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    Blue Heaven: A Novel
    Blue Heaven: A Novel
    Blue Heaven: A Novel
    Audiobook11 hours

    Blue Heaven: A Novel

    Written by C. J. Box

    Narrated by Henry Leyva

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Blue Heaven is the break-out novel from C. J. Box, the award-winning, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Joe Pickett series.

    A twelve-year-old girl and her younger brother are on the run in the Idaho woods, pursued by four men they have just watched commit murder—four men who know exactly who William and Annie are. And where their mother lives.

    Retired policemen from Los Angeles, the killers easily persuade the local sheriff to let them lead the search for the missing children. Now there's nowhere left for William and Annie to hide…and no one they can trust. Until they meet Jess Rawlins.

    Rawlins, an old-school rancher, knows trouble when he sees it. He is only one against four men who will stop at nothing to silence their witnesses. But in this thrilling mystery novel from C.J. Box, these ex-cops don't know just how far Rawlins will go to protect William and Annie…and see that justice is done.

    Blue Heaven is the winner of the 2009 Edgar Award for Best Novel.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Audio
    Release dateJan 8, 2008
    ISBN9781427202697
    Blue Heaven: A Novel
    Author

    C. J. Box

    C. J. BOX is the New York Times best-selling author of many novels including the Joe Pickett series. He has won the Edgar Alan Poe Award for Best Novel (Blue Heaven, 2009) as well as the Anthony Award, Prix Calibre 38 (France), the Macavity Award, the Gumshoe Award, and the Barry Award. Over four million copies of his novels have been sold in the U.S. alone and they have been translated into twenty-seven languages. He lives in Wyoming.  

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    Reviews for Blue Heaven

    4/5

    414 ratings45 reviews

    What did you think?

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    • 5/5
      Absolutely wonderful. The story, the narrator. Beautiful story. CJ Box is a terrific writer
    • 5/5
      One of favourite books by one of my favourite authors, performed in a way that does it full justice.
    • 5/5
      Book Description:
      A twelve-year-old girl and her younger brother go on the run in the woods of North Idaho, pursued by four men they have just watched commit murder---four men who know exactly who William and Annie are, and who know exactly where their desperate mother is waiting for news of her children 19s fate. Retired cops from Los Angeles, the killers easily persuade the inexperienced sheriff to let them lead the search for the missing children.

      William and Annie 19s unexpected savior comes in the form of an old-school rancher teetering on the brink of foreclosure. But as one man against four who will stop at nothing to silence their witnesses, Jess Rawlins needs allies, and he knows that one word to the wrong person could seal the fate of the children or their mother. In a town where most of the ranches like his have turned into acres of ranchettes populated by strangers, finding someone to trust won 19t be easy.

      With true-to-life, unforgettable characters and a ticking-clock plot that spans just over forty-eight hours, C.J. Box has created a thriller that delves into issues close to the heart: the ruthless power of greed over broken ideals, the healing power of community where unlikely heroes find themselves at the crossroads of duty and courage, and the truth about what constitutes a family. In a setting whose awesome beauty is threatened by those who want a piece of it, Blue Heaven delivers twists and turns until its last breathtaking page.

      Blue Heaven is the winner of the 2009 Edgar Award for Best Novel.

      My Review:
      This was my first C. J. Box mystery read but it won't be my last. I found the book totally engaging and the story moved quickly and was hard to put down.
    • 2/5
      The final gun fight was highly unrealistic. I love the Joe Pickett books, this one left me feeling cheated of my time for the way it ended.
    • 1/5
      I don't know I can't listen to it there is talking in the introduction but not the chapters
    • 5/5
      The protagonist of course but too bad a one off - Jess Rawlings would have been an enduring character. Maybe Annie will…
    • 5/5
      Great story, well told! Narration was excellent! Read this one!
    • 5/5
      Engaging audio for those who enjoy these kinds of presentations. This audio book made driving back and forth from here and there a peaceful journey…in spite of the never ending traffic. Highly recommended.
    • 4/5
      Really enjoyed this book. Was a little formulaic but the characters were fun and the action great.
    • 5/5
      Interesting and enjoyable. I like the reader. Jess is a hero.
    • 4/5
      It starts off a little slow, but it gets to be very intense by about halfway through. Some of the suspense of his other Joe Pickett books were missing, for me, because the reader knows things some characters don't, so when they find something out, you forget to be surprised occasionally. But still an excellent and edge-of-your seat read.
    • 4/5
      A decent story. I liked the fact that an older man became the hero. Reminded me of my grandfather, a similar type. Too many points of view to feel very close to any one character.
    • 4/5
      4 ex-cops with a questionable past have retired to Idaho with the proceeds from a very profitable heist. But when they are threatened with discovery things start to fall apart. Jess Rawlings is up against the wall in debt and about to lose his family ranch. A good tense thriller.
    • 3/5
      A predictable, but enjoyable crime mystery. I appreciated the stand alone feature from this author. Read this for book club.
    • 4/5
      My first ROOT of the year. I have read the first couple of books in Box's Joe Pickett series, but this is a standalone suspense/thriller about some rogue L.A. cops who retire to Idaho with their ill-begotten gains and proceed to wreak havoc on the rural community. It's very well-written, but I've apparently gone soft in my old age as I no longer like reading books that put kids in jeopardy, especially from the opening pages through to the end of the book. But I liked that there was no neatly wrapped up happy ending for everyone. No one comes out unscathed in this one, not even the good guys, but it still felt like a satisfying wrap-up.
    • 5/5
      I absolutely loved this book. The good folks have integrity and determination from the start, or else they get it along the way. The book is big on heart, not the mushy kind, but the strong kind. I was reminded of books by E.J. Ruek and C.J. (Country) James (pens of D.L. Keur). Box tells a great story in a setting that I've never experienced. It's obvious that he has experienced it.

      The book is a thriller in a modern country setting. I listened to the audio version which was well done. I am considering reading the print version at a later date just to take in more of it. Meanwhile, I'll be checking more into C.J. Box.
    • 4/5
      A very good mystery thriller. I enjoyed it very much.
    • 4/5
      This was an enjoyable read, building up tension as the book went on until we reached the final climax. This book was multi-layered and kept my interest throughout. I read the last two-thirds of the book in one sitting wanting to find out how the story ended. An interesting and slightly different last chapter to the book that I needed to read twice to ensure I had got it right! I will be looking out for other books by C J Box. 4 stars.
    • 4/5
      Plot: 5 ex LAPD detectives more to North Idaho and commit mahem: young children in peril, some really bad guys and a hero or two. CJ Box seems to have captured the culture in small town Idaho. The characters are believable and probably come from people that the author has known. Only thing I wondered about: "small town" Arcadia? It's also in the middle of the LA sprawl. Box is new to me and I think that I like his work.
    • 4/5
      This is an excellent book - well written, fast paced, suspenseful, plot twists and turns, and action packed. The author packs a lot of intensity and emotion into a 48 hour time period.
    • 4/5
      Two children on a fishing expedition in rural Idaho witness a murder and are seen by the murderers. The area has become a haven for retired Los Angeles police officers and four of them (who are responsible for the crime) convince the local sheriff to let them lead the search for the children, who have now disappeared. The children are in hiding, not knowing who they can trust until they are sheltered by a retired local rancher. It is an exciting story and also has a good sense of place.
    • 4/5
      My first read for C.J. Box and I enjoyed it. A simple story but has all the elements of a good read - young children in peril, an older, lone hero, bad guys, and a great setting in the modern ranch wild west. Mr. Box is a good writer. His characters were down to earth and believable. The mystery kept your interest. A simple read but quite enjoyable.
    • 5/5
      I raced through this novel from a few years ago, one of my finds at our book sale. Anything by C. J. Box is an automatic grab after all, and this one really had my heart pounding. It begins with two children, Annie and her younger brother William, witnessing a murder. Then one of the killers sees them and the chase is on.The setting is a small town in Idaho that is in transition because a large number of retired cops have moved there from Los Angeles. They've brought money but even as they claim to want a different, less stressful life, they've brought big city habits with them. Some have built enormous mansions and they drive their SUVs through town like they own the place. The people who loved their little town and surrounding ranches aren't necessarily happy about the changes or the people who brought them about. When word gets out that the kids are missing, they take over the investigation from the rather weak police chief who is out of his depth.Our hero is a rancher who is in financial trouble and about to lose his beloved ranch. It's been in the family for generations but he has hit hard times. He's in his early 60s and he's a kind man who suffered when he had to let his last ranch hand go. I loved Jess Rawlins. He and the kids make the whole book in my mind.This is a thriller with a subplot of another retired cop trying to trace money from a robbery at Santa Anita racetrack several years earlier in which a young guard was killed, leaving a wife and kids. All of the characters, good and evil and somewhere in-between, are skillfully depicted so you get more and more tense as the story plays out. At times I was breathless when the action heated up and I worried about the good guys. One character is a staple in every small town I've ever known. In this town she's a rural mail carrier but she could be anything. She's a thoughtless gossip who craves attention and has no compassion for the people she's hurting. She also thinks she's attractive (not!) and has her eye on Jess Rawlins. And she's loud, so when she's spreading gossip she lets everyone around her hear what her imagination has come up with. I happened to read this at the time the 16 year old California girl and her kidnapper were found in Idaho. That added even more color to the background as I read, especially when the horse riders who saw and reported them were interviewed. I could imagine how those two couples would resent the intrusion of city people into their lives.This is an action-filled thriller with great characters and I hope you'll read it and other C. J. Box novels.Highly recommendedSource: book sale
    • 5/5
      This is a wonderful book that I couldn't bear to finish. It's a standalone thriller, involving children in jeopardy, retired cops-gone-bad in an idyllic northern Idaho ranching community, and three ordinary men trying to find their way through the ensuing violence and terror. I loved the author's prior novels about Joe Pickett, a Montana game warden, but I wasn't sure what to expect here. While I miss the character building of those earlier novels, Blue Heaven has ample compensations. Like the Joe Pickett novels, Blue Heaven offers a sense of place and natural wonder that truly becomes part of the story. The character's love of the land resonates deeply throughout, but never becomes preachy or precious. While the plot rockets forward, it keeps you off balance and almost afraid to keep turning pages as the odds keep mounting in favor of the bad guys. In the midst of so much plot, the author still manages to pull you into caring tremendously for each of the main characters. And by the final pages, the book offers a glimpse of love and redemption that caught me off guard and moved me deeply.
    • 4/5
      When 12-year-old Annie Taylor takes her younger brother fishing in the woods of North Idaho the children witness the murder of ‘a wavy-haired man’ and are soon running, literally, for their lives. They manage to flag down a car belonging to an old boyfriend of their mother’s and just as they think themselves safe things take another bad turn. At the same time a retired police officer comes to town because there might be a link to an old case he investigated but never solved. Slowly people start to wonder if there’s any connection between all these events and the fact that retired Californian cops have moved almost en masse to the area.

      In this standalone novel Box has created a ripping yarn. It grabbed my attention immediately with a combination of beautifully described places and fast-paced action sequences. I’ve never been to North Idaho but I almost feel like I’ve seen it thanks to the beauty of Box’s words. On the very first page as he sets the scene where the two children will encounter the murderers he writes


      When the grey-black fists of storm clouds pushed across the sun, the light muted in the forest and erased the defining edges of the shadows, and the forest plunged into a dispiriting murk. The ground was black, spongy in the forest and sloppy on the trail. Their shoes made sucking sounds as they slogged upstream

      I felt like I was right there watching the kids trudge through the mud and, if anything, the writing gets better as the book progresses.

      There’s a cast of memorable, credible characters too and the book doesn’t really rely on a single protagonist. Jess Rawlins, an ageing ranch owner struggling to keep his land in a changing world is certainly a key character but there are other interesting people too. Eduardo Villatorro, the retired cop on the trail of the most bothersome case of his career and Monica Taylor, the children’s mother, both learn a lot about themselves as events unfold. And the bad guys too are well-rounded, believable people.

      I’ve not heard of C J Box before and therefore have not read any of the Joe Pickett series for which he is well known. However, I can thoroughly recommend this standalone story which is perfectly encapsulated between two covers: an increasingly rare treat from this reader’s perspective.



    • 3/5
      "Blue Heaven" is the first book I've read by C. J. Box. I liked it. My only objection to it is that I would have liked to have Annie and William to have been a bigger part of the book. I feel like Mr. Box focused too much on the ex-cops.
    • 4/5
      A really good thriller where Box has been able to keep the attention of the reader with good writing which brings forth the world of Idaho realistically but also keep you on the edge as a good page turner.A minor flaw in the story telling is there seems to be too many coincidences which sorts of jars in an otherwise good novel.
    • 4/5
      I've never heard of C.J. Box. This library book was passed to me by my brother.Twelve-year-old Annie takes her little brother William fishing after school when their mother's new boyfriend breaks his promise to do so. She's never fished before, but how hard can it be? On the way, they witness a murder. Three men each shoot a fourth man. They run and manage to get away.When the children's mother Monica finds out that her boyfriend stood the kids up and has no idea where they are, she promptly dumps him and calls the sheriff. Luckily, or not, north Idaho is a retirement haven for former LAPD officers and four of them volunteer to run the investigation for the small town.Little does the town know that the retirees have their own reasons for wanting to find the kids.The story was pretty good but a little convoluted at times. Although it was easy to believe that the former cops would steal tons of money, I had a hard time believing that they would have such a carefree attitude towards committing murder, especially of a friend. I think I would have given the book 4 stars if it had a different narrator. Although John Bedford Lloyd does a good job, it always takes me several CDs to get used to his voice. To me, his voice seems more suited to humorous work than anything suspenseful.
    • 4/5
      Never read C.J. Box but thoroughly enjoyed Blue Heaven. I can see why this book was up for an Edgar award with its twists and turns. The characters seemed to fit in perfectly to a mutli-faceted plot with many different points of view. It's always enjoyable when those points of view can intertwine at the end and tell a similar story. This book is definitely worth a read. Edgar-worthy indeed.
    • 5/5
      Annie takes her little brother William fishing when school dismisses early, but they stumble across a man being murdered by three companions. They are picked up by a man that the quickly learn is an accomplice of the others and make a run to get away. The men, who are retired Los Angeles police department officers, offer to help the sheriff locate the missing children who is more than grateful to have their assistance. The children seek refuge at the home of a rancher named Jess Rawlins. This book kept me on the edge of my seat and was difficult to put down. The author does a good job integrating a couple of story lines without allowing the secondary story line to overshadow the first.