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OPEN SEASON
by C.J. Box
G. P.Putnam's Sons, July 2001
320 pages
$23.95
ISBN: 0399147489


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Before you go any further, add this note to your To Do List: "Buy a copy of Open Season by C. J. Box. Now." This first book is a wonderful read, and you won't be sorry that you followed my advice.

Joe Pickett is an ordinary man whose goal in life since he was 11 was to be a game warden. The pay is low, the hours are long, but Joe is now doing what he's always wanted to do in a remote county in Wyoming. He lives in a small house with his wife, Marybeth, and 2 little girls; they're expecting another child. It's certainly a Spartan lifestyle, given the fact that he only makes $23,000 a year, but Marybeth, Sheridan and Lucy live a happy life.

The book opens with Joe catching a man by the name of Ote Keeley for killing deer out of season. He's about to write Keeley up when Ote grabs Joe's weapon and turns it on him. As it happens, he doesn't use it on Joe; but the incident becomes grist for the local rumor mill and Joe is rather humiliated as a result. It isn't the first time that he's pulled a bonehead move. Earlier in his career, he ticketed the governor of the state for fishing without a license. He hasn't lived that one down either. Joe's an imperfect man, but he's got integrity and a passion for what he does and that's what counts. Joe may be a bungler and a bit flawed, but he is also courageous and honest.

Life as a game warden means that Joe and his family move around quite a bit. It's been a particularly difficult adjustment for 7-year-old Sheridan who hasn't done well at making new friends. She longs for a special friend or a special pet to love and care for and finds the very same in the woodpile in her backyard. There are some cute little creatures that she feeds and plays with, unbeknownst to the grown-ups in the family. One night Sheridan has a vivid nightmare of seeing a monster who crashes into the woodpile. As it turns out, the nightmare was reality and the monster was Ote Keeley whose body is found in the woodpile together with a cooler that has some animal scat in it. Why on earth did he come crashing through the woods on to Joe's property? Was he trying to show him something? When Joe tries to get the animal scat analyzed to determine where it came from, the lab "loses" the sample.

The body count picks up when two more hunters are murdered. As part of his job, Joe has a commitment to the environment as well as the people. As the book progresses, Joe becomes enmeshed in a conflict between endangered species and the need for growth in the area. Do you put a town full of people at risk of losing their livelihoods for the sake of an animal that is becoming extinct? Or do you allow the animal to die and the construction to begin, the construction that will bring prosperity to the area? The theme may sound familiar, but Box does a good job of building a plot that's not a clichÈ.

The stakes are high in this game, and the villain doesn't let anything stand in his way, whether it be a pregnant woman, a little girl or anyone else. In a truly terrifying series of episodes, Sheridan is threatened and becomes a target for the killer because of her pets in the woodpile. Box builds the scene expertly, with the little girl drawn truly and well. My heart was in my throat. The tension was palpable.

Box does a wonderful job of characterization. There are no caricatures or one-dimensional characters. It is difficult to determine who is the villain in the book because each of the characters has been so well established with both positive and negative traits. The villain is revealed prior to the end of the book, and it's terrifying to see Joe interacting with him, totally unaware of his horrible acts.

I predict that Open Season will be on many lists for Best First Novel of 2001. It deserves to win those awards. The book is original and has a sense of humanity that you don't often see. Superb.

Reviewed by Maddy Van Hertbruggen, August 2001

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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