C.J. Box is one of the doyens of crime-writing in the US, and has won a heap of prizes including the Anthony, Prix Calibre, Macavity, Gumshoe and Barry Awards. His books invariably reside in the New York Times Bestsellers List for months on end, cementing his reputation as a popular as well as a critically acclaimed writer.
His previous work as a ranchhand and fishing guide inject his descriptions of farm-life with an authenticity that’s impossible to fake. This is a guy who’s lived and breathed life in rural America, and you sense that he’d be as comfortable in a saddle or by a river as he is writing novels. This comes through in his work – there’s an effortlessness to his depictions of life and people in smalltown farming communities that pervades the pages of his work, almost as if you could smell the fresh air and pine trees and hear the sounds of the forest.
Blue Heaven, the first of his eleven novels that’s not part of a series, was published in 2008 in The States and has already been optioned for film which is not surprising - I had an overwhelming sense when reading it was that it was wonderfully cinematic. It will make a knuckle-chewing film, full of suspense and intrigue. The novel has been re-published in paperback in the UK this month (July 2010) by Corvus.
Twisted cops feature in many US dramas and they loom large in Blue Heaven. The action is set in Kootenai Bay and the surrounding community in Northern Idaho. This is heavily forested land which is fast being developed by hungry real-estate sharks – the area has earned the monicker Blue Heaven among LA cops because it’s a dream place for retirement. We learn early on that many previous LAPD officers have settled here, some of whom keep very much to themselves.
The action is centred around twelve year-old Annie Taylor, a spirited child of a single mother, Monica, and Annie’s brother, ten year-old William, who’s softer and more pliable. Monica, a thirtyish good-looking blonde with a poor taste in men, has started an affair with a charming UPS driver, Tom. Against her better judgement, Monica lets Tom stay the night. When Annie sees Tom the next morning, she’s furious – both Annie and William’s fathers ended up in prison, and William’s, a drug dealer, died in a prison riot , and Annie has been assured that no other man will saunter casually into their lives. Tom, a shallow chancer, says he’ll take William fishing that afternoon but promptly forgets. Annie, incensed, decides to take William fishing herself, so they thumb a ride with the gossipy local postwoman Fiona, and make their way through the forest to the river.
But then they see something that fills them with horror. They watch from afar as three strangers drill bullets into a fourth in a clearing near the river. To make matters worse, the killers see them, and give chase, determined to kill these young witnesses to their crime. So Annie and her brother go on the run. They can’t go to the authorities for reasons that become obvious. And the hunt for the missing children that is launched by the community is thwarted and twisted by the killers, who are in positions of power and manage to take over the search.
The story is further complicated by the arrival of Eduardo Villatoro, a retired police detective from Arcadia, California who is trying to solve a crime that has bothered him for eight years.
Meanwhile, local rancher Jess Rawlins is in deep financial trouble. His wife has left him, taking most of his liquid assets, and he’s being pressurised to sell up to meet his debts.
Box is a talented writer. His prose is clear and concise, lucid and spare, and his dialogue snappy and realistic. He knows how to build up trepidation and fear, and readers will be glued to the book with their fingernails gripping their chairs. His characters are fully developed and complex, something that is not always the case in the thriller genre. In particular, the venal Fiona Pritzle is a delight with her high-pitched baby voice, caked-on-with-a-trowel make-up, shameless prying and rumour-mongering, vanity, unselective man-hunting and her attention-seeking behaviour; the kind of character you love to loathe. Jess Rawlins is also a three-dimensional figure, a quiet, loyal man’s man, honourable and proud, incapable of small-talk yet able to move mountains for those he loves.
The histories of the characters are backed up by real-life contemporary events which make the action even more credible. The retired LAPD cops refer to the Rodney King affair and ensuing riots which happened on their terrain. The motivation behind their actions is also explained. In this way Box skilfully avoids creating cartoon ‘baddies’. We can see how the omniously calm Singer became hurt and disillusioned as a ‘good’ cop and became twisted and aloof; the taciturn killer. We learn from the malevolent and violent Gonzalez’s family history why he is so determined to reap the benefits of the hard work of his parents and grandparents. And the conflicted Newkirk’s descent into crime is also clarified, the alternative path that can turn a good family man being elucidated with chilling ease.
The whole drama is packed into a long weekend and the chapters are headed only with the date and the time, which adds to the suspense – time crawls by and the reader feels as if they’re watching the slo-mo film of a a professional execution. It’s only a matter of time before someone gets killed.
Blue Heaven is a thrilling crime novel that manages to be impeccably written as well as artfully plotted. It’s a rare combination in a genre that’s often filled with cliche-ridden, pulpy prose, two-dimensional characters and plots that lack intelligence or credibility. Box is a master of his genre and I’m looking forward to the film.
2 Responses to Blue Heaven – C.J.Box
Sounds interesting Leyla. Think I’ve heard of this guy before. Good review.
Thank you, Stephen. Yes, C.J. Box is quite big in The States. I saw a photo of him and he looks like a sleepy rancher in his big stetson, you’d never guess he was capable of writing such sharp thrillers.
I haven’t read that much crime fiction because of a (probably erroneous) assumption that most of them are pulpy and sloppily written. But I may start reading more now, as I’ve read two good ones recently, this one and the Tallis, which was less suspense-full and more steeped in Freudian psychology. Mr Leyla is into PD James so I might give her a whirl.