C J Box - Blue Heaven

review by Brian Lowen live on show 24th May 2012.
Here is a book that really tugs at the heart strings, as I suppose any story would that involves lost children.

If twelve-year-old Annie hadn’t been angry with her Mother, she would never have taken her little brother William on a secret fishing trip deep into the North Idaho woods and they would never have witnessed the execution nor looked straight into the eyes of the four executioners.

Now they are running for their lives. They can’t go home because the killers know who they are and where they live. They can’t go to the law because the killers are four respected retired policeman who have volunteered as deputies to the Sheriff to try and find the missing children, but they, of course, have an ulterior motive for finding the children who are the only witnesses to their hideous crime. There’s nowhere for William and Annie to hide and there is no one they can trust, until they meet Jess Rawlins.

An old timer rancher, Rawlins knows there is something wrong with the law in Blue Heaven county, but when he is finally convinced that the children’s story is true, it is only him against four men who will stop at nothing to silence their witnesses.

The story really drags you along with the terror experienced by the children. You find yourself giving them helpful advice as you follow their frightening journey on the run from the four ex-cops, who also have another terrible secret that they are guarding against revelation

. Meanwhile their Mother, who is frantic with worry is being kept a virtual prisoner at home by one of the ex-cops, allegedly to safeguard her from intrusive journalists.

An excellent thriller, thoroughly recommended.