Badlands (Cassie Dewell, #2) (Cody Hoyt / Cassie Dewell Novels, #3) (Highway Quartet, #3)

by C J Box

"Edgar Award-winning, New York Times bestselling author C.J. Box is back with a masterpiece of suspense set in a time and place that readers won't soon forget. Twenty miles across the North Dakota border, where the scenery goes from rolling grass prairie to pipeline fields, detective Cassie Dewell has been assigned as the new deputy sheriff of Grimstad-a place people used to be from, but were never headed to. Grimstad is now the oil capital of North Dakota. With oil comes money, with money comes drugs, and with drugs come the dirtiest criminals hustling to corner the market. In the small town resides twelve-year-old Kyle Westergaard. Even though Kyle has been written off as the "slow" kid, he has dreams deeper than anyone can imagine. He wants to get out of town, take care of his mother, and give them a better life. While delivering newspapers, he witnesses a car accident and takes a mysterious bundle from the scene. Now in possession of a lot of money and packets of white powder, Kyle wonders if his luck has changed. When the temperature drops to 30 below and a gang war heats up, Cassie realizes that she may be in over her head. As she is propelled on a collision course with a murderous enemy, she finds that the key to it all might come in the most unlikely form: an undersized boy on a bike who keeps showing up where he doesn't belong. Because a boy like Kyle is invisible. But he sees everything"--

"Twelve-year-old Kyle Westergaard lives with his single mother in a small North Dakota town that was once just a stopover on the way to The Badlands but has recently boomed and become the heart of the Bakken Oil Field. Even though Kyle has been written off by everyone as "slow" and "learning disabled," he has dreams and deeper thoughts than anyone can imagine. He wants to get out of town, take care of his mother, and give them a better life. While delivering newspapers, he witnesses a car accident where a mysterious bundle flies out and he thinks his fortunes might have changed. The bundle is filled with money and packets of white powder. His mother's boyfriend, T-Lock, tells him it is worth hundreds of thousands and Kyle shouldn't tell anyone. He, T-Lock, will handle it for all of them. Cassie Dewell (The Highway) is the new deputy sheriff in town and the only female in the department. In this newly rich town where men outnumber women twenty-to-one, the police need all the help they can get. With oil comes money. With money comes drugs. With drugs comes violent gangs wanting to corner the market and infiltrate the cops. When the temperature drops to 30 below and a gang war heats up, Cassie realizes she may be in over her head. She becomes the target of someone who is leaving body parts where she is most likely to find them. As she is propelled on a collision course with a murderous enemy, she finds that the key to it all might come in the most unlikely form: an undersized twelve-year-old boy on a bike who keeps showing up where he doesn't belong. Badlands is a masterpiece of suspense, detailing family dynamics and small-town politics in a time and place like no other"--

• ISBN10: 0312583214
• ISBN13: 9780312583217
• Publish Date: 28 July 2015
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 6 December 2021
• Imprint: Minotaur Books
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 288
• Language: English

Reviews

[EBookObsessed]

If you liked Fargo, either the movie or the TV series, you will like the writing of C.J. Box. This was my first novel from this author and at the very least, I want to read the prior novel, The Highway. Be warned, just like Fargo, it doesn’t hold back on the violence.

Kyle Westergaard is a twelve-year-old in the once sleepy Town of Grimstad, North Dakotah. He is treated differently than the other kids. He is the victim of fetal alcohol syndrome and everyone treats him like he is slow. He might not speak very clearly, but he is hard worker and he taken up a paper route to help support his mom. Winter is coming and it is getting harder to ride his bike each morning, especially since there are so few houses out along the route he was assigned. His fingers and feet keep freezing and the snow already on the ground makes it harder to get around. That is probably why he was still out near the highway when he saw two cars racing down the road. One of the cars crashed and as it flipped something large came flying out near his feet. The police were already on their way so he grabbed the bundle and put it in his delivery sack to look at later. Kyle never expected to find it filled with stacks of cash and little packets of powder.

Meanwhile, Det. Cassie Dewell will be starting her new job as Chief Investigator for the Grimstad Sheriff’s Department. Fracking oil out of the ground is changing the little town of Grimstad and not all the changes are so wonderful. Several local farmers have become instant millionaires selling their properties off to the big oil companies. Previously unemployed locals can now get $18 an hour to work at McDonalds. The town can’t keep up with the boom and housing is become more expensive than downtown Manhattan. Scores of men from all of the country are getting off the train everyday looking for employment. This financial blessing and new lifeblood to the area also comes a dark side, increased crime, prostitution and drugs.

Cassie is offered the investigator position not only to help keep the crime under control, Sheriff Kirkbride is concerned that not all of his new deputies have the town’s best interest at heart.

Before Cassie Dewell takes her new job, she will hopefully be able to close the case of the serial killer known as The Lizard King. The Sheriff’s office down in North Carolina as well as the DA and the FBI want her to look at a man they have in custody. They are certain this is their killer but they don’t have enough just cause to keep him locked up and are hoping that Cassie’s appearance might shock him into making a mistake.

THOUGHTS:
I liked the quirky storytelling of Fargo, both the movie and the TV series. This story is graphically violent so you need to keep that in mind before you grab a copy. The tension in this story doesn’t come with trying to figure out who the bad guy is. The characters are so well written you know who is good and who is bad as soon as they are introduced.

The tension is brought into the story because we can pinpoint exactly where each character makes that one decision which is going to ruin their lives. It’s like a car accident. You are stuck watching the accident about to happen in front of you. You know it’s going to happen. You can’t stop it. But you are fascinated to see just how bloody it’s going to get.

Kyle brings the bag of cash and drugs to his mother’s boyfriend who is an unemployed freeloader, even thought jobs are opening everywhere in town and the oil companies are paying big money for workers. You know the moment he starts with “Don’t tell your mom” and “we’re gonna sell these drugs ourselves” that it is not going to end well because, unlike this loser, we know that drug dealers aren’t going to walk away from over a million in drugs and cash which goes missing.

Motorcycle gangs and the MS-13 are already fighting to dominate the drug market in Grimstad and they will stop at nothing (and I mean nothing) to get those drugs back.

The story isn’t action packed but it is quite compelling and you will keep reading even knowing that trouble is just around the corner.

Since I received a physical book for review, I have a list of people who I know will enjoy this story.

I want to pick up The Highway which is the story of the serial killer, The Lizard King. If it is as graphic as this one, I might not be able to sleep again.

Received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.