Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Jun 2009
352 pages
Genre: Thrillers
Publication Information
Below Zero begins with an unassuming phone message: "Tell Sherry April called." But Sherry—Joe Pickett's oldest daughter, Sheridan—and the Pickett family are shaken to the core. April, Pickett's foster daughter, was killed in a horrific murder and arson spree six years prior. To Joe, it doesn’t seem even remotely possible that April could have survived the massacre described in Winterkill. He was there. But Sherry starts to believe there's a chance that April is still alive; the girl on the other end of the phone is able to recall family incidents that only April could know.
Joe, however, remains suspicious, especially when he discovers that the calls have been placed from locations where serious crimes have occurred.
At the same time, an older man and a much younger girl cross the country. The man is on a mission to repent for the crimes he's committed against the environment during his lifetime. He ultimately wants to offset each incident until he not only becomes carbon neutral, but actually drops below zero— as if he's never existed. As the path of these travelers starts to intersect with the Pickett family's, the question is raised: Is this young girl April—or are Joe and his family the victims of the cruelest of hoaxes?
"Starred Review. Box's series is the gold standard in the western mystery subgenre (Blood Trail ), and his latest is just as addictive as the others." - Library Journal
"Starred Review. Powered by provocative themes of environmental activism, this relentlessly paced powder keg of a thriller could be Box's best to date." - Publishers Weekly
"[T]he discussion isn't as nuanced as we've come to expect. The book is, however, a successful blend of the two things Box does best ..." - Booklist
"Despite incidental pleasures, this is the weakest of Joe's nine cases to date." - Kirkus
This information about Below Zero was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
C. J. Box is the author of thirty books, including the Joe Pickett series and the Cassie Dewell series, and a story collection. His books have been translated into twenty-seven languages. 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's an executive producer of ABC TV's Big Sky, which is based on his Cody Hoyt/Cassie Dewell novels, as well as executive producer of the Joe Pickett television series for Spectrum Originals. He lives with his wife on their ranch in Wyoming.
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