Trophy Hunt

By C.J. Box

Game Warden Joe Pickett is out fishing one day with his daughter when they discover the carcass of a dead moose that looks like it has been mutilated in a way that is very similar to mutilations to livestock reported by ranchers and farmers throughout the years. Shortly after this, a rogue grizzly bear is reported to be in the area and ranchers are also reporting they have mutilated cattle. Pickett is drawn into the investigation on the chance that the mutilations are being done by wild animals, or even by the rogue grizzly.
During the course of the investigation, two men die and their bodies are mutilated just like the cows and the moose. Something wacky is going on and Pickett seems to be in the thick of it.

This book starts out really great. The whole moose incident with its mysterious occurrences and the assault on a friend's horses while two kids are standing right next to the corral and the night Pickett's black dog runs off after something and the dog comes home with its hair changed to white and the grizzly bear who is there and yet isn't at the same time are all really intriguing. All kinds of possibilities are floated, including aliens, cults, mining interests, terrorists and occult beings. The thing that bothered me about the book was that a lot of the mysterious occurrences at the beginning of the story, like the feeling of pressure and the dizziness that Joe and his daughter experienced are never explained nor is what frightened Joe's dog so badly as to turn its hair from black to white. At the end they are just passed off as unexplainable. I mean, I didn't really care about the two dead people as much as what was the answer to those mysteries and the author cops out by saying it is something we can't understand. Pshaw!