レビュー要約

• 読者からは、題材への向き合い方と物語を支える筆致が評価されている。一方で、静かな展開や重い主題をじっくり受け止める作品として読まれている。

レビュー

• I loved it - enthralled from the first page

  Badlands features his newer character, Cassie Dewell for the second time. She is in North Carolina at the request of local and federal authorities to interview a trucker they believe to be the Lizard King, a serial killer who targets lot lizards, female prostitutes who work truck stops. Cassie is familiar with him from her position as investigator for the county sheriff in Helena, Montana. Cassie’s partner Cody Hoyt was shot and killed by one of the Lizard King’s cohorts. She subsequently took the killer down, but Ronald Pergram, the ringleader and suspected Lizard King, eluded them. He subsequently burned down his childhood home with his mother inside it, destroying any DNA trail. Now the authorities in North Carolina are holding an independent trucker who was found to have a kill room in his trailer. Unable to find any trace evidence, they are detaining him while they go over every nanometer of the rig and wait for his reaction to Cassie’s meeting with him. The trucker they have in custody is Dale Spradley, whose background check reveals only two years of history. Although his hair color and body weight are different from Pergram, his height and age seem to match. His penchant for picking up 48-foot loads despite having a 53-foot trailer is what piqued the authorities’ interest and led to the kill room discovery. Coincidentally, Cassie is on the short list for a great opportunity with Bakken County in Grimstad, North Dakota as chief investigator for Sheriff Jon Kirkbride. The action takes place over six days. Each day is crammed with events and new characters that keep the reader engrossed as the story sails along, bringing Cassie and Kyle closer to their encounter. Cassie is a gutsy cop and likeable person. Kyle is one resilient kid. When they combine forces, exciting things happen. All that stuff at the beginning of the book about the Lizard King? Red herring as far as this story is concerned, but a phone call Cassie receives near the end of this book hints that the next installment of this series will have the Lizard King finding his way to Grimstad. I can hardly wait. Rating: 4.5. Badlands is an entertaining read chock full of sharply delineated characters and exciting plot developments. This is the kind of book that you want to share with your fellow readers as soon as you finish it.

• Great book & great author.

  Love the books by this author.

• Another terrific read!

  C J Box’s books just get better and better. I love the detail and description of the environment that the books are set in…they are so good, I can clearly picture the scenes in my head. Cassie Dewell has moved to North Dakota and has a new job as Chief Investigator, but she doesn’t get a chance to settle in before the proverbial hits the fan and she has to hit the ground running, trying to solve a puzzle involving potential dirty cops, biker drug dealers and hit men sent from Mexico.

• Okay page turner, but leaves me unsatisfied

  While I like Cassie as a protagonist, reading the story left me with some questions: why is the lizard king kidnapping these people? How does that give him a surrogate family? Why don't the victims take off those collars? When one can easily turn them on or off, as Kyle does at the end, why don't they do that beforehand?

• Mauvaises terres

  J'ai longtemps hésité avant de poursuivre les aventures de Cassie Dewell, l'ex-coéquipière de Cody Hoyt. Le premier livre dans lequel elle était apparue "the highway" m'ayant à la fois surpris et un peu déçu. J'ai eu tort, cette deuxième aventure de Cassie, dans laquelle elle déménage dans le Dakota du Nord pour un emploi d'enquêtrice, sous fond de ruée vers le pétrole de schiste, est très réussie. C'est un thriller typique de CJ Box, principalement centré sur cette enquêtrice, une mère de famille complexée, timide et a priori sans relief, dans lequel l'autre principal protagoniste est un enfant de douze ans doté d'un handicap et d'une mère toxico. Hormis quelques petites invraisemblances c'est un très bon thriller, concis et nerveux, dans lequel il est impossible de s'ennuyer. Les personnages sont tous attachants, l'atmosphère de cette ville champignon est très bien restituée, la fin est réussie. Impossible de ne pas lire la suite, l'enquête sur le King Lezard démarrée dans The Highway n'étant pas achevée. (Cette enquête n'est présente qu'en toile de fond dans ce volume).

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