Interview with Montana Press Monthly
Having written 28 novels over the past 20 years, Wyoming’s #1 New York Times bestselling author C. J. Box launches his third creative decade with two TV premieres.
The multiple book-award winner lightened the pandemic claustrophobia for some in November with “Big Sky,” a tough-skinned new ABC-TV mystery series set in Montana, based on his Cody Holt/Cassie Dewell quintet (“The Highway,” “The Bitterroots” etc.) and directed by David E. Kelley (“L.A. Law,” “Ally McBeal,” “Big Little Lies”).
Later this year, Box’s charismatic Wyoming game warden Joe Puckett will make his television debut in Paramount’s yet- to-be-named production of a new series. Box is an executive producer on both.
This month, Box releases his twenty-first Joe Puckett mystery, “Dark Sky.” In it, our ever-game game warden is ordered by the Wyoming governor to take a high-profile high-tech titan on an elk hunt, little knowing that the guest himself is someone else’s prey.
All of which is a welcome overload of overdue exposure for C.J. “Chuck” Box, who with his wife Laurie has three daughters and two grandchildren. They live in Saratoga near the North Platte River.
MONTANA PRESS MONTHLY: Were you from a farm family?
C.J. BOX: No. My dad was a teacher, so I grew up an in-town kid. We now have a little ranch in southern Wyoming. We love it.