Treasure State: A Cassie Dewell Novel

by C. J. Box

Overview

#1 New York Times bestselling author C. J. Box's Treasure State finds Cassie Dewell in Montana on the trail of a con man.

Private Investigator Cassie Dewell’s business is thriving, and her latest case puts her on the hunt for a slippery con man who’s disappeared somewhere in the “treasure state”. A wealthy Florida widow has accused him of absconding with her fortune, and wants Cassie to find him and get it back. The trail takes Cassie to Anaconda, Montana, a quirky former copper mining town that’s the perfect place to reinvent yourself. As the case develops, Cassie begins to wonder if her client is telling her everything.

On top of that, Cassie is also working what's easily one of her strangest assignments ever. A poem that promises buried treasure to one lucky adventurer has led to a cutthroat competition and five deaths among treasure-hunters. But Cassie’s client doesn’t want the treasure. Instead, he claims to be the one who hid the gold and wrote the poem. And he’s hired Cassie to try to find him. Between the two cases, Cassie has her hands full.

In Montana, a killer view can mean more than just the scenery, and Cassie knows much darker things hide behind the picturesque landscape of Big Sky Country. Treasure State, C. J. Box's highly anticipated follow-up to The Bitterroots, is full of more twists and turns than the switchbacks through the Anaconda Range.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250766960
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	09/27/2022
Series:	Cassie Dewell Novels , #6
Pages:	288
Sales rank:	1,479
Product dimensions:	6.03(w) x 9.50(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

C. J. Box is the author of thirty books, including the Joe Pickett series and the Cassie Dewell series, and a story collection. His books have been translated into twenty-seven languages. He has won the Edgar, Anthony, Macavity, Gumshoe, and Barry Awards, as well as the French Prix Calibre .38, and has been a Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist. A Wyoming native, Box has also worked on a ranch and as a small-town newspaper reporter and editor. He’s an executive producer of ABC TV’s Big Sky, which is based on his Cody Hoyt/Cassie Dewell novels, as well as executive producer of the Joe Pickett television series for Spectrum Originals. He lives with his wife on their ranch in Wyoming.

Editorial Reviews

★ 07/25/2022

Edgar winner Box’s excellent fifth Cassie Dewell novel (after 2019’s The Bitterroots) sets the former police officer, now a PI in Bozeman, Mont., on the trail of a con man who bilked wealthy widow Candyce Fly out of $5 million and vanished. Fly earlier employed another PI—the marvelously noxious J.D. Spengler—to track the man down, but both Spengler and his quarry disappeared into the old mining town of Anaconda, Mont. Cassie travels there to investigate, and soon realizes that she has stumbled on a lethal conspiracy that goes far beyond the victimization of her client. A second case involving a buried treasure adds to the intrigue. Box has rarely been better in his plotting, with shifting timelines revealing the scope of the crimes. The criminal conspirators are both inventively corrupt and chilling, and the cleverly constructed mystery is leavened with generous doses of Montana history, along with the welcome appearances of characters from earlier Cassie novels. The story culminates with one of Box’s most satisfying payoffs. Hopefully, fans won’t have to wait another three years for the intrepid Cassie’s next adventure. Agent: Ann Rittenberg, Ann Rittenberg Literary. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for Treasure State

“Excellent. . . Box has rarely been better in his plotting. . . The story culminates with one of Box’s most satisfying payoffs.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“The best [Cassie Dewell Novel] yet.” —Booklist (starred review)

Praise for C. J. Box

“If Box isn’t already on your list, put him there.”—USA Today

“Box seems to get better with every book.” —Associated Press

“Box is a master.” —The Denver Post

“[Box has] crafted fascinating characters and put them in riveting, challenging circumstances that test their mettle and threaten their worlds.” — The Durango Herald

“Box is the crime fiction bard of America’s northern plain states.” — Toronto Star

“One of America’s finest mystery authors.” —The Globe and Mail

From the Publisher

07/01/2022

The 30th novel by Box, the sixth in the Cody Hoyt/Cassie Dewell series (following The Bitterroots), has Cassie working as a private investigator in Montana hired by a wealthy Florida widow whose previous PI went missing in Anaconda, MT, after promising he was closing in on the man who defrauded her of $7 million. Also afoot, the state is filled with treasure hunters after clues left in an anonymously-posted poem promising a chest of gold worth millions was hidden somewhere on a mountainside. Cassie is hired not to find the treasure but the man who hid it. Her skills as an investigator are apparent as she simultaneously works her cases. Her calm, confident approach infuriates her adversaries, but can she stop them before more bodies are added to the list of casualties of both the fraud and the treasure hunt? VERDICT Readers needn't be familiar with the series to appreciate this fast-paced mystery that pits betrayal, anger, and hate against hope and longing as it examines the lasting effect of a community used and abandoned after making a fortune for the titans of the copper mining industry. Will appeal to fans of Bryan Gruley, Lisa Sandlin, and Tim Johnston.—George Lichman

Library Journal

2022-06-22
Private eye Cassie Dewell pursues two very different cases that take her far from Bozeman.

The morning after someone breaks into her office, Cassie gets a call from Candyce Fly, a widow in Boca Grande, Florida, who wants her to track down J.D. Spengler, the PI she’d hired to find Marc Daly, the charmer who’d charmed her out of her life’s savings. After following Daly’s trail all over the country and linking him to three other women similarly swindled, Spengler had sent Candyce encouraging words from Montana a day before going AWOL himself. Though Cassie agrees to look for him, she’s more teased by her other case, which also hinges on a phone call. Ever since someone inscribed a poem oracularly hinting at the location of “Sir Scott’s Treasure” on the whiteboard at a local bar, everyone around has wondered who hid the treasure and where it can be found, and several intrepid hunters have died in the course of their search. Cassie’s caller, who tells her that he’s the one who’s hidden the treasure and written the poem, offers her $2,000 to test his security by attempting to find him; if, against all odds, she does track him down, he’ll pay her a bonus of $25,000. Box’s early revelation of who’s behind Spengler’s disappearance turns that mystery into a duel of wits between Cassie and the bad guys. But Kyle Westergaard, a teenager she once rescued from a dangerous kidnapper, keeps sparking her interest in Sir Scott’s Treasure, whose location and mastermind provide a nifty pair of final surprises.

All this and Montana, too. Talk about treasure.

Kirkus Reviews