Blue Heaven-C.J. Box

Blue Heaven
C.J. Box
St. Martin’s, Jan 2008, $24.95
ISBN 9780312365707

In Kootenai Bay, Idaho, the Tyler siblings, twelve years old Annie and ten years old William Taylor, are playing in the nearby woods when they witness a hideous homicide. The duo flees, but not before the killers spot them. The culprits are retired LAPD officers who left the force eight years ago after getting away with a local heist; they will not allow witnesses to live as happened back in Southern California.

The preadolescent pair knows their lives are in danger from the retired dirty cops. The kids take refuge in the barn of rancher Jess Rawlins. He sees them hiding there and believes their tale even as the dirty former cops volunteer to help the sheriff’s department search for the two missing children.

Although no Joe Pickett, this is an engaging crime thriller as Jess plays cat and mouse with the killers while the children are the cheese. The action is at its best when the story line focuses on the current situation but a sidebar involving an investigation into a Southern California robbery murder takes away from the prime tale of two kids in trouble with their murderous pursuer’s part of the rescue team.

Harriet Klausner