She Treads Softly: Three-Inch Teeth

Sunday, February 18, 2024

Three-Inch Teeth

Three-Inch Teeth by C. J. Box
2/27/24; 384 pages
Penguin, G.P. Putnam's Sons
Joe Pickett Series #24

"Mature grizzlies tend to have two- to four-inch claws and up to three-inch teeth."

Three-Inch Teeth by C. J. Box has Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett facing a rampaging bear and enraged human. It is a very highly recommended procedural/mystery and 24th addition to the popular, long running series.

When a grizzly kills Clay Hutmacher Jr., Sheridan Pickett's boyfriend, while he was out fly-fishing, Clay Sr. finds his son's body and immediately calls game warden Joe Pickett. It is clear what happened to Clay Jr. so Joe summons the Predator Attack Team. Normally they are successful in tracking and eliminating large predators who have attacked a human, but this time one of the team is attacked. As attacks begin to happen across the area, Joe is concerned that this bear is eluding everyone looking for it.

What Joe doesn't know is that Dallas Cates, a man he helped lock up years ago, has been released from prison. Cates has a list of six people that he plans to eliminate. Both Joe and Nate Romanowski are on the list of people he blames for the death of his family and he wants revenge.

The writing is excellent, as expected, and the pages just flew by in this tension packed installment of the series. I was actually surprised at the page count because it went by so fast. Fans of the series will know all the characters and their backstories but those new to the series will still be able to appreciate the finely tuned, fast-paced plot while meeting the characters. Once you read this you will want to read more books in the series.

The narrative alternates between Joe and Cates, which helps build suspense and a sense of urgency. Readers will begin to put clues together long before Joe, and Marybeth, his wife, begin to have an inkling of what may be happening. Sheridan also makes a surprising discovery when out on a job. Three-Inch Teeth is un-put-downable and will keep you engrossed right to the surprising and shocking ending. I can't wait for the next Joe Pickett novel! Thanks to G.P. Putnam's Sons for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

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John Updike's six rules for reviewing:

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation--at least one extended passage--of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.....Review the book, not the reputation.... Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.