‘Fascinating’ Bakken region sets scene for C.J. Box stories
By Jack Dura
Farmer Staff Writer
Readers of C.J. Box’s “Highway” novel quartet won’t find the towns of Grimstad and Watson City, N.D., on the map.
But Williston and Watford City, yes.
“I didn’t want to specifically say it was Williston and be chained to the streets, the stores, the names,” the author said. “I just made it loosely based on the area and fictionalized, obviously.”
Released last Tuesday was “Paradise Valley” the fourth of four novels in the “Highway” series, following investigator Cassie Dewell of the Bakken County Sheriff’s Department on the trail of a serial killer in North Dakota’s Bakken region.
“Badlands,” a prior novel in the loosely linked, contemporary series, takes place entirely in North Dakota, largely in Grimstad, the Williston of Box’s fictional Bakken.
Watson City is largely distant in the stories, he said, though a car chase takes place on the road into the fictitious town in “Badlands.”
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