One of Joe Pickett’s few friends and allies is a federal fugitive named Nate Romanowski.  To be fair,  Joe didn’t know Nate was a fugitive when they became friends, only that he had a shady past as a member of a special forces team that Nate dropped out of society to escape from.   Nate is the most interesting of Box’s characters:  a  former commando who has become a mountain man of sorts,  someone given to sunbathing au natural when he’s not using his raptors to hunt.  He’s previously alluded to being in touch with a compound in Idaho who we gather are anti-government types,   but in Force of Nature the full story about Nate’s background and   the incident that drove him from being a commando into becoming a libertarian one-with-nature come into play. Unfortunately, we learn the details as Nate is in a battle for his life against his former comrades, whose cruelty is as deep and vast as their government’s hubris – and they see nothing wrong with targeting people like Joe and his family who might flush Nate out of hiding.  

Most of the books in the Pickett series have been serviceable as standalones, but this one is definitely  more of a ‘series’ book:   Joe nearly takes a back seat to Nate, who readers will know and appreciate because of how often he’s featured in the past.     This is more of a suspense thriller than previous books, which generally included forensics and game-warden business.  The action is driven by the looming showdown between Nate and his former group, who – he discovers – have been killing their way to him, disguising murders as accidents and using secret government means to squelch the news.  Some of the suspense comes from the reader wondering what will happen and how the plot will pull Joe along for the ride, but more intense is the reader knowing or at least suspecting that the operatives have someone inside Joe or Nate’s trust circles who may ambush them at a critical moment.    There’s also the fact that this trial is pushing Nate into harder and harder territory: the softer aspects of his character become overshadowed by the former operator, cold and calculating out of necessity.  A philosophy of falconry comes into play, as well. 

The ultimate revelation of Nate’s shadowy past was a surprise, and personally felt a bit underwhelming: I know if  Box had it in mind from the beginning of the series, or if he decided to create it for this arc of the series, as it were.  The book itself was not disappointing, though,  with its emphasis on the Joe/Nate friendship, the compelling action, and the occasional splash of humor for relief. (At one point Joe’s new trainee asks at what point they’re going to do game warden stuff,  a funny remark for readers who have read most of the series and realize how infrequently Joe appears to do his job when he is in  Cowboy Detective mode.)

And now, I’m going to very hard to pause this series so I can focus on England, baseball, and grad school. I’m literally halfway through the series. I’m currently reading Paul Kingsnorth’s Real England: Battle against the Bland.