Blue Heaven

A twelve-year-old girl and her younger brother go on the run in the woods of northern Idaho, pursued by four men they have just watched commit murder – four men who know exactly who William and Annie are, and where their desperate mother is waiting for news of her children’s fate.The kids soon find they don’t know whom they can trust among their L.A. transplant neighbors, including hundreds of retired Southern California cops who’ve given the area it’s nickname: ‘Blue Heaven.” As a group of dirty cops spearhead the search for William and Annie, one false move will stop these children from ever finding their way home.With true-to-life, unforgettable characters, C.J. Box has created a thriller that delves into issues close to our heart: the pervasiveness of greed, the banality of evil, and the truth about what constitutes a family. In a story where unlikely heroes find themselves at the cross- roads of duty and courage, “Blue Heaven delivers twists and turns until its last breathtaking page.

Accolades 2009 Edgar Award Winner Review “All hell breaks loose in Kootenai Bay, Idaho, after two children on a fishing trip witness an execution in this stand-alone from the chronicler of Game Warden Joe Pickett (Free Fire, 2007, etc.). “Blue Heaven” is what members of the LAPD call North Idaho when they retire here. The place has spectacular natural beauty and a tight community full of concerned neighbors who come running when Monica Taylor’s son and daughter disappear. As ex-detective Eduardo Villatoro realizes, the place also has in circulation a suspicious number of $100 bills from a robbery at the Santa Anita Racetrack that left an armored car driver dead eight years ago. Even though he’s retired, Villatoro can’t let go of the case. But his arrival coincides with the massive hunt that’s been staged for Annie and William Taylor, and he can’t get anywhere with ineffectual Sheriff Ed Carey, who’s farmed out the search to four retired L.A. cops. Even worse, these cops, the last people in the world who should be guarding the henhouse, have framed an innocent man for kidnapping the children and all but imprisoned Monica in her own home. The family’s only hope is an aging rancher who can barely hold onto his spread and the banker who refuses to foreclose on him. Dropping the whodunit element that’s always been the weakest part of Pickett’s cases, Box alternates violence with surprising tenderness in a suspenseful tour de force.” Kirkus Reviews

Author Biography

C. J. Box is the author of over twenty Joe Pickett novels, as well as several stand-alone novels and a story collection. He has won the Edgar, Anthony, Macavity, Gumshoe, and Barry Awards, as well as the French Prix Calibre .38, and has been a Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist. A Wyoming native, Box has also worked on a ranch and as a small-town newspaper reporter and editor. He lives with his wife on their ranch in Wyoming. His books have been translated into twenty-seven languages. He’s an executive producer of ABC TV’s Big Sky, which is based on his Cody Hoyt/Cassie Dewell novels, and executive producer of the Joe Pickett television series for Spectrum Originals.