Free Fire - C. J. Box [1]
Best Mystery/Thriller
“Buy two copies of Open Season, and save one in mint conditionto sell to first-edition collectors. C. J. Box is a great storyteller.” —Tony Hillerman
“Intriguing, with a forest setting so treacherous it makes Nevada Barr’s locales look positively comfy, with a motive for murder that is as unique as any in modern fiction.”
—Los Angeles Times
“A muscular first novel . . . Box writes as straight as his charactersshoot.” —The New York Times Book Review
Also by C. J . Box
The Joe Pickett Novels
OPEN SEASON
SAVAGE RUN
WINTERKILL
TROPHY HUNT
OUT OF RANGE
IN PLAIN SIGHT
FREE FIRE
BLOOD TRAIL
BLUE HEAVEN
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.
FREE FIRE
A Berkley Prime Crime Book / published by arrangement with the author
Copyright © 2007 by C. J. Box.
All rights reserved.
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eISBN : 978-0-425-22124-2
BERKLEY® PRIME CRIME
Berkley Prime Crime Books are published by The Berkley Publishing Group,
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To Becky, who finally saw her bear
. . . and Laurie, always
part one
YELLOWSTONE ACT, 1872
AN ACT TO SET APART A CERTAIN TRACT OF
LAND LYING NEAR THE HEADWATERS OF THE
YELLOWSTONE RIVER AS A PUBLIC PARK
Approved March 1, 1872 (17 Stat. 32)
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the tract of land in the Territories of Montana and Wyoming, lying near the headwaters of the Yellowstone River . . . is hereby reserved and withdrawn from settlement, occupancy, or sale under the laws of the United States, and dedicated and set apart as a publicpark or pleasuring-ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people; and all persons who shall locate or settle upon or occupy the same, or any part thereof, except as hereinafter provided,shall be considered trespassers and removed therefrom. (U.S.C., title 16, sec. 21.)
1
Bechler River Ranger Station Yellowstone National Park July 21
A half-hour after clay mccann walked into the backwoods ranger station and turned over his still-warm weapons, after he’d announced to the startled seasonal ranger