The latest novel from C.J. Box, and more books of regional interest for September

Some books of regional interest for September:

“Treasure State” by C.J. Box (Minotaur Books)

In C.J. Box’s latest Cassie Dewell novel, the PI agrees to take on the case of a wealthy Florida widow bilked out of her fortune by a smooth conman named Marc Daly.  A previous investigator traced the mam to Anaconda, then disappeared. Funny thing is, Anaconda’s founder was named Mark Daly. Cassie discovers “Marc” has bilked other women, using the names of different Montana copper kings.

“Marc” turns out to be so friendly and charming that Cassie falls for him. His friend, the deputy sheriff, however, is a vicious killer, and he’s on to Cassie.

Meanwhile, folks in Montana, including a friend of Cassie’s, are hunting for a treasure chest with more than $3 million in gold, hidden somewhere in the West. Clues to the location are on a poem posted in a restaurant. It’s all a bit like the Forrest Finn treasure hunt of a few years ago, except that the perpetrator is unknown. When a man calls Cassie claiming he hid the treasure and offering her $25,000 to identify him, she wonders if he’s a nut job. Then an envelope with $2,000 is left for her. Cassie takes on the challenge.

Wanna bet Cassie solves both cases?

“The Paradise That Lurks in Female Smiles,” by Gary Reilly (Running Meter Press)

So what do you do if you’re a fortyish creative writing teacher at night school and the sexiest, most beautiful woman in the world walks into your classroom and says she wants to be a writer? And all you can think about is bedding her? You tell her she’s a brilliant writer and lie about sending her manuscript off to a nonexistent editor friend at the New Yorker. Mission accomplished.

Well, beware of what you wish for.  Linda Hathaway quickly moves in with Charley Quinn, bringing with her a case filled with more pills than you can dream of.  It’s enough to make him think he’s gone to heaven.  But not quite. Linda has too many secrets and an unsavory past. And bad things keep happening to Charley.

Drew, Charley’s perennial student, shows Charley an acceptance letter he received from the New Yorker. Charley realizes it’s not only a fake but was written on his own Smith Corona. Then Charley loses his part-time janitorial job. He can’t help but wonder if Linda’s involved.

The story is written in stream-of-conscientiousness style, with Charley’s jaded view of both men and women. “Women are crazy. They think that men are weak and can be defeated,” Charley thinks. “And men know it. They play women for chumps and take everything they can get.”

“The Paradise That Lurks in Female Smiles” (the title comes from “Confessions of an English Opium-Eater”) is No. 16 of 25 novels written by Gary Reilly, a Denver cab driver who died in 2011. When Reilly’s friends — writer Mark Stevens and former Denver Post cartoonist Mike Keefe — read the manuscripts, they were so impressed that they established Running Meter Press to publish them. The works show enormous variety and originality, and you wonder why no publisher picked them up during Reilly’s lifetime. “The Paradise That Lurks” is sometimes crude and sometimes politically incorrect, but it is also a stunning work.

“Hell and Back,” by Craig Johnson (Viking)

Walt Longmire has never faced a challenge like this one.  He wakes up lying in the middle of a street in a snowstorm and can’t remember who he is or why he’s there. Then, things get worse. Time periods change, and it’s Groundhog Day all over again. And it’s always 8:17. What’s a cowboy to do?

Right off, Walt discovers his name in a tag on his hat. Then he realizes he’s a sheriff from Wyoming, but this is Montana, and what’s he doing there?  He finds a missing person poster in his pocket for an Indian girl named One Moon (who disappeared in a previous Walt Longmire book), but Walt has no idea why he has it.