Treasure State is a good book. There is a beginning, middle and end. All of the characters are believable in that the good guys are good and bad guys are really bad. The various conflicts were all neatly tied up in the end. Four stars were given in this review. ( )

Business is on the rise for private investigator Cassie Dewell and she now finds herself working two different cases simultaneously.

First is the case of the hidden treasure. Taking the nation by storm is the account of a millionaire who claims to have buried a chest full of treasure worth a million dollars or so. To find the location, would-be treasure hunters must decipher the clues in a poem. Currently, five people have died trying to find this treasure in remote, dangerous places in the Montana and Wyoming area.

Cassie isn’t trying to find the treasure … she’s been hired by the man purporting to be the author of the poem and the man who buried the treasure. He’s hired Cassie to see if she can figure out his identity. His reasoning is that if someone were to discover his identity, they might be able to deduce, from his past and his writings (ah ha! he’s an author!) where the treasure is buried and he really wants somone to find it based on his clues. Cassie’s not a fan of the treasure hunt, given that some have already died trying to find it, and a young man she knows, Kyle Westergaard, is searching for it – putting aside all else to search, likely in vain, for a hidden treasure.

The other job that Cassie is working on is a little more in-line with her typical work. A woman from Florida has hired her to find a man who swindled her out of millions of dollars. Another P.I. had been hired and was last reported in Anaconda, Montana on a strong lead and then all reports from the other P.I. stopped. What Cassie discovers is that the woman from Florida is not the only one who’s been swindled so. A small handful of older woman have had the same problem, likely from the same man. Even knowing the kind of man he is, Cassie must consciously restrain herself from his charms when she engages him.

This was a really fast read. Despite the two plots, the treasure hunt rather book-ending the novel, Cassie goes straight-ahead without much time spent doing the boring work, like research. There’s a little bit of danger and suspense when Cassie encounters the truly bad guy – the enforcer behind the swindle scam, but even this threat is put aside pretty easily when necessary.

The writing is direct and fast, keeping the reader turning pages. It’s a classic best-seller style novel. A beach read or a winter fire read. You won’t get bogged down in details, just lots of juicy action.

I am a little disappointed at how much ‘convenience’ comes in to play during the big show-down. One person happens in to cause problems and then another happens in to fix the situation. Whew… isn’t Cassie lucky? Yes she is. Because the cavalry she arranged for was delayed and she’d have been a goner if luck wasn’t on her side. This bit did make me roll my eyes.

Convenience also solves the book-end mystery of the treasure hunt. I mean … SERIOUS stroke of luck.

This kind of writing will sell a lot of books because you know what you’re going to get when you pick it up. Standing at a bookshelf in an airport? Want the known excitement or something that could equally be really good or really bad? Chances are you’re going to pick the known thriller, warts and all. And this one definitely has some warts.

Looking for a good book? Treasure State is a Cassie Dewell mystery thriller by C. J. Box. Two storylines that come and go so quickly you might not even notice. ( )

C. J. Box returns to his Montana based series (and his publisher finally agrees that it is indeed a series) with the 5th Cassie Dewell novel (or the 6th Cody Hoyt/Cassie Dewell one if you rather count that way).

Cassie has settled as a private detective and gets contacted by a wealthy woman (or one that used to be anyway) after the detective she hired to track a con-man who stole a huge amount of money from her disappeared shortly after reporting some progress. As usual for Box, the reader actually knows more than any of the characters as we see some of the actions from the other side - the detective had indeed stepped into something he should not have had - and is not going to call anyone anymore. But Cassie won't know that for most of the book - so she starts her investigation which not very surprisingly for her leads her straight to the door and in the bad graces of yet another small county's law enforcement organizations.

Interlaced with that is a second investigation - a mysterious poem about a buried treasure which had caused the death of enough people trying to get to the treasure. And that is where an old friend shows up - Kyle Westergaard (who we first met in Badlands), now fully grown up and with his usual zeal for adventures despite his challenges.

As usual, Cassie gets way over her head but never gives up (on either investigation), her mother is the usual source of delight (well, for the readers...) and if you are reading Box's other series, you may recognize her new helper - April Pickett (as I am behind on the Joe Pickett series, I am not sure how that came to be). If you never read the Joe Pickett novels, you won't miss anything here - but I will be curious to see what C. J. Box will do with that connection.

The solutions of both investigations worked inside of the framework of the novel and the author's usage of the different viewpoints with varying timeframes helped build up the tension.

If you had been reading the series, it is a decent entry into it. It may not be the best place to start with Box's work though - it relies on some of the backstory, it spoils the older novels in the series and it can get a bit too wordy and preachy in some places (especially when characters get on the topic of government). But I am still enjoying the style and the stories. ( )

Cassie is on the track of a missing PI and runs into an extortion and murder scenario that becomes a serious challenge. This interesting spinoff connects nicely to the Pickett family via their daughter April. ( )

Treasure State is another fast-paced, engrossing mystery by C.J. Box. Cassie Dewell stars as the heroine in this ongoing series where individual books can be read as stand-alones. While I have read other C.J. Box books and thoroughly enjoyed them, this was my first one with Cassie and it was a real treat!

She is a determined, diligent, intelligent private investigator who juggles her work and a challenging family.. Cassie and the criminals play key roles as does the beautiful state of Montana while she deftly solves another set of crimes.

Thanks to NetGalley, C.J. Box, and St. Martin’s Press for this great ARC. ( )