As tens of thousands of oil workers flood the rural prairie communities of western North Dakota, crime follows the money. Unhappy with her job in Montana, detective Cassie Dewell departs to become chief investigator at the Bakken County, ND, sheriff's office. She is temporarily sidetracked from pursuing the Lizard King, a serial killer last seen in the series launch, The Highway, when body parts of a known drug dealer show up all over town. Other people have vanished as well, and a handicapped 12-year-old may hold the key to solving the mysteries, including corruption in the sheriff's department itself. Box, a master at describing Western landscapes and personalities, is at his best with this thriller. The listener can almost smell the flares and hear the machinery rumble. Narrator January LaVoy delivers a well-paced performance, enjoyable despite several regional mispronunciations. Verdict This book can stand alone, but listeners will certainly want to return to the first book to follow Cassie, as compelling and determined a character as Box's Joe Pickett.-Janet Martin, Southern Pines P.L., NC © Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

*Starred Review* Box has been making a series of sorts out of his stand-alones. Following the death of Cody Hoyt in The Highway (2013), Hoyt's partner, Cassie Dewell, now takes center stage as the new chief investigator in Grimstad, North Dakota, in the heart of the Bakken shale oil fields. Though she's still trying to catch the Lizard King, the truck-driving serial killer, she's instantly plunged into a whole new set of troubles as rival gangs clash and body parts are strewn all over town in the dead of winter. Caught in the middle is Kyle Westergaard, a 12-year-old born with fetal alcohol syndrome, who sees and knows more than anyone would ever suspect. Box's brilliant choice of setting is both timely and the perfect frozen hellscape for his story; the modern-day boomtown's runaway inflation, man camps, and pent-up masculine energy hearken back to lawless days on the western frontier. And although he's placed kids in danger in other books, this could be the most effective of his thrillers since his Edgar-winning Blue Heaven (2008). The temperature on the northern plains may fall to 40 below, but the engine of this thriller races red hot, providing plenty of warmth to keep readers going all night. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: The publisher is banking big on this one by printing a quarter of a million copies double that of The Highway. If Box isn't a household name yet, he will be.--Graff, Keir Copyright 2015 Booklist