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Summary
Summary
"Christina Delaine delivers a thrilling performance of this high-stakes hunt for a killer...Notably, Delaine's sensitive portrayal of a young man with a speech impediment adds emotional depth, while her depiction of the elusive Lizard King generates chills." -- AudioFile Magazine
She almost caught him once. Now, he's back.
For three years, Investigator Cassie Dewell has been on a hunt for a serial killer known as the Lizard King whose hunting grounds are the highways and truck stops where runaways and prostitutes are most likely to vanish. Cassie almost caught him...once.
Working for the Bakken County, North Dakota sheriff's department, Cassie has set what she believes is the perfect trap and she has lured him and his truck to a depot. But the plan goes horribly wrong, and the blame falls on Cassie. Disgraced, she loses her job and investigation into her role is put into motion.
At the same time, Kyle Westergaard, a troubled kid whom Cassie has taken under her wing, has disappeared after telling people that he's going off on a long-planned adventure. Kyle's grandmother begs Cassie to find him and, with nothing else to do, Cassie agrees--all the while hunting the truck driver.
Now Cassie is a lone wolf. And in the same way that two streams converge into a river, Kyle's disappearance may have a more sinister meaning than anyone realizes. With no allies, no support, and only her own wits to rely on, Cassie must take down a killer who is as ruthless as he is cunning. But can she do it alone, without losing her own humanity or her own life?
Paradise Valley continues the Highway Quartet series from bestselling author C. J. Box.
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Bestseller Box's excellent conclusion to a quartet of loosely related novels that started with 2011's Back of Beyond finds Cassie Dewell now the chief investigator for the Bakken County (N.Dak.) Sheriff's Department. Cassie convinces her boss, Sheriff John Kirkbride, to approve a sting operation designed to entrap serial killer Ronald Pergram, an independent trucker who preys on truck stop prostitutes. Having eluded capture in 2013's The Highway, the cunning Pergram gets wind of the plan and booby traps his truck, which explodes and kills several local police and feds involved in the operation, including Cassie's fiancé. In the aftermath, Cassie is suspended and obnoxious county attorney Avery Tibbs subsequently forces her to resign. Meanwhile, Pergram goes on a kidnapping spree that leads to Cassie getting back on the force and the case. The intrepid, appealing Cassie relies on her keen investigative instincts to hone in on Pergram in this top-notch thriller, which makes vivid use of the American West. 250,000-copy announced first printing; author tour. Agent: Ann Rittenberg, Ann Rittenberg Literary Agency. (July) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
Box takes another break from the travails of Wyoming Fish and Game Warden Joe Pickett (Vicious Circle, 2017, etc.) to throw a serial killer at a dogged investigator and vice versa.His real name is Ronald Pergram, but he's more widely known as the Lizard King because of his habit of abducting lot lizardsprostitutes who work truckers' parking lotsand driving off with them into the endless sunset. And Cassandra Dewell, chief investigator for the Bakken County Sheriff's Department, has been after him for more than three years, ever since veteran Sheriff Jon Kirkbride recruited her from Montana and began to train her as his successor. Now that the deep-laid trap Cassie's set for the Lizard seems to be about to snap shut, she's arranged for every available lawman to be on hand when the Lizard's truck, complete with his latest victim, or at least with forensic evidence he hasn't yet had time to clean off, crosses North Dakota and heads west into Bakken County. On the very same day Cassie's set her trap, her son's friend Kyle Westergaard and his buddy Raheem Johnson, both 14, plan to pull a Huck and Jim and light out for the wide open spaces on a boat they hope to row to New Orleans. All too predictably, Cassie's trap goes horribly wrong, leaving her frozen out of the department by slimy new Bakken County attorney Avery Tibbs and the Lizard with several new hostages on his hands, setting the stage for a dogged pursuit all the way to Yellowstone National Park. Box handles both the set pieces and the longer arc with professional dexterity. The results can't exactly be called memorable, but if you like chases across wide-open spaces, you'll race toward the satisfying climax without caring about anything else. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Though this one is billed as a stand-alone, Box fans will have a hard time not seeing it as part of a miniseries that began with Cody Hoyt in Back of Beyond (2011) and The Highway (2013) and then continued as Cody's partner, Cassie Dewell, took center stage in the excellent Badlands (2015). Dewell, chief investigator of the Bakken County Sheriff's Department in North Dakota, is still chasing truck-driving serial killer Ronald Pergram, aka the Lizard King, and thinks she's closing in as the book opens. When her initial effort is derailed, she finds herself off the force, tracking a couple of missing kids (one of them Kyle Westergaard, another returning character) without knowing the cases are linked together. Cassie is a great character dogged yet self-doubting and, in the Lizard King, Box has a villain well worthy of bringing back here. While the ending doesn't quite equal the breathless, thunderous climaxes he's given us before, Box deftly delivers page-turning suspense. Readers who couldn't put down Badlands will definitely want to pick this one up. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: With a 250,000-copy print run, a national one-day laydown, and a 12-city author tour, libraries had better have multiple copies of Paradise Valley on the shelf.--Graff, Keir Copyright 2017 Booklist
Library Journal Review
In this third installment of the series (after The Highway and Badlands), Cassie Dewell has been suspended from her job as chief investigator for the Bakken County, ND, sheriff's department, when her plan to capture the serial killer known as the Lizard King went badly awry. Pending an investigation, Cassie uses her free time to probe the disappearance of three Grimstad residents, including her son's friend, Kyle Westergaard. Clues lead Cassie to Paradise Valley, MT, childhood home of the Lizard King. Here, Cassie and her late partner, Cody Hoyt, had first uncovered the highway killer's gruesome deeds. With the help of mountain guide Bull Mitchell, Cassie tracks the Lizard King and his three captives to a remote cabin where, in a climatic finale, she comes face-to-face with the man she has long hunted. -VERDICT Box's many fans will devour this dark thriller, which is sure to be another hit for the author. [See Prepub Alert, 3/1/17.]-Patricia Ann Owens, formerly at Illinois Eastern Community Coll., Mt. Carmel © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
