Don’t run with scissors.
Be careful with that pocket knife; it’ll cut you. That kitchen cleaver will slice your finger. So will paper, for that matter, but you never give it the same respect you do with something, as in the new novel, “Three-Inch Teeth” by C.J. Box, that sports a serious blade or sharp points.
Wyoming Game Warden Joe Pickett was glad his daughter, Sheridan, had no plans on marrying Clay Hutmacher Jr. – not that he didn’t like Clay, but he knew Sheridan had big plans for her own future. She said later that if Hutmacher Jr. had asked, she would have been uncomfortable having to say “no” to the proposal. But that was something she never had to do, because young Hutmacher was killed by a grizzly bear before he could even ask.
Despite the activists who lobbied for the bear’s life, the animal had to be dispatched. Twelve Sleep County couldn’t afford to have a murderous grizzly bear running around at the beginning of elk hunting season and Joe Pickett knew it, much as he hated to kill the animal. A rogue bear would attack again, if it could.
And so would Dallas Cates, now that he was out of prison.
One by one, Game Warden Pickett had caused the deaths of each of Cates’ family members in the worst way, and Cates had gotten prison tats to remind himself of his final mission in life: to get revenge. Pickett, his family, and more than a few people in Twelve Sleep County would die this week, but Cates needed to do it in a way that wouldn’t lead back to him. He reached out to the man he’d protected while they were both in prison.
Lee Ogburn-Russell was probably insane. For sure, he was something of an inventor with a murderous streak and he had an idea in mind that would kill in an instant.
And no one would ever connect him, or Dallas Cates…
For sure, you can say that “Three-Inch Teeth” is innovative. Other adjectives you might use: silly and far-fetched. Fantastical. Eh.
Without being a spoiler – although you’ll probably have everything figured out quickly and early – author C.J. Box introduces readers to a mad inventor and what is basically a deadly toy made with little more than fangs, baler twine, and old wire. Yes, one of readers’ favorite bad guys is back, but so is a new murderous maniac. Problem is, the latter is a caricature and he belongs more in a steampunk novel than the thriller you’ve come to expect – and on that note, well, there’s not more than a page or two of thriller. Instead, gruesomeness seems to replace it inside the plot, the end of which may have readers up in arms. Heavy sigh.
If you’re new to the Joe Pickett novels, “Three-Inch Teeth” is one hundred-percent absolutely not the one to begin with. The best advice for long-time fans, in fact, is to find this book on your TBR pile and cut it.
