In Savage Run-C.J. Box's acclaimed follow-up to his career-making debut Open Season-game warden Joe Pickett looks into the bizarre death of an environmental activist...and what he finds is bigger and far more sinister than anything he imagined.
List Price:
Our Price:
$7.99
& eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25.
You Save:
Product Promotions
This item is eligible for our 4-for-3 promotion. Eligible products include select Books, Single Copy Magazines, and Home & Garden items. Buy any 4 eligible items and get the lowest-priced item free. Here's how (restrictions apply)
Product Details
Author:
C. J. Box
Mass Market Paperback:
304 pages
Publisher:
Berkley
Publication Date:
May 06, 2003
Language:
English
ISBN:
0425189244
Package Length:
6.6 inches
Package Width:
4.2 inches
Package Height:
0.9 inches
Package Weight:
0.15 pounds
Average Customer Rating:
based on 26 reviews
Customer Reviews
Average Customer Review: Write an online review and share your thoughts with other customers.
Exploding cows and environmental activitsts Sep 27, 2008 This is the second novel featuring Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett. The novel deals with contemporay issues. The villains in the novel are wealthy "ranchers" who hunt animals for trophies and demand their rights to despoil the environment (oil drilling, logging, mining, grazing cattle). They are willing to hunt people, arranging to kill anyone who opposes them.
They are opposed by environmental activists (sometimes called tree huggers) who are willing to violate the law if it suits their purposes. Both sides have an attitude that the end justifies the means.
Joe Pickett and others are caught in the middle, and things emerge about his wife's past. Readers should be forewarned that some scenes in the novel are a bit gruesome.
Great fun - Joe Pickett is a real character Jul 05, 2008 Solid writing style, really great characters who you empathize with, well drawn plot. C.J. Box has a unique series going here and I hope he can maintain the quality over time.
Savage Run Jun 01, 2008 "But this is how they do it. They go after the weakest first. When the mother stays back, the wolves open a hole in her belly and pull out the entrails. Then they wait until she doesn't have the strength to protect herself, then they'll move in and tear her throat out."
C.J. Box does not mince words. Nature can be brutal as well as stunningly beautiful.
Two years have passed since we last met up with Saddlestring, Wyoming Game Warden (and Wildlife Biologist), Joe Pickett and his family. In "Savage Run", famous environmental "terrorist" Stewie Woods and his wife are blown up by a cow. Joe is called to investigate and from that auspicious start "Savage Run" builds the brutality, tension, and mystery in a thoroughly enjoyable book filled with wilderness reality.
Joe Pickett is not perfect. He has a tendency to trust people more than he should, and to go places alone where backup help would be needed. He is honest to the point of detriment to his own career (hmmm, this is a good thing really). During the investigation, Joe meets with the owner of the cow (actually 10 cows were killed in the explosion) at this person's home. Oddly, the owner, Jim Finotta does not seem surprised nor does he ask the questions one would expect from someone who is concerned about the death of other human beings or animals. In addition, Jim, a lawyer, puts Joe on the defensive. Not a good thing to do, especially if you have the head of a large male elk mounted on your wall, that the Game Warden recognizes, and knows was killed off-season.
A mini-battle begins between dirt poor Joe and the all powerful Finotta.
Killers Charles Tibbs (the best tracker in Wyoming) and the" Old Man" leave Wyoming after ensuring that the exploding cow did what they intended (i.e. make for an embarrassing death for Stewie) for Washington State. There they murder famous environmental writer, Hayden Powell. These two are then responsible for a string of brutal environmentalist murders that follow. This has the makings of an old-fashioned range war. And the reader finds out that it is and that a group called the "Stockman's Trust" hired the old west throwback stock detective (Charles) to take care of business.
Circumstances bring the killers, Joe Pickett, and several others together as the book climaxes with a chase through the deepest wilderness to the impassable (except by, according to legend, Cheyenne's fleeing for their lives over 100 years ago) canyon known as Savage Run.
"Savage Run" is sometimes brutal, sometimes beautiful, sometimes controversial as it straddles the worlds of game wardens, ranchers, landowners, and environmentalists. C.J. Box is fast becoming one of my favorite authors and I am looking forward to the next Joe Pickett adventure. In the meantime, pick up "Savage Run" if for nothing else, to read the explosive ending.
by TracyReaderDad
Savage Run Over The Top and Disappointing Apr 11, 2008 I just finished reading Savage Run and was, on the whole, quite disappointed. First, it was even more violent than Open Season, a book that I DID like for the most part. Second, it had only one sympathetic character other than Joe Pickett. I really hated the ending and found it totally unnecessary after all the trials and tribulations the characters had gone through to get to that point.
I also felt the character of Pickett was overly thorny and obtuse. His aw shucks boyish charm didn't make up for it.
All in all, it had some good parts, but it wasn't worth the time.
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
I love Box, but I don't love this book Jul 14, 2007 I *loved* Open Season, and I certainly like the way C.J.Box writes, and I also loved the first half of Savage Run. But, I'm sorry, the plot contained too many wildly unbelievable coincidences and dei ex machina for me. Amazon guidelines and common decency prevent me from listing them, but they caused my suspension of disbelief to disintegrate completely, and I was so disgusted that I could only skim the last bit of the book.
Having said all that, I'll still read his next book, because C.J. certainly has talent. But with this book I felt much the same frustration I feel after seeing a thriller movie that has so much promise and then tanks at the end: don't authors or screenwriters let someone read the book (or see the movie) before publication, so they can find out if the story seems to fall apart and become a comic book at some point? If you want us to suspend disbelief and be completely into the story, then the story must be believable on some level.
Box still gets three stars from me because I like his writing, but *please* work out the plots a little better!
Not finding what you're looking for??
Not to worry, you can also search Amazon from right here at The Savvant Store, and we'll still be paid a referral fee, and you know Amazon has everyhing!
based on 26 reviews
Savage Run Over The Top and Disappointing Apr 11, 2008
I love Box, but I don't love this book Jul 14, 2007
