C J Box - Blue Horizon

review by showhost
This was a new author for me, a book I picked up from a stall at the August Bank Holiday fete.
Monica Taylor lives with her 2 children, 12yr old Annie and 10yr old William in North Idaho. She has had a couple of disastrous relationships behind her and makes a promise to herself and her children that no man would stay overnight unless she was seriously thinking about marrying him. So, Annie was very hostile when mums boyfriend Tom came downstairs & joined herself and William for breakfast. Annie left for school very angry with her mum but William was happy because Tom had promised to go fishing with him after school.
It was Friday, their early finishing day but Tom didn’t show. Annie was so angry she decided she would take William fishing a decision that was to change their whole life. As they approached a clearing in the woods near the stream, they witness a murder, a man is shot several times by a group of men. Annie & William watch in stunned silence but before they have chance to flee the shooter turns and sees them. The chase is on. Annie & William don’t know who to trust or to turn to, especially after being given a lift by someone they thought was a friend of their mothers only to find out that he too is involved. The manage to evade capture but the search is now on for the missing children. Unfortunately the murderers are ex LAPD cops who live in Idaho and who are organizing the search party. They do find an ally in elderly rancher Jess Rawlins who aides and abets them.
The story told, the explanations made but with over a 100 pages yet to go all there was left was the ‘fight at the ok coral’ or ranch in this case. Just like the good old western books.
Money laundering, murder, bent cops and hogs who have a taste for human meat.
The book was gripping at times but it was too padded. It was quite predictable but a good enough holiday read that will keep you flicking over the pages without over taxing the brain.