If you read THE BITTERROOTS carefully, you will find a similarity between former sheriff’s investigator and current PI Cassie Dewell and Colorado game warden Joe Pickett. C. J. Box is the creator of both, and could have played it safe and tight by making Cassie a female model of Pickett, figuring that the Montana background would provide some cover. But Box has an understated yet very real talent for creating unique characters with a flaw or two that makes them all too human, and has been doing so with Cassie for the last several years. As I said, there is a similarity between the characters --- a flaw that they share --- but you’ll have to look closely to zero in on it.

THE BITTERROOTS is the fourth book to feature Cassie Dewell, who has left her old job in law enforcement in the rearview mirror. While she can set her own hours as a private investigator, sometimes those hours set her, a tough deal for a single mother with a son on the cusp of adolescence. It is especially tough here when defense attorney Rachel Mitchell calls in a chit that Cassie owes her. Rachel’s boutique law firm has obtained some acquittals in a number of high-profile criminal cases. They may have taken on the wrong client, though, when they agree to represent Blake Kleinsasser.

"While this one is complete in itself, there is a plot thread (or maybe more than one) that could serve as the launching point for a future installment in the series, thus whispering a promise that Box will take his multitude of readers to Montana again and again."

Blake is a fortunate son, being the designated heir to a prosperous and powerful ranching family in Montana. He angered his father and siblings when he left and made a fortune in the New York financial markets. He recently returned to Montana to offer his assistance in straightening out some estate matters, but was arrested and charged with assaulting his niece. Blake vehemently denies the charges and insists that he is being set up by his family so he can be aced out of his inheritance.

Cassie very reluctantly agrees to investigate the charges and the police investigation. She is met with hostility not only from Blake’s family, but also from local law enforcement, who are solidly in the camp of the Kleinsassers. Cassie is initially all but certain that Blake is guilty, but a nudge here and a blink there slowly convinces her that the case against him isn’t quite as strong as it was represented to be.

Meanwhile, Isabel, Cassie’s hippie mother, is butting heads with Ben, Cassie’s son, who is undergoing some teenage problems of his own. There is also an omnipresent and threatening truck driver who seems to be everywhere that Cassie is and who may or may not be the ghost of one of her past adversaries. Cassie is nothing if not tenacious, and the fact that the Kleinsasser family and local law enforcement seem united against her makes her dig deeper, even when her own employer tries to call her off for her own safety. It may result in her undoing, and you will race to the last page to find out.

Cassie Dewell won’t necessarily make you forget all about your favorite Wyoming game warden, but two Box books in one year make for plenty of good reading. While this one is complete in itself, there is a plot thread (or maybe more than one) that could serve as the launching point for a future installment in the series, thus whispering a promise that Box will take his multitude of readers to Montana again and again.