I told you all it was coming, and here it is! My review of The Highway by C.J. Box is the novel that inspired the ABC show, Big Sky. When I learned that the show as inspired by a book I knew I had to get my hands on it regardless of where the season was at. A large part of that has to do with the fact that the events in the show just seem a little off.
Turns out, The Highway is the first of four Cassie Dewell novels, so I’ve still got some work to do. Something else I concluded about halfway through was that the contents of this book were not going to cover what just started happening in the spring premiere. Maybe the next book will. Anyways, the book opens with Cassie spying on Cody Hoyt as he returns to a crime scene to plant evidence. Why is he doing that, you ask? Well, it’s because he is actually still an investigator with the police department! Cassie’s spying pays off though and Tubman fires Cody. Immediately afterwards Cassie feels terrible that she played a part in Cody’s firing, because although he fudged the truth sometimes, he was still good at his job and put away a lot of bad guys. She also didn’t like that she was being used by Tubman, who she later finds out from Cody that he’s been getting some dirty money.
Meanwhile, the Sullivan girls are taking their road trip to visit Danielle’s boyfriend Justin when they antagonize Ronald (mistake) and then their car breaks down. That’s certainly enough time for them to get tased, roofied, and put in the back of Ronald’s semi. He takes them to some abandoned place owned by none other than Montana State Trooper, Rick Legarski. There is a third gentleman, named Jimmy, who’s also involved with these abominations. It also appears that sex trafficking is not the end goal for the Sullivan girls like it was in the series, but instead murder was going to be the end result. Justin’s got a little more involvement in the novel, as he’s really concerned when he can no longer contact either of the girls. Pretty soon Cody and Cassie get down to business and start looking.
Cody unfortunately seals his own fate when he meets with Legarski and starts poking holes in his cult theory. It’s enough questioning to make Legarski end that line of questioning by shooting Cody point blank in his truck. Not long after though, Cassie pays him a visit with the same kind of questions, and this time she’s also looking for Cody, since Rick’s the last person he probably saw. In the end, Rick’s ex-wife and some damning video footage provided by Ronald are what gives Rick away. Cassie guns him down and rescues the girls, but knows that Ronald is still out there and needs to be caught.
All in all, the first nine episodes of Big Sky are what this book covers. Some of the events are really spread out, like Cassie shooting Rick, but others, like Cody getting killed, happens in the first episode! He at least hangs on for half the novel. There are plenty of other small differences, but some of the glaring ones are that Jerrie doesn’t exist in the novel, nor is Jenny in law enforcement either. Perhaps the biggest difference, for now at least, is the nature of Ronald’s character. In the show, I get the impression that he’s sort of new to this abduction game, where in the novel he is described as the “Lizard King,” who had killed numerous women at truck stops. He’s a bonafied serial killer. I like that Rick seemed like the big baddie, but I think there is potential for Ronald to reach Lizard King status by the end of the season. Right now, there still seems to be a little bit of humanity still in him, despite all the bad he’s done in the show.
Despite those differences, I was honestly surprised by how closely the source material was followed. I understand needing to beef up some parts if you want to have a long-lasting show, but, if they’re going to burn through material in nine episodes, then they’re going to run out pretty quick! With how abruptly things switched gears in the season premiere of the show, I think they could have fared better by making it more in the vein of a limited series. I plan on getting my hands on Box’s second novel in the series, Badlands, soon, so I will report back!