THE BITTERROOTS

4 stars out of 5

After being mentored by Cody Hoyt, a character from another series by this author, Cassie Dewell is off on her own as a private investigator. She's got a son, Ben, and lives with him and her hippie mother in Bozeman, Montana. She's also dragging around a ton of emotional baggage from her past - baggage that continues to bog her down in this, the fourth installment.

It comes in the form of a big black semi, which idles for a few minutes in front of her house - bringing a stark reminder of a now-dead serial killer and fears that some way, some how, someone from that disturbing part of her life has come back to haunt her. Meantime, an attorney friend to whom she owes a favor calls in a big one: she's defending an accused child rapist and wants Cassie to find out how strong the prosecution's case is so she can plan her trial strategy (or beg the client, who denies any wrongdoing, to take a plea deal). Cassie's certain he's guilty, but her friend convinces her that she's really not trying to get him off (and besides, there's that favor thing) so Cassie agrees and heads out to remote Lochsa County. 

There, she bumps heads with a family from hell - descendants of a branch of religious cult Hutterites who, quite literally, own everything and everybody in the county. Her friend's client, it seems, is their first-born son, who essentially has been disowned because he left home to make his home and fortune elsewhere. Besides that, the young girl he's accused of raping is his niece - the daughter of a brother who stuck with the family program. It goes without saying, then, that Cassie isn't welcome in them there parts.

Threats to her life notwithstanding, Cassie ferrets out enough evidence to make her visit worthwhile; the trick now is getting back out alive. While she's trying to deal with some of the nastiest characters I've read about in a while, her son is having issues of his own, including teenage infatuation, a grandmother who's firmly rooted in the 1960s and yes, that big black semi.

It all makes for a very readable, fast-paced book with a couple of surprises thrown in at the end. Enjoyed it!

The Bitterroots by C.J. Box (Minotaur Books, August 2019); 320 pp.