Book Review: Badlands by C.J. Box

I told you it wouldn’t be much time before I got my hands on C.J. Box’s second novel in the Cassie Dewell series, Badlands. After the first book, which the show Big Sky followed more closely than I anticipated, I was really curious to see if what’s happened in the second half of the season so far follows Box’s second novel just as closely.

Well, it doesn’t. Like not even a little bit really. I mean the first glaring difference is that Jenny Hoyt is not a part of the series past the first novel, and even her capacity there was very limited. Mainly though, Cassie isn’t even in Montana anymore! She basically starts off this novel by landing a chief investigator job in Grimstad, North Dakota. A big difference here is she automatically feels like she can trust Sherriff Kirkbride, and he definitely trusts Cassie. She’s got a lot to deal with though, because Grimstad recently saw a huge uptick in population when fracking became a hit up there. It’s mainly a man’s world in Grimstad, so Cassie feels she’s got a lot to prove.

Meanwhile, before she really gets started, Ronald gets caught! But don’t get too excited because he’s changed his name an appearance, and basically everything about him seems untouchable. Police in North Carolina only pulled him over and searched his trailer based on a hunch, and almost the whole rig was spotless. Because of somewhat sloppy police work, Ronald is probably going to get out scot-free, even after snapping and trying to kill Cassie in an interrogation room. All that mess happens pretty early on in the novel, so Ronald is definitely second fiddle this time around. I’m sure he’ll play a larger part in the next novel.

Cassie’s got her hands full with a totally different case this time around, only it starts with a young boy delivering newspapers. Kyle witnesses a pretty gnarly crash, sees some questionable cops, and picks up a package before heading back to his rough home life. There, his mother’s boyfriend, T-Lock realizes that Kyle took a duffle full of cash and drugs from the scene and decides to cash in on it. As you can imagine, this definitely doesn’t work out for T-Lock, but his demise comes in a much more surprising manner.

Turns out these drugs belong to pretty nasty cartel, and two of its member start causing chaos through town. Kirkbride already has Cassie looking to find some dirty cops in the department, so it’s obviously only a matter of time before the two issues intersect. There are a lot of interworking parts at play that are too complicated and detailed for me to try and explain, but it all works itself out pretty impressively by the end of the novel. Even though resolutions are met, it’s clear she shouldn’t get too comfortable now that Ronald is out on the road again.

Overall, I found this book really compelling even though it totally strays from the show. Perhaps that’s a blessing in disguise because now I have nothing to compare the show to! The book was the guide, but now David E. Kelly is making his own way. A character in the novel, Ian Davis, is an undercover cop in the department and I really liked his and Cassie’s team-up towards the end of the novel. I imagine that Mark Lindor is serving that same purpose on the show, so I’m here for it! Despite the diversion the show has taken, I’d still like to get my hands on the third novel soon to see if Ronald’s story matches more closely to what’s going on with him in the show.