FICTION

Off the Grid

by C.J. Box
Putnam. (Joe Pickett, Bk. 16). Mar. 2016. 384p. ISBN 9780399176609. $27; ebk. ISBN 9780698410053. F
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In his 16th outing (after Endangered), Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett heads for the Red Desert, where longtime friend, falconer, and off-the-grid recluse Nate Romanowski has been blackmailed into assisting a deeply hidden faction of the U.S. government. It needs Nate to stop a plot by a domestic terrorist group to wipe out the huge metadata stores the National Security Agency (NSA) has compiled on unsuspecting Americans. In particular, Nate is tasked with making contact with one of the terrorists, who is also a fellow falconer and a member of Middle Eastern royalty. Joe goes along on the hunt, which turns urgent when he discovers that his daughter is about to become collateral damage. The tense action that results mirrors Nate's experiences in Afghanistan and brings to life his nightmares.
VERDICT While some of the villains here are mere stereotypes, Joe's character continues to develop. Readers of Ted Koppel's Lights Out will enjoy the fictionalization of the cyberattack threat on the electric grid, and devotees of other outdoor mysteries such as those by Nevada Barr, Craig Johnson, and William Kent Krueger will find much to like in Box's evocative depiction of the Western landscape. [See Prepub Alert, 11/1/15.]
Reviewed by Sharon Mensing, Emerald Mountain Sch., Steamboat Springs, CO , Feb 12, 2016
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