Shadows Reel (Joe Pickett, #22) (2024)

"That's him,"
"You ready?"
Joe nodded, but he wasn't sure he was ready. Ready for what?

Joe, Joe, Joe...!

Joe Pickett, Game Warden of the Saddlestring District is slightly taking a backseat in Shadows Reel. I had fun listening to this book and it didn't bother me until it was over when I realized Joe was pretty useless in this book. 😁 In any case, the Game Warden is charming in a peculiar way.

Shortly before Thanksgiving, a man drops off a package at Twelve Sleep County library where Joe's wife Marybeth works. Inside the package contains a Nazi photo album. Two men with fake identities want that album back bad and a few innocent residents' lives perished.

Continuing from the previous book, Master falconer, Nate Romanowski is searching for his "Air Force". Three of his birds were killed and twelve were stolen. His search for a known thief and discussion among online falconer community caused quite an outrage. These folks don't take breaking the "code" lightly; you don't steal or injure birds of other falconers. Nate heads to Colorado to meet Geronimo Jones, a member who has seen the thief and his posse in Denver.

As I said, Joe isn't the star in this one. Marybeth takes the lead in finding and capturing the baddies who are after the Nazi photo album. Nate and Geronimo Jones hunt the other guys who stole his birds with a subplot of BLM and Antifa. I enjoy it overall and I like learning bit by bit about falconry. Since part of the story carry over from the previous, Dark Sky, I wouldn't read this one as a standalone.

C. J. Box continues to excite readers with unique mystery thrillers that are full of suspense and action. The twenty-second book in the series featuring Wyoming Game Warden Joe Pickett is full of multiple discoveries happening around Thanksgiving. Joe gets a call about a dead moose that turns out to be much worse. A local fishing guide has been murdered. Meanwhile, Joe’s wife, Marybeth, finds a package at the front door of the library where she is the director. It contains a photo album that has photos of German officials from 1937. Who left the book and why? Meanwhile Joe’s friend, Nate Romanowski, is hunting for the man that stole most of his falcons and killed three others. He also attacked Nate’s wife and threatened his daughter. Nate uses a network of fellow falconers to track the man from state to state until there is a final show down. When the two investigations put Joe and Marybeth and their family in danger, Joe is determined to find the culprits and answers the call to help Nate.

Readers get a good feel for Joe and Marybeth. Their characters have depth and are well described. She plays a much bigger role in this novel and it was great to see how her research provided much needed knowledge for one of the cases. We also get caught up with the lives of their three daughters. Joe works with the local sheriff and deputies, but, as usual, does some investigation of his own. The antagonists are known early in the novel to the readers so there is no mystery about who they are. It’s more about why they have done it. The supporting characters provide support, humor, and conflict to enrich the reading experience.

The writing is fluid and descriptive which helps readers envision the scenes without disrupting or slowing the flow. However, a few of the scenes are somewhat graphic. Despite Nate’s part of the story having a lot of suspense and action, it seemed to detract from the main story line for me. There was a strong sense of place causing me to feel as though I was living the events alongside the characters. The final action scene is somewhat over-the-top. Themes include violence, murder, theft, assault, Germany in 1937 and later, and much more.

Overall, this was entertaining, suspenseful, and an action packed ending with compelling characters that kept me turning the pages as I sat on the edge of my seat. With exciting scenes and fascinating dual story lines, it captivated me. I’m looking forward to reading the next book in the series. Will one of the daughters get their own series? It seems like April could be featured in one.

PENGUIN GROUP Putnam, G.P. Putnam's Sons and C. J. Box provided a complimentary digital ARC of this novel via NetGalley. This is my honest review. Opinions are mine alone and are not biased in any way. Publication date is currently set for March 8, 2022. This review was originally posted at Mystery and Suspense Magazine.

---------------------------------
My 4 star review will be posted 3-4 days after it is published at Mystery and Suspense Magazine.

I am a long time fan of the Joe Pickett series. However, this book was not at all up to the standards I expect. This author would be advised to avoid writing about politically charged and sensitive issues or groups, such as BLM and Antifa, in such a demeaning way. Casting Antifa as a bunch of spoiled rich kids without jobs and living with their parents did not move the plot forward or even enhance the story in any way. It was demeaning and distracting from the actual story.

Thank you NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam for this arc.

I have been reading and very much enjoying C J Box's Joe Pickett stories for two decades now! Shadows Reel had the expected truck wreck and the new "good ol' boy" sheriff and the usual fast paced action I've come to expect.... But my problem with it was there were 2 fast paced stories going on here that kind of detracted from each other, neither story felt like it was complete. I know Joe and Nate are getting older (so am I), but in this one I could feel them getting there. So, the characters were there... a little time-worn and somewhat faded. It's just the plot of both stories felt forced / phoned-in. I did enjoy the read but am a little disappointed on the backend.

3.5 stars

I love C.J. Box's work. I firmly believe he's constitutionally incapable of writing a bad book. I love almost all of his Joe Pickett novels. I pick up each new entry in the series hoping for the very best — and lately, that "very best" is best defined as "a return to classic form." Sadly, in my opinion, SHADOWS REEL is not that.

There's also the loopy, zaftig plot, which feels like it wants to thoughtfully occupy a canvas at least twice as large this novel, giving every twist, development and character within it short shrift. Beyond that, there's a sour, dour reactionary tone that hangs over every passage and page of SHADOWS REEL like the smell of spoiled, curdled milk. Everybody in the story seems tired and fed up and all but over it, disgusted with the world in which they live, and it's hard not to speculate about to which extent that sourness extend to its author, given the many political rants spewed forth in an awkwardly expository talking-to-the-camera style.

Example:

“So you think you know Americans now?”

“Yes. They’re always moving. Walking fast, talking loud, waving their arms around. They don’t like to sit still ever. They’re all like that. I don’t understand why they’re all so fat, the way they move around.”

SHADOWS REEL takes a clunky headfirst dive into the politics of the moment, and while it would be a mistake to project the views of its characters onto their creator, a few things jump out:

1. The book seems to equate all anarchic violence with antifa and Black Lives Matter, never even mentioning the right-wing analogues to this: Oath Keepers, Three Percenters, Boogaloo Boys and the like. And its characters are given ample room to mock members of antifa "chapters" (no such thing, but it's mentioned wtice) as callow trust-fund white doofuses out to play out their Che Guevara fantasies. It's not hard to imagine that this is the author's commercial calculation, a safe way of commenting on current events without alienating the far-right people who make up the majority of his home state of Wyoming, and, possibly, the MAGA-addled, white-male-centric, law-and-order types who might reasonably compose the bulk of his devoted readership.

Example:

“We’re just gonna back out of here now,” Antifa Two said.

Then: “Right, Tristan?” Tristan was apparently Antifa One.

“Shut up, Robbie,” Tristan said.

“Tristan and Robbie,” Nate echoed. “Couple of country-club names. Why am I not surprised? Shouldn’t you boys be playing video games in your parents’ basem*nt?”

And:

"Axel was holding court. And it sounded to Randy like Axel was talking about antifa. 'They really don’t have any realistic goals,” Axel said. “It’s all bull***t from trust-fund militants with daddy issues. They say they want to abolish the police. They say they want no government and no capitalism and they want to return the country to indigenous tribes. But they all have the newest iPhone. It’s all just f***ing insane.'

"The Blade laughed. He said, 'But, man, they love you.'

"'Yeah, they do. That’s how smart they are.'"

2. The characters seem to have a corrosive contempt for big cities, as it steers out of its way to take lengthy mocking sideswipes at Denver , Portland and Seattle. In this book's world, rural people and rural living and simpler, and, it's heavily implied, morally superior to urban-dwelling dilettantes (even as many of them are depicted as dolts, go figure).

Example: "One was a seventyish man with long silver hair and small round glasses who wore a tweed jacket. Joe thought of him as 'old Portland.' The other was a young woman about Sheridan’s age with blue hair and elongated earlobe gauges that stretched nearly to her jawbone. She was clutching an overlarge teddy bear and she wore pajama pants and black combat boots. Young Portland."

Beyond that, there's the tired, dour quality of the cast itself. Joe Pickett barely registers here as a broken, wounded man in his fifties, leached of all interest in anything beyond what's immediately in front of him, steering away from physical exertion and phoning in a handful of scenes as the Watson to his wife Marybeth's Holmes. Nate Romanowski, Joe's series-long dark half, seems to be repeating an increasingly schematic arc on something resembling autotuned autopilot. The best characters are the Pickett's three daughters, all of whom have marvelously untapped potential as top-tier series characters that Box seems oddly reluctant to explore.

(Sheridan and April, especially, would make a marvelous next-generation Joe-and-Nate team, and I really think it's time to hand the keys of this still-lucrative series vehicle over to them and allow Joe and Nate to slip into the emeritus-character roles they seem to have been inching toward for several novels now.)

On top of that, SHADOWS REEL contains one of the most cringey descriptions of a woman by a male writer I've read in quite some time: "Her hips were wide and they fit over the barstool like a hand gripping a tennis ball." And one of the most cringey description of the shoulder-wound cliché I've read in recent years (and C.J. Box has a robust catalog of this hackitude): "The slug from Nate’s .454 caught Axel in his left shoulder and spun him around 360 degrees. Somehow, Axel managed to stay on his feet." (You can argue that's a spoiler, but come on. You knew when you opened a Pickett novel that this was the only place it would go.)

I wish the news were better. But I finished SHADOWS REEL feeling dispirited, drained and dulled by what I'd read. As I now realize I have been to a steadily growing degree with the Pickett series for a few years now. It feels like it's hard time for C.J. Box to acknowledge he's at a crossroads here and needs to commit firmly to a direction: pallid, brand-management fan-service stories, or something that infuses a once-soaring series with some fresh liftoff.

I did not care for this much as it seemed more political and opinionated. 3 of 10 stars

Excellent!

Disappointing plot. Poor effort in excellent series.

What was this? Was this written by someone else?

Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett, recovering from a wolverine attack, responds to a rancher's call of a dead moose across a swamp. Not the season for hunting moose but never a season for a dead human and a body is what Joe finds. Joe calls the sheriff who tells Joe to let him handle it, but when did that ever stop Joe.

Two other story lines occur in the book: Joe's friend Nate is following the trail of a man who stole his falcons and beat up his wife. Knowing Nate as I do, that man should be really scared. Also, Joe's wife Marybeth, director of the local library, finds a package left on the library steps containing a Nazi album.

The last Joe Pickett book, Dark Sky, was one of the best books in this series. Joe is one of my all-time favorite characters. I never thought I would read one of these books that I didn't like but here it is. Let me clarify -- I liked the parts where Joe investigates the murder. I liked the parts with Joe's family. But Nazis and antifa - no.

Here's what I say to the author - You excel at writing beautiful game warden stories and descriptions of the Wyoming outdoors for readers to enjoy. Stay in this lane - you're the best at what you do.

Good story line ruined by author's conspiracy theory notions; just had to toss them in. Last Box book I'll read.

Another fantastic book in one of the best series out there. Shadows Reel has two different stories, Joe and Marybeth is in possession of an old Nazi photo album and has to deal with people willing to murder for it and meanwhile Nate is on the hunt for a younger and more ruthless version of himself.

I'm a big fan of Nate and I think that he could star in his own series but in this book I liked the Nazi story better. Both stories are great but the Pickett story was more thrilling and gripping.

What I like the most with this series are the characters. It's like visiting old friends that you haven't seen in a long while. I highly recommend this series and 22 books in, it's still so good.

Thanks to NetGalley, G.P. Putnam’s Sons/Penguin Group Putnam, and C. J. Box for the advanced copy.

Big fan of the Joe Pickett series and have enjoyed past outings. As pointed out by many other reviewers, the 2 plotlines in this book did not relate to each other and both were disappointing. The true historical fact of the Nazi photo album was interesting but the ham-handed attempts to steal it were just silly. I did want Nate to get his Air Force back but that plotline was also cartoonish and hard to believe. Finally the very right leaning politics quite baldly exposed here were not balanced by enough engaging story to be overlooked, as has been the case in previous books. Perhaps the author is too distracted by the development and production of his new TV series to invest the appropriate amount of attention to this most recent effort. I will not buy another Pickett novel without a close reading of the reviews.

First Sentence: Lorne Trumley had called dispatch to report a dead moose on his ranch.

Game Warden Joe Pickett goes to the scene where allegedly a moose has been burned. Instead, he finds the tortured and burned body of a local fishing guide. Librarian Marybeth Pickett receives an anonymous package containing the photo album of a former Nazi officer. The Pickett's friend, falconer Nate Romanowski, is tracking the man who attacked his family and stole his falcons. "This won't end well."

It is challenging when an author whose entire catalogue of books one has loved, writes one that is painful to read, and not in a literary sense. All the elements one normally loves seem to be missing. What happened to the warm, supportive relationship between Joe and his wife, Marybeth? Where is the subtle humor that has been a trademark of Box's writing?

Political viewpoints seem to be the theme de jour and certainly not everyone will agree with various points of view. However, a writer is usually expected to maintain some degree of objectivity or, at the very least, do their research. Box missed both these marks by an extremely wide margin. The author's usual high-quality storytelling is painfully absent. The crass, sexist descriptions of the woman in the bar would embarrass pulp fiction authors of 1940s.

SHADOWS REEL could have been a good book with an intriguing plot, particularly as related to the photo album. Unfortunately, there was so much about this book that was cringeworthy, it wasn't worth spending the time to finish. The only bright spot was the Pickett daughters. The worst part is that it causes one to question even reading the next book.

SHADOWS REEL (LicInves-Joe Pickett-Wyoming-Contemp) - DNF
C.J. Box – 22nd in series
G.P. Putnam's Sons / Mar 2022 / 368 pp.

Shadows Reel is another outstanding book featuring Joe Pickett and one of the best supporting characters in all of literature, Nate Romanowski. Shadows Reel is the continuation and eventually the conclusion of the storylines developed in Dark Sky. Its probably best to read Dark Sky first but Shadows Reel can be read as a standalone if you don't mind missing a few details, especially Nate's ordeal. Like all of Box's novels, the writing is tight, the plots are interesting with well developed characters. Speaking of Nate, I would read a series featuring him in a heartbeat.

“Can’t you just stay home and mind your own business?” Tibbs asked with sudden heat. “Every time you go out, you create another goddamn headache for me and my department.”
― C.J. Box, Shadows Reel

Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett, recovering from a wolverine attack he suffered after the events of Dark Sky, feels good about going back to work when Lorne Trumley calls dispatch to report a dead moose on his ranch. When Joe gets to the ranch to check out the moose he discovers that it is the body of a person. The body had been set on fire and tossed over the fence. So much for the good feeling.

Also on the back of his mind is a phone call he had received from his wife, Marybeth, while getting ready to leave the house. Marybeth is the director of the local library. She arrived at work early to get some work done and leave early. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and the Pickett daughters will all be coming home for the holiday. Marybeth needs to prepare. When she pulls into her parking space she notices a man lurking near the entrance. It is hours before the library is due to open. Who is he and what is he doing here this early? Then he disappears around the corner of the library. When Marybeth gets to the entrance she sees a package has been left and breaths a sigh of relief. If is a donation or an overdue book a patron didn't want to pay the fine on.

When she gets inside and opens the package she discovers it is an old photo album. Not just any old photo album. This has swastikas on the cover. The album belonged to a Nazi official. There are photos of Göring, Goebbels, Himmler and even Hitler. How did it wind up in Twelve Sleep County and why was it left at the door of the library?

Marybeth becomes obsessed with the album and has a hard time getting anything else done. As sickening as the photos are she can't help but be drawn in. Trying to learn the story behind it. It is Marybeth who learns of the connection between the album and the body found on Trumley's ranch. There were two soldiers from Wyoming who fought their way to Hitler’s Eagles Nest retreat in the Alps. One took Hitler’s personal photo album. Did the other take this album? Soon there is another murder. Someone is after this photo album. Why? What is so important about these old photos? They apparently know that Marybeth has it now.

There is a second storyline here. At the end of Dark Sky someone attacked Nate Romanowski's wife, Liv. He put his daughter, Kestrel, at risk. He killed several of Nate's falcons and stole the others. Nate is out to get him. The hunt takes him to Denver, Portland, and Seattle. The story goes off the rails here. The man Nate is hunting is apparently helping the Antifa and BLM. In C.J. Box's view the members of Antifa are a bunch of rich kids who don't have jobs and live with their parents. The police look the other way. Nate's wanting to find the person who attacked his family and stole his falcons is understandable. The way the author chose to tell the story is disappointing. This could have been a four star story if it hadn't been for this storyline.

Ughhh....disappointed once again. I hope the author returns to what makes the Joe Pickett series great. I'll be in no great hurry to read the next one.

This book was a terrible disappointment to me. So much so that I couldn´t finish it even though it was written by a man who had previously been one of my favorite authors, an author whose work will never again find its way onto my iPad.

Box injected his far-right politics into the story. In fact, it was a primary theme as the lunatic notion that the so-called Antifa is a well-organized effort to undermine the US government.

´nuff said.

I'm putting this book down. Totally full of propaganda regarding Antifa and Black lives matter. while also writing a story line about the horror of Nazis fascists...trying to counter balance? Antifa stands for anti fascists after all. This writer has always skated around the edges but this is full on politically charged crap. The character's all seem insecure...even the family members seem ackward with each other, the first line for Joe Pickett, when his daughter comes home from Thanksgiving is, "don't let her drink all my beer." I have never totally appreciated the lack of confidence in the protagonist in these storylines and he appears weak, worried and picked on again. He usually rallies, but he's no Jack Reacher. Now I know why and where the writers head is at. He brought politics into a previously fairly good series. I'm surprised the editors let him. I heard he was doing a tv show. Way to blow it. I wont be watching.

Not the best

I have read every one these but this one of Joe Pickett this one was way out in left field. Really stupid.

As a recent Joe Picket convert who has breezed her way through the entire series in a very short time, the chance to read Shadows Reel was a thrill! Each book catching up with the Picket family is like coming home again. Sometimes the reader must suspend belief to go along with these boosk, but I always find that if I do my enjoyment is immense.

Wyoming Game Warden Joe Picket’s life seems easy, but over the years his occupation has caused his family much hardship. In this episode, his wife, librarian Marybeth is the one to run into difficult territory when a mysterious photo album is delivered anonymously to her library. Upon further investigation by Marybeth, it appears to have belonged to an infamous Nazi official. The question is who left it here and why. As Marybeth and Joe investigate further, things take a serious turn when people begin to turn up dead.

Additionally, everyone’s favorite, Nate Romanowski is looking for the man who stole his falcons and attacked his wife. In typical Nate fashion, he leaves no stone unturned to find his man and get his kind of justice.

As usual, Joe and Marybeth’s daughters, now grown, are featured in the story making one wonder where the series will take them. I’m hoping possibly a spin off as the two oldest are very interested in law enforcement.

With typical Joe Picket form and to no surprise to the reader, the storylines are wrapped up in a tidy fashion. I could find no problems with this and was quite happy as usual with the conclusion. I am looking forward to the next installment and hope this series never ends!
Many thanks to Penguin Group and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review. I gave this book four stars!

Wow, after 21 books it amazes me that an author can keep up this great quality of writing. Shadows Reel by C. J. Box is the 22nd book about game warden Joe Pickett. In this book we have two crimes that needs solving, one is the mystery of a burned man in a field and the other is where are Nates airforce? This book has all the ingredients I have come to love about this series. A great storyline, marvelous characters and great setting. I read the book in one sitting, it is that good. Well written and captivating with a lot of personal developments in the characters lives. On top of this there is some real life events behind as well. I really must thank @penguinrandomhouse and #GPPutnamsSons and @this_is_edelweiss for granting me the opportunity to read this advance copy of #ShadowsReel and @cjboxnovels for keeping this series alive and kicking. If you want to know more about these books I say "Lend me your ear"

I think this book may have been my least favorite so far of the series. While I know that the author often has a political agenda in mind...pipe lines, wind mills for energy, etc. I was not real thrilled to read about antifa and BLM riots. I knew that the book would continue from the last with Nate pursuing Soledad, the man who had stolen his birds and beaten up his wife. I did find the bits about the Nazi photo album at least interesting and was not too surprised at the lengths the family went to in getting it back.. It was good to have the girls back home, but not much was said about them. It sounded like perhaps he ws going to explore April's thoughts of being a private investigator. Might she be working with her dad?

C.J. Box and Michael Connelly (see Connelly's The Dark Hours) are better at channeling law enforcement despondency over the BLM/Antifa/defund the police movements than all the other writers out there put together. That is a brief but achingly vivid part of this book. And then there are the Nazis, and Nate is back, and all three of the Pickett girls are live and in color, and forget Marybeth at your peril, and I'm hoping this isn't the last we've seen of Geronimo Jones. Good one.

No. 22 in the Joe Pickett series--another 5 star read.

This book reads like a first draft, with sentence fragments and poorly constructed narrative throughout. I didn't care for the plotting, and the research presented in the acknowledgements was thin at best, and the storyline was clear evidence of this. I read the whole book because I'm 21 books deep into Joe Pickett, but for me, the earlier novels were Box's best work. I'm not sure if I'll pick up #23.

As with all C.J. Box stories, Shadows Reel (GP. Putnam 2022), Book 22 of the Joe Pickett series, is clever, fast moving, and about human desires like family, loyalty, and love of animals most of us relate to. Joe Pickett is a game warden in Twelve Sleep, Wyoming. That doesn't sound dangerous, but in the hands of Joe Pickett, who can't turn his back on injustice and is a dog with a bone when faced with a puzzle, mysteries abound that must be solved. In this case, there are two and neither of Joe's making. His wife Marybeth is head librarian of the local library and receives an anonymous gift of a photo album including authentic Nazi images. It could be simply a resource for the WWII collection until people start dying associated with it and Joe's family ends in the crosshairs of a man who wants that photo album to himself.

While that is going on (did I mention this occurs during the Thanksgiving holiday?), Joe's best friend, Nate Romanowski, is on the trail of the thief who stole his entire collection of ten falcons and killed three more and attacked his wife. Not only did it put Nate out of business, but Nate raised those birds since they were chicks. They were almost family to him, a man who is closer to his birds than to most people. That they are stolen, possibly abused, faced with illegal owners who may not respect their majesty puts Nate in a black mood that is not healthy for anyone associated with this crime. The fact that the thieves may be tied to BLM and Antifa doesn't even slow Nate down.

Another excellent story that just never slows, never stops, and introduces a few delicious twists that will have to be addressed in future books. Highly recommended.

Marybeth Pickett finds an unmarked package at the front door of the library where she works. When she opens the package she finds a photo album that had belonged to an infamous Nazi official at one time. Who left it there? And why? How will she and Joe figure out the book’s mystery before someone hurts them or their girls?

There was a lot going on in Shadows Reel and that's not a good thing. I have absolutely LOVED this series from the very beginning but this time out, I felt as though there were too many characters crowding onto the stage and Joe was reduced to a supporting role. Even Nate was reduced to a subplot. In my opinion, the primary plot regarding the Nazi photo album differed too much from the other books in the series. (From reading the afterward, I see that the storyline was based on an actual Nazi photo album. But, it honestly didn't hold my attention.)

There were also many political references in Nate's storyline that I felt were unnecessary. I found myself skimming, which I have never done with any of the other books in the series.

I very much enjoyed Geronimo Jones! And I very much disliked April in this book.

I'll end this review by writing that Joe wrecked his truck (😂) and the dog didn't die. (❤️️)

Game warden Joe Pickett’s family faces danger after his wife discovers a sinister photo album with Nazi ties. In the meantime, his good friend Nate Romanowski seeks redemption for the attack on his family and theft of his prized falcons.

Reading the next Joe Pickett book every year is like sitting down for a good meal with an old friend. Box’s writing never fails to entertain. I’ve loved witnessing how his family has grown in this long run series. His daughters were little when the series began and are now young adults with lives of their own. Joe and Nate’s adventures always hold my attention and keep me at the edge of my seat. I look forward to the next in this series.

Many thanks to Netgalley, Edelweiss, G.P. Putnam’s Sons and C. J. Box for my complimentary e-copy ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Another great Joe Pickett story! Feels like these books are getting more violent - or Joe is just getting himself into more dire situations. Bullets fly. Vehicles are destroyed. Near death experiences. And usually, his friend Nate steps in to help. I'm 2 books away from being current in the series. As mentioned before - go with the audiobooks if you have the chance. Narrator David Chandler is awesome.