C.J. Box, ENDANGERED

This is the latest in Box’s Joe Pickett novels.  When one of Joe’s daughters is left in a coma as a result of a beating while hitchhiking, Joe is enraged and determined to find the culprit. Shortly after, his friend and sometime colleague, Nate Romanowski, is ambushed and almost killed.  The core of the plot is whether these two events are related. The apparent causes of each event are not quite as they seem, which becomes clear as Joe investigates.

Box creates several good villains, in  fact a whole family of them, in this story.  And much of the story is spent examining their motivations.  Some may feel that the last death is a bit too convenient, but the plot hangs together well.  Pickett is a believable character whom we come to care about.