The action never stops

One plot isn't enough for today's novels. There have long been subplots, of course, but now it can be difficult to tell which is the main plot and which the subplot.

Shadows Reel (2021) by C.J. Box is one such novel. The plot that comes first and the one in which Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett is most involved must be the main plot, yet the other plot featuring his friend, Nate Romanowski, and in which Joe appears for the climax, occupies nearly as many pages.

In one plot, a Nazi photo album from World War II is dropped off at the library where Marybeth, Joe's wife, works. She takes it home with her, unaware that a pair of killers will stop at nothing to get their hands  on that album. It happens to be Thanksgiving week, when the Picketts' grown children are home. Also there is Nate's wife and daughter, spending Thanksgiving with the Picketts because Nate is off pursuing his stolen falcons.

Nate's part of the story takes him as far as Seattle and Portland, chasing the man who wants to sell the falcons to wealthy Arabs to help finance his plan to overthrow the country, using Antifa as his patsy.

With two plots at once, things never slow down in this novel. When there isn't action here, there is action there.

For those of us who enjoy Joe Pickett novels, this one does not disappoint.