Amazon review of "Nowhere to Run" by CJ Box

I reviewed on Amazon Amazon the book by CJ Box, "Nowhere to Run."

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This was my first Box book. My wife has been raving about him, so I picked it up...., and could not put it down. It is a great read. It has action, excitement, a verbal panorama of the western mountain states, and does something that few mainstream writers have the courage to do. He attempts to explain the deep undercurrent of populist resentment against the "government men" who are, according to the populists, destroying the freedoms that built the country. I was shocked at the book, because you almost never find these sentiments expressed in popular culture. They are usually limited to websites and groups concerning themselves with guns, libertarianism, and various political fringe groups. Splinter groups and survivalists are either the heroes or (more often) crazy right wing loons. It is interesting to me that Box shows an awareness of the issues stirring these groups, and even a sympathy for them, without aligning himself with them. I found the ending to be fairly gripping, as Joe Pickett holds on to a loyalty to the existing legal structures while recognizing that something is very very rotten in them. Maybe I find that compelling because that is where I find myself.

I read the book on the anniversary of Ruby Ridge (August 21, 1992) and was struck by how many of the issues that prompted that mess have remained the same, and are now bubbling to the surface in contemporary literature.