Breaking Point by C.J. Box is the 13th book in the “Joe Pickett” thriller series. Publisher: Putnam, March 2013

It was always good to see Butch Roberson, Joe thought—a hardworking, upright local business owner whose daughter was friends with his own. Little did he know that when he talked to Butch that day in the forest, the man was about to disappear. He was heading into the mountains to scout elk, he said, but instead he was running. Two EPA employees had just been murdered, and all signs pointed to him as the killer.

As the manhunt organized itself, Joe heard more of the story—about the tract of land Butch and his wife had bought to build their retirement home on, until the EPA declared it a wetland. About the penalties they charged him when he balked, new ones piling up every day, until the family was torn apart . . . and finally, it seems, the man just cracked.

It was an awful story. But was it the whole story? The more Joe looks into it, the more he begins to wonder—and the more he finds himself in the middle of a war he never expected and never wanted. Powerful forces want Roberson not just caught but dead—and the same goes for anyone who stands in their way.

Every man reaches his breaking point. Joe Pickett may just have reached his.

C. J. Box has done it again; he delivered a dramatic thriller that I could not put down from start to finish. The action never stops in this riveting and well-written suspenseful plot with great characterization headed by Joe as he races against time to thwart more bloodshed. With some surprising twists, this is a great read and I look forward to the next book in this gripping series.