Blue Heaven

Another book by C.J. Box--this one is also not part of his most well-known series with Joe Pickett (see earlier posts on The Highway and Open Season). Deep in the woods of "North Idaho" a young girl and her younger brother, mad at their mom, have taken themselves off with a fishing rod "borrowed" from their mom's newest boyfriend to do some fishing. Instead they run across the scene of an execution as 4 men simultaneously shoot another man. Annie and Willie run and hide, losing their pursuers in the woods. But these are no ordinary men, they are retired LAPD officers with years of skill and training and a huge investment in not getting caught. They simply cannot afford to let the children be found alive. So they hijack the search for the missing children from an inept local sheriff and now the children simply do not know who to trust. After hiding overnight in a barn, they are found by Jess Rawlins, a local rancher who is about to lose everything he and his family have worked to build over the decades. Jess is finally convinced to believe Annie's story and is determined to protect them, in part to make up for the betrayal by his wife and the loss of his son to schizophrenia.
Meanwhile, another retired police officer from southern California, Eduardo Villatoro, has arrived in this little town following leads on money stolen several years earlier from the Santa Anita racetrack. An armored car guard was killed in the robbery and Villatoro wants to close the case even though he is no longer officially working. He talks to the president of the local bank, Jim Hearne, who we come to find out, turned his head the other way when approached about accepting large cash deposits just under the legal reporting limit.
The two cases are tied together and it becomes a race against time, for the children and the bad guys. Author Box ratchets up the tension and keeps you wondering how and if Jess Rawlins can outwit four experienced policemen who will stop at nothing to stay free. Well written and compelling plot.