads plenty of “I-did-not-see-that-coming” moments. It’s a survival story in more ways than one. It’s also about family. Forgiveness. Resilience. Loyalty. Strength. Second chances. Starting over. And peace.
Note that this book contains gratuitous profanity that’s useless and unnecessary. So, demerits there.
That being said, North of Nowhere runs like a well-oiled machine most of the time. Or maybe like a herd of stampeding elephants. (It could go either way.) Kimber: I’d bring an extra sweater or two and extra logs for the fire ‘fize you. Just sayin’.
Pages & Paws 