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Josie Gray Mysteries #1
The Territory
At the end of State Road 170 and just past a ghost town lies Artemis, population 2,500. The townspeople had sought out this remote corner of Western Texas in hopes of living lives of solitude and independence. None of them realized that their small town would become a hot spot for Mexican drug runners, whose turf battles have turned both sides of the Rio Grande into a war zone. Still, many of the locals would rather take the law into their own hands than get help from police chief Josie Gray, even when they're up against a cartel's private army. After arresting one of the cartel's hit men and killing another, Josie finds her life at risk for doing a job that many people would rather see her quit. And when the town's self-appointed protector of the Second Amendment is murdered and his cache of weapons disappears, it's clear that she doesn't have to pick sides in this war. She's battling them both. Set in a desert landscape as beautiful as it is dangerous, The Territory captures the current border issues from the eyes of a tough, compelling heroine and richly evokes the American Southwest.
289 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 91 reviews
July 5, 2018
4 stars
I won book 4 in this series, Firebreak, in 2015. Both my wife and I liked it and we decided to go back and read the rest of the series. Unfortunately our library copies were always out until now. This is book 1 and introduces Josie Gray, the police chief of Artemis, Texas, population 2,500. There are 3 officers on her force, including herself. She took over as chief when Otto Podowski, the previous chief, decided to step down and persuaded Josie to take his place. Otto is now her deputy.
The book opens with Josie in a watchtower where she can see Piedra Labrada, a Mexican town directly across the Rio Grande river. There are 2 drug cartel fighting for control in this town, Medrano and La Bestia. Then the drug cartel war spills over into Artemis, endangering Josie and the whole town. How she survives makes for a well paced thriller/mystery.
Josie has some interesting dietary habits, I.e., a bag of microwave popcorn with bourbon for dinner and canned fruit cocktail with tabasco sauce for breakfast(burning off the bourbon).
One quote: "The muted browns and grays of the scrub that dominated West Texas spread across the land behind her home, but the mountains were streaked with red and copper that intensified with the setting sun..."
If you like strong woman characters in mystery/thrillers by such authors as Sue Grafton, Dana Stabenow, Linda Castillo and Nevada Barr, then you will like this series. Book 1 won the Tony Hillerman prize and has a compliment from Craig Johnson on the back cover.
I won book 4 in this series, Firebreak, in 2015. Both my wife and I liked it and we decided to go back and read the rest of the series. Unfortunately our library copies were always out until now. This is book 1 and introduces Josie Gray, the police chief of Artemis, Texas, population 2,500. There are 3 officers on her force, including herself. She took over as chief when Otto Podowski, the previous chief, decided to step down and persuaded Josie to take his place. Otto is now her deputy.
The book opens with Josie in a watchtower where she can see Piedra Labrada, a Mexican town directly across the Rio Grande river. There are 2 drug cartel fighting for control in this town, Medrano and La Bestia. Then the drug cartel war spills over into Artemis, endangering Josie and the whole town. How she survives makes for a well paced thriller/mystery.
Josie has some interesting dietary habits, I.e., a bag of microwave popcorn with bourbon for dinner and canned fruit cocktail with tabasco sauce for breakfast(burning off the bourbon).
One quote: "The muted browns and grays of the scrub that dominated West Texas spread across the land behind her home, but the mountains were streaked with red and copper that intensified with the setting sun..."
If you like strong woman characters in mystery/thrillers by such authors as Sue Grafton, Dana Stabenow, Linda Castillo and Nevada Barr, then you will like this series. Book 1 won the Tony Hillerman prize and has a compliment from Craig Johnson on the back cover.
January 12, 2016
Very Good – Recommended for fans of mystery/series fiction featuring kick ass women and tales with a western flair.
The Hook - This is the first book following my 2016 Reading Plan.
Read a book from my collection of Mystery Readers Journals Discovered The Territory by Tricia Fields in Volume 30, No. 2: Extreme Weather Mysteries, Summer 2014, p. 28-30 Mystery Readers Journals.
The Line – ”Her five-foot-five mother could paralyze her like no robber, rapist, or drug dealer she had ever encountered, and the realization depressed the hell out of her.”
The Sinker – There were several things that attracted me to this first in the Josie Gray Mysteries. Fields grabbed my attention with the development of her fictional West Texas Border Town, Artemis, population, 2500, in the article she wrote for Mystery Readers Journal. She takes you on a journey through the town, by the police department, the jail, the diner, and as you walk the streets with her you meet the people. You know immediately that Artemis will be as much character as Josie herself. Temperatures over 100 degrees, droughts, fires, washouts, floods, windstorms and dust give you a sense of the brutal weather extremes these Texans must endure while doing their job.
Josie Gray, thirty-four year old Chief of Police, hits the ground running as The Territory opens. She’s posted in a fifty-foot-high watchtower looking over the Rio Grande. She’s been stationed there listening to gunfire for almost an hour. Her vantage point on US soil allows a view of both the US and Piedra, Mexico. Five sedans appear across the border and she knows something’s going down. She fears they belong to one of two cartels, The Medrano or La Bestia. What happens next makes for a helluva good beginning scene. You immediately know you are dealing with one tough woman. When the dust settles some cartel members have been arrested and at least one is dead, leaving Josie and her town at serious risk. The tension continues to heat up as the she and the other two members on her force along with the help of a team of understaffed law enforcement including the sheriff’s department, and border patrol try to protect our homeland. It’s evident this small town and strip of land Gray watches over is a war zone, a drug-runners paradise.
There’s an on again, off again lover, the word romance doesn’t fit Gray’s character, a mother who isn’t the warm fuzzy kind, and other wonderful characters I’m just getting to know.
Fields won the 2010 Tony Hillerman Award for Best First Mystery for this debut. She explains the title in thisInterview Scene of the Crime with Syndey Jones .
“Josie knew prosecuting crimes over international borders was mired in paperwork, frustration, and pools of money her own department didn’t have. Over the past year, as the border violence increased, the trust among the two cities’ law enforcement agencies had deteriorated. Both countries found the other’s legal system lacking. Mexico blamed the American lust for drugs and lack of gun laws, and the U.S. blamed Mexico’s corrupt government and loss of control on the drug cartels. The blame was somewhere in the middle, so in a strange way, it made sense that the problems had collected and festered like an open wound in the hundred- mile strip of middle ground the locals called The Territory.”
A 278 page mystery can’t possibly give a detailed view of the complexity of the drug lords and trafficking across the Mexican borders but The Territory definitely gives an awareness and feel for what it’s like to live in a US Border town. Quite a timely read for me also, with the recent re-arrest of El Chapo, Joaquín Guzmán, the Mexican drug lord.
”Josie Gray, your diet of popcorn for dinner and fruit cocktail with Tabasco Sauce has got to go” but is certainly making you a unique character in my mind.
278 action packed pages
A Thomas Dunne Book for Minotaur Books, an imprint of St. Martin’s Publishing Group, 2011.
The Hook - This is the first book following my 2016 Reading Plan.
Read a book from my collection of Mystery Readers Journals Discovered The Territory by Tricia Fields in Volume 30, No. 2: Extreme Weather Mysteries, Summer 2014, p. 28-30 Mystery Readers Journals.
The Line – ”Her five-foot-five mother could paralyze her like no robber, rapist, or drug dealer she had ever encountered, and the realization depressed the hell out of her.”
The Sinker – There were several things that attracted me to this first in the Josie Gray Mysteries. Fields grabbed my attention with the development of her fictional West Texas Border Town, Artemis, population, 2500, in the article she wrote for Mystery Readers Journal. She takes you on a journey through the town, by the police department, the jail, the diner, and as you walk the streets with her you meet the people. You know immediately that Artemis will be as much character as Josie herself. Temperatures over 100 degrees, droughts, fires, washouts, floods, windstorms and dust give you a sense of the brutal weather extremes these Texans must endure while doing their job.
Josie Gray, thirty-four year old Chief of Police, hits the ground running as The Territory opens. She’s posted in a fifty-foot-high watchtower looking over the Rio Grande. She’s been stationed there listening to gunfire for almost an hour. Her vantage point on US soil allows a view of both the US and Piedra, Mexico. Five sedans appear across the border and she knows something’s going down. She fears they belong to one of two cartels, The Medrano or La Bestia. What happens next makes for a helluva good beginning scene. You immediately know you are dealing with one tough woman. When the dust settles some cartel members have been arrested and at least one is dead, leaving Josie and her town at serious risk. The tension continues to heat up as the she and the other two members on her force along with the help of a team of understaffed law enforcement including the sheriff’s department, and border patrol try to protect our homeland. It’s evident this small town and strip of land Gray watches over is a war zone, a drug-runners paradise.
There’s an on again, off again lover, the word romance doesn’t fit Gray’s character, a mother who isn’t the warm fuzzy kind, and other wonderful characters I’m just getting to know.
Fields won the 2010 Tony Hillerman Award for Best First Mystery for this debut. She explains the title in thisInterview Scene of the Crime with Syndey Jones .
“Josie knew prosecuting crimes over international borders was mired in paperwork, frustration, and pools of money her own department didn’t have. Over the past year, as the border violence increased, the trust among the two cities’ law enforcement agencies had deteriorated. Both countries found the other’s legal system lacking. Mexico blamed the American lust for drugs and lack of gun laws, and the U.S. blamed Mexico’s corrupt government and loss of control on the drug cartels. The blame was somewhere in the middle, so in a strange way, it made sense that the problems had collected and festered like an open wound in the hundred- mile strip of middle ground the locals called The Territory.”
A 278 page mystery can’t possibly give a detailed view of the complexity of the drug lords and trafficking across the Mexican borders but The Territory definitely gives an awareness and feel for what it’s like to live in a US Border town. Quite a timely read for me also, with the recent re-arrest of El Chapo, Joaquín Guzmán, the Mexican drug lord.
”Josie Gray, your diet of popcorn for dinner and fruit cocktail with Tabasco Sauce has got to go” but is certainly making you a unique character in my mind.
278 action packed pages
A Thomas Dunne Book for Minotaur Books, an imprint of St. Martin’s Publishing Group, 2011.
April 1, 2012
“Mexico blamed the American lust for drugs and lack of gun laws, and the U.S. blamed Mexico’s corrupt government and loss of control on the drug cartels. The blame was somewhere in the middle, so in a strange way, it made sense that the problems had collected and festered like an open wound in the hundred-mile strip of middle ground the locals called the Territory.” (Page 75)
Deep in southwest Texas where the closest town on the United States side is the distant Marfa is the small town of Artemis, Texas. For the 2500 residents their small town is a refuge against an increasingly violent and hostile world. The people who live in this place treasure their isolation from the world. Their remoteness, amidst the harsh desert beauty of southwest Texas, makes them vulnerable to the escalating drug war violence spilling out of Mexico.
Something Police Chief Josie Gray knew long before that fateful summer evening when she watched violence explode across the river in the small Mexican city of Piedra Labrada. A war is raging between the “Medrano” and “La Bestia” drug cartels as the Medrano faction tries to hold onto their crumbling position. Eventually the gun battles seem to end this night and Josie Gray thinks the violence is over for now.
Unfortunately for her and her town it isn’t over by a long shot. Out of sight from Chief Gray’s watchtower perch, Medrano’s ranch was been attacked. Medrano is in route to hospital in Artemis via ambulance for emergency medical care as he holds dual US and Mexico citizenship. Despite being outnumbered and out gunned, somehow Chief Gray and her small force, are supposed to keep him and the medical team alive despite a near certain assault by gunman from La Bestia who are determined to finish the job.
The resulting attack on the hospital brings violence to the US side of the border in ways not seen before. That night propels the major storyline of the book forward as various events and complications begin to happen thanks to the ripple effects of the attack. The cartel had no idea what they were creating in this complex story of murder, weapons, and the future of those who live in Southwest Texas.
Despite the occasional travelogue feel to the book (such as the statement about how monsoon season is June 15 to September 30 each year- though us native Texans know that is only the official parameters and laughably inaccurate) this is well written and engrossing book. Police Chief Gray and her small force are detailed complex characters and interesting as are many of the local residents. The setting plays a major role in the story from the first page to the end as expected with an author who captured the “2010 Tony Hillerman Award for Best First Mystery” with this novel. Filled with two strong storylines, interesting characters, and a hint of romance for Chief Gray, and plenty of violence, this book is a powerfully good read.
Simply put- this is one not to miss.
THE TERRITORY: A Mystery
Tricia Fields
http://www.triciafields.com/
A Thomas Dunne Book (Minotaur Books)
http://www.thomasdunnebooks.com
October 2011
ISBN # 978-0-312-61378-5
Hardback
278 Pages
$24.99
Material supplied by the good folks of the Plano Texas Public Library System.
Kevin R. Tipple © 2012
More reviews, news and more http://kevintipplescorner.blogspot.com/
/
Deep in southwest Texas where the closest town on the United States side is the distant Marfa is the small town of Artemis, Texas. For the 2500 residents their small town is a refuge against an increasingly violent and hostile world. The people who live in this place treasure their isolation from the world. Their remoteness, amidst the harsh desert beauty of southwest Texas, makes them vulnerable to the escalating drug war violence spilling out of Mexico.
Something Police Chief Josie Gray knew long before that fateful summer evening when she watched violence explode across the river in the small Mexican city of Piedra Labrada. A war is raging between the “Medrano” and “La Bestia” drug cartels as the Medrano faction tries to hold onto their crumbling position. Eventually the gun battles seem to end this night and Josie Gray thinks the violence is over for now.
Unfortunately for her and her town it isn’t over by a long shot. Out of sight from Chief Gray’s watchtower perch, Medrano’s ranch was been attacked. Medrano is in route to hospital in Artemis via ambulance for emergency medical care as he holds dual US and Mexico citizenship. Despite being outnumbered and out gunned, somehow Chief Gray and her small force, are supposed to keep him and the medical team alive despite a near certain assault by gunman from La Bestia who are determined to finish the job.
The resulting attack on the hospital brings violence to the US side of the border in ways not seen before. That night propels the major storyline of the book forward as various events and complications begin to happen thanks to the ripple effects of the attack. The cartel had no idea what they were creating in this complex story of murder, weapons, and the future of those who live in Southwest Texas.
Despite the occasional travelogue feel to the book (such as the statement about how monsoon season is June 15 to September 30 each year- though us native Texans know that is only the official parameters and laughably inaccurate) this is well written and engrossing book. Police Chief Gray and her small force are detailed complex characters and interesting as are many of the local residents. The setting plays a major role in the story from the first page to the end as expected with an author who captured the “2010 Tony Hillerman Award for Best First Mystery” with this novel. Filled with two strong storylines, interesting characters, and a hint of romance for Chief Gray, and plenty of violence, this book is a powerfully good read.
Simply put- this is one not to miss.
THE TERRITORY: A Mystery
Tricia Fields
http://www.triciafields.com/
A Thomas Dunne Book (Minotaur Books)
http://www.thomasdunnebooks.com
October 2011
ISBN # 978-0-312-61378-5
Hardback
278 Pages
$24.99
Material supplied by the good folks of the Plano Texas Public Library System.
Kevin R. Tipple © 2012
More reviews, news and more http://kevintipplescorner.blogspot.com/
/
May 15, 2012
I made it to page 43, then flung it across the room. (Actually, I got up out of bed and put it in my bookbag nicely). Too many books have to have the obligatory right wing bashing. Of course, there are gun nuts and Second Amendment crazies, people who supposedly rant day and night against Democrats, in this book. This author started rather early, around page 27. For once, I would like to read about a crazy OWS member, or maybe some goofy black panthers. It's not like there is not enough fodder for this type of characterization. Maybe authors are scared they will alienate readers, because, you know, people on the right don't read, duh! So, once the stereotypical political F.U. was over, I was too lazy to get out of bed and switch books, so I kept reading. I was thinking, this author thinks in cliches. I bet Josie, being all independent and pretty, (without knowing it, of course), has a really nice place out in the desert somewhere, simple, yet comfortable. My God, did she! Not only simple, but hand hewn PECAN timbers! Rustic southwestern furniture! Navajo Indian blankets! Hand carved benches! An old man named Dell, who looks after Josie like a daughter, and lives close by! Wait, what? Ms Fields, have you no orginality? B is for Bogus.
April 5, 2014
An interesting mystery that revolves around the Mexican cartel drug trade. The story takes place in a small town close to the Rio Grande across from the Mexican border. The main character is a female chief of police who runs the 4 person (including herself) town police dept.
A suspension of reality is required when reading this book, but then again this is a light, entertaining read. I do like the character of Josie Gray and will read her further adventures even though I felt the resolution of the murder was a bit silly and a let down for the reader.
A suspension of reality is required when reading this book, but then again this is a light, entertaining read. I do like the character of Josie Gray and will read her further adventures even though I felt the resolution of the murder was a bit silly and a let down for the reader.
March 29, 2012
Josie Grey is the Police Chief in Artemis, Texas, about as far away from anywhere as one can get. She ran away from Indiana to get there. Now her town is being sized up as a potential corridor for the Mexican cartels to run guns and drugs through, especially since La Bestia and the Medrano cartels have already taken over Piedra Labrada across the river from Artemis. Hampered by the town's mayor who is either corrupt or stupid, Josie is caught between the town and the cartels as she tries to keep a lid on the simmering violence. After one shoot-out at the river, the body of a gun runner is found outside Artemis. Josies doesn't know who to trust. If you appreciate setting as a primary part of plot, this is the book for you; West Texas is there in all its sweeping majesty. Add the eccentric population of Artemis, all 2,500 of them and you have a book well worth reading. Recommended for all Craig Johnson, Nevada Barr and Steve Hamilton fans.
March 23, 2012
I enjoyed this modern novel of the southwest. It was a good mystery with just enough suspense to capture my attention. Well developed characters drawn from the author's own experience.
July 20, 2012
In this first novel, Tricia Fields has made a mark for herself as an emerging crime fiction/mystery writer to be watched. THE TERRITORY, set in a dusty little town on the Rio Grande in West Texas, presents the reader with a gritty and real perspective of a small-town police chief dealing with the overflow of the cartel wars across the river from Mexico. A few missteps mar the book slightly, but they do not detract from the overall satisfaction and feel of the book.
Police Chief Josie Gray, of Artemis, Texas, runs a department of three officers, in a county where the sheriff's department isn't much larger. Just across the Rio Grande, two rival cartels, the Medranos, long-established, and La Bestia, an insurgent trying to take over the territory, battle it out nightly. The carnage spills across the river when the patriarch of the Medranos, seriously wounded, is brought to the Trauma Center in Artemis, only to be butchered there by La Bestia gunmen, including a Medranos turncoat. In the gunfight, Gray wounds the traitor, who is held for the Feds in the small jail. The plot is woven throughout with the cartel threats, small-town politics in the form of an insufferable mayor, murder of the leader of a Second Amendment club, and the realities of too much open border with too few resources, Federal and local.
Not so believable are some of the procedural oddities that occur. Bearing in mind the thinly-stretched law enforcement agencies, some of the actions of Chief Gray, especially certain liaisons with Federal forces, do not ring true. However, while momentarily distracting, these don't derail a story with a likeable protagonist fighting a vicious evil as best she can. I am looking forward to the next book from Ms. Fields.
Police Chief Josie Gray, of Artemis, Texas, runs a department of three officers, in a county where the sheriff's department isn't much larger. Just across the Rio Grande, two rival cartels, the Medranos, long-established, and La Bestia, an insurgent trying to take over the territory, battle it out nightly. The carnage spills across the river when the patriarch of the Medranos, seriously wounded, is brought to the Trauma Center in Artemis, only to be butchered there by La Bestia gunmen, including a Medranos turncoat. In the gunfight, Gray wounds the traitor, who is held for the Feds in the small jail. The plot is woven throughout with the cartel threats, small-town politics in the form of an insufferable mayor, murder of the leader of a Second Amendment club, and the realities of too much open border with too few resources, Federal and local.
Not so believable are some of the procedural oddities that occur. Bearing in mind the thinly-stretched law enforcement agencies, some of the actions of Chief Gray, especially certain liaisons with Federal forces, do not ring true. However, while momentarily distracting, these don't derail a story with a likeable protagonist fighting a vicious evil as best she can. I am looking forward to the next book from Ms. Fields.
November 11, 2013
This was Tricia Fields' first novel. It is about a town on the Texas- Mexico border called Artemis. Josie Gray, the Police Chief of Artemis is trying to save her town from becoming an entry port for drug runners from a Mexican Cartel. Chief Gray is also involved in a power struggle with the power hungry mayor of Artemis.
The book has a strong Southwestern flavor, and is written in a style similar to that of Tony Hillerman. If you like him, you will probably like Fields. I think it is a very good first book. I don't know if Fields intends to do a sequal, but the characters lend themselves to the prospect of more adventures. I will keep my eyes open for her next installment!
Update: Tricia Fields has written a second book in the Josie Gray series, "Scratchgravel Road". I was lucky enough to win a copy, in a Goodreads drawing! Thank you St. Martin's Press and Goodreads!
As soon as it arrives, I will read it and post a review.
2nd update: Four months later and the book that I won never arrived from St. Martin's Press! Has anyone else had problems getting books they have won on Goodreads?
3rd update! Wow! Still no book, but an interesting development! I decided to send an email to Tricia Fields, the author. She responded quickly, and was very pleasant. She said she would get the book to me and hoped that I enjoyed it. Meanwhile, she has written a 3rd installment "Wrecked". I look forward to reading both books, and will post reviews!
The book has a strong Southwestern flavor, and is written in a style similar to that of Tony Hillerman. If you like him, you will probably like Fields. I think it is a very good first book. I don't know if Fields intends to do a sequal, but the characters lend themselves to the prospect of more adventures. I will keep my eyes open for her next installment!
Update: Tricia Fields has written a second book in the Josie Gray series, "Scratchgravel Road". I was lucky enough to win a copy, in a Goodreads drawing! Thank you St. Martin's Press and Goodreads!
As soon as it arrives, I will read it and post a review.
2nd update: Four months later and the book that I won never arrived from St. Martin's Press! Has anyone else had problems getting books they have won on Goodreads?
3rd update! Wow! Still no book, but an interesting development! I decided to send an email to Tricia Fields, the author. She responded quickly, and was very pleasant. She said she would get the book to me and hoped that I enjoyed it. Meanwhile, she has written a 3rd installment "Wrecked". I look forward to reading both books, and will post reviews!
January 30, 2012
Solid novel with an intriguing West Texas setting and characters that I would enjoy enjoy reading about again. The mystery was so-so-- I didn't find that I really cared about the man who was shot or who killed him. The storyline involving the Mexican drug cartels was informative. I came away with a sense of how difficult it must be for a small town like Artemis(woefully understaffed and undersupplied)to be trying to keep out the brutal violence of the drug trade.
Josie Gray--chief of police for Artemis, moral, upstanding, defending her town at all costs, struggling to let down her defenses in her personal life and deal with her deadbeat mom.
Otta and Marta--Josie's police force
Martinez--sheriff, ally or foe?
Red Goff--shot in the head and left on Pegasus Winning (no, really)'s couch, head of the Gunners (crazy gun guys)
Kevin Winnings--Pegasus' brother
Assorted Bad Dudes from La Bestia and the Medrano drug cartels
Josie Gray--chief of police for Artemis, moral, upstanding, defending her town at all costs, struggling to let down her defenses in her personal life and deal with her deadbeat mom.
Otta and Marta--Josie's police force
Martinez--sheriff, ally or foe?
Red Goff--shot in the head and left on Pegasus Winning (no, really)'s couch, head of the Gunners (crazy gun guys)
Kevin Winnings--Pegasus' brother
Assorted Bad Dudes from La Bestia and the Medrano drug cartels
June 1, 2012
Artemis was a small country community in west Texas, Artemis was in a area just known as the Territory. Mexico is withing walking distance across the Rio and Artemis is where the Cartels are looking to expand their sphere of influence.
Josie Gray is Chief of Police in Artemis, understaffed and under funded, as is the local sheriff's dept.and half the other agencies in the area.
Josie stands for justice and fair play even if it means fighting the drug cartels or city hall.
This was a good read and under scores the battle of those living along the border whether the American side or the Mexican side.It is also the story of those who forget when they are elected to office who they represent.
It is also the story of character, of finding ones self no matter the obstacles and of taking it one day at a time.
Josie Gray is Chief of Police in Artemis, understaffed and under funded, as is the local sheriff's dept.and half the other agencies in the area.
Josie stands for justice and fair play even if it means fighting the drug cartels or city hall.
This was a good read and under scores the battle of those living along the border whether the American side or the Mexican side.It is also the story of those who forget when they are elected to office who they represent.
It is also the story of character, of finding ones self no matter the obstacles and of taking it one day at a time.
May 22, 2012
Deserts, rattlesnakes, guns, good ol' boys with swaggers and smirks--normally this book wouldn't make it onto my "to read" list, much less into my hands to compete with the season finale of Criminal Minds. But there it is - a surprise in disguise. And I understand why the critics have recommended it.
The book is a fast read and an intriguing look into the workings of the Texas border. Think we can just build a wall and stop border crossings? Think again. I've been there - it's not that easy. Black and white fade to gray, and our legal system of what's right and wrong is overwhelmed with "yes, but...". The mystery in this book was actually the least interesting part of the book and I figured it out way too early. I hope there will be a sequel.
Recommended!
The book is a fast read and an intriguing look into the workings of the Texas border. Think we can just build a wall and stop border crossings? Think again. I've been there - it's not that easy. Black and white fade to gray, and our legal system of what's right and wrong is overwhelmed with "yes, but...". The mystery in this book was actually the least interesting part of the book and I figured it out way too early. I hope there will be a sequel.
Recommended!
September 30, 2012
Artemis Texas is a small dusty town on the border with Mexico; not the place you think of as one of the ‘last chance’ spots to stop the drug cartel. I liked the way the characters developed through the book which was fast paced and thorough. Good choice for the Hillerman Prize. Hope there is another one, or two, in the works.
October 8, 2019
Josie Gray is the Chief of Police in Artemis, a small western town of Texas. Perched on the edge of the Rio Grande River, Artemis and it’s sister town, Piedra Mexico, which sets just on the other side of the river, are facing many of the same problems. Both towns have been small peaceful places for families to raise their kids, until the drug cartels begin to overrun them both. The author uses these fictional towns and people to illustrate how law enforcement at all levels, on both sides of the border, are needed in this fight. Josie Gray and all her fellow officers face constant danger, threats, and temptations. Josie is fighting not only the cartels, but possible corruption within her town’s leaders. This author makes the towns and the people come alive, and is also excellent at describing the landscape of this desert southwest setting. This is the first in what is a new series for me, but I am looking forward to continuing this series.
August 19, 2012
I had a hard time putting this book down.
December 20, 2018
Set in a small Texas-Mexico border town this is a really vivid picture of what it might be like if a drug cartel decides your town is the best new crossing for illegal activity. The book has a Hillerman feel to it as the country side is an important part of the story. It was a good story, but I am not sure I'll find the subsequent ones as worthwhile. I don't get the impression that Fields has any political axe to grind (perhaps she's overly dismissive of all gun rights proponents) but this might be a good book for some to read who don't understand the tension some communities on the border live in.
August 27, 2018
Another series with a strong but also vulnerable female protagonist. Josie Gray is the Sheriff of a Texas border town right on the Rio Grande. Small imaginary town of Artemis almost three hours from the closest interstate. There are some unbelievable plot lines that I felt unrealistic in this tale of narcoficante violence spilling over the river. However, it was still a good read with some nice plot twists. It seemed that her real nemesis was not violent drug lords, who terrorized her while also respecting her as an adversary, but the misogynistic mayor whose amateurish antics and biased conduct made her job so much harder. I’m ready to read some more of her adventures on the border.
Read
September 14, 2017I did enjoy it and it enlightened me to border issues.
October 7, 2012
This book is a mystery with enough edge-of your-seat action that it almost qualifies as a thriller. What distinguishes it from many other mysteries (and most thrillers) is a cast of characters who come to life on the page.
Josie Gray is flawed. She doesn't get men - and more importantly doesn't get herself - and so her love life is a mess. When the Mexican cartel puts her in a life and death situation she chooses her job over the man she is involved with, and he struggles to understand her priorities. The scene when she and Dillon are in bed and the cartel shoots up the bedroom in the middle of the night is one of my favorite. That, and the cow she finds floating down the Rio grande, it's belly sewn full of cocaine.
This is the first book in a new series. I checked out the author's website and the second book in the series is out in March. I will definitely read. I'm ready to get hooked on a new series!
Josie Gray is flawed. She doesn't get men - and more importantly doesn't get herself - and so her love life is a mess. When the Mexican cartel puts her in a life and death situation she chooses her job over the man she is involved with, and he struggles to understand her priorities. The scene when she and Dillon are in bed and the cartel shoots up the bedroom in the middle of the night is one of my favorite. That, and the cow she finds floating down the Rio grande, it's belly sewn full of cocaine.
This is the first book in a new series. I checked out the author's website and the second book in the series is out in March. I will definitely read. I'm ready to get hooked on a new series!
November 7, 2017
I loved it as the book began, but after about 100 pages or so, I realized I was completely bored. I have read hundreds of mysteries by contemporary writers in the last three or more decades, and my favorites keep me wanting to turn every page to see what is next. This one did not, unfortunately. I skipped to the very end to see how the plot got tied up. A book that began with a lot of promise got bogged down in too many mundane details. If about 100 pages had been cut out of it, and it had been well edited in that process, it could have been a fabulous book to read. The characters were good, the geography and culture well presented. The book felt like the author wrote a bunch of stuff just to reach a certain number of words and pages, not because the story required it. So far, the most disappointing Tony Hillerman contest winner I have read.
October 4, 2024
Josie Gray is the chief of police for a small Texas bordertown in 2011 when the conflict between two Mexican cartels blows up in her jurisdiction and a local gun nut is murdered. While Gray tries to solve the murder and keep a lid on further cross-border raids, she has to deal with her own local group of stakeholders like the Sheriff, his possibly-dirty deputy, the incompetent mayor, Josie's ex-boyfriend, and the old retired cowboy who shares her property.
Verdict: An easy weekend read and an interesting start to a new series, I'd describe Josie Gray and "The Territory" (2011) as similar in spirit to Sue Grafton's Millhone detective series but with a Western crime flavor to it.
Jeff's Rating: 3 / 5 (Good)
movie rating if made into a movie: PG-13
Verdict: An easy weekend read and an interesting start to a new series, I'd describe Josie Gray and "The Territory" (2011) as similar in spirit to Sue Grafton's Millhone detective series but with a Western crime flavor to it.
Jeff's Rating: 3 / 5 (Good)
movie rating if made into a movie: PG-13
July 18, 2015
the unusual setting (a tiny Texas border town) is as much a character in this first Josie Grey mystery as any of the large gun-toting, human cast, and contributes much of what is fascinating about the plot line...there is way too much mexican cartel business involved, not because it doesn't fit, but because it is the kind of real world problem that is too insoluble to wrap in a tidy mystery-solved ending, but Josie Grey and her fight for her small town makes the reader eager for the next in the series
May 22, 2013
Typo bad she didn't research Teas law enforcement. Rangers will.be involved in a shooting at a small town jail and local law enforcement corruption. There is also no lewd and lascivious anything in TX penal code. Texas peace officers can also request assistance from a citizen who then has the same immunities as the officer while rendering that assistance.
This book wasn't too bad, but I wouldn't go out of my way to find number two.
This book wasn't too bad, but I wouldn't go out of my way to find number two.
September 5, 2014
I enjoyed discussing this book with my fellow book club members this week. Most of us felt that the author used the setting effectively and that she has set up several characters who we look forward to learning more about in future installments of the series.
June 24, 2017
First sentence had me hooked...What about the rifle, the black sedans, and Chief Josie Gray? She is an engaging character as she battles gun nut extremists and Mexican drug cartels in her Texas-Mexico border town. But...story didn't keep me interested.
2010 Hillerman prize winner.
2010 Hillerman prize winner.
September 30, 2012
Awesome book. She gets West Texas dead on.
September 17, 2022
Police Chief Josie Gray is responsible for keeping law and order in Artemis, Texas, pop. 2,500.
It's isolated and close to the Mexican border.
When a local right wing extremist is found murdered in unusual circumstances a frightening scenario begins to emerge as the rampant violence in the nearby Mexican city of Piedra Labrada begins to spill over into Artemis.
With two cartels battling for control, both intent on turning Artemis into a smuggling centre, the small town is dragged into a battle it can't win.
Josie is understaffed and under funded and help is a fair distance away. She and the Mayor don't see eye to eye on much and he seems to have his own agenda when it comes to handling the escalating crisis.
It all comes to a head after a gun battle on the Mexican side of the border, and a cartel boss is brought to Artemis for treatment, with rival gangsters in hot pursuit.
Can Josie hold the line? She'll die trying.
And, if she doesn't, maybe there's still a chance of romance for her.
"The Territory" is a thoroughly enjoyable read, solidly plotted and Josie, haunted by her past, is a likeable and believable character. There's also a solid secondary cast of characters.
3.5 Stars raised to 4.
It's isolated and close to the Mexican border.
When a local right wing extremist is found murdered in unusual circumstances a frightening scenario begins to emerge as the rampant violence in the nearby Mexican city of Piedra Labrada begins to spill over into Artemis.
With two cartels battling for control, both intent on turning Artemis into a smuggling centre, the small town is dragged into a battle it can't win.
Josie is understaffed and under funded and help is a fair distance away. She and the Mayor don't see eye to eye on much and he seems to have his own agenda when it comes to handling the escalating crisis.
It all comes to a head after a gun battle on the Mexican side of the border, and a cartel boss is brought to Artemis for treatment, with rival gangsters in hot pursuit.
Can Josie hold the line? She'll die trying.
And, if she doesn't, maybe there's still a chance of romance for her.
"The Territory" is a thoroughly enjoyable read, solidly plotted and Josie, haunted by her past, is a likeable and believable character. There's also a solid secondary cast of characters.
3.5 Stars raised to 4.
December 30, 2018
Written in 2010, this book does a great job exposing the huge power of drug cartels--on both sides of the Rio Grande. Two warring cartels in a border Mexican town fight it out in indescribably horrific ways literally in the viewing of an observation tower on the US side--in what used to be the ideal little town of Artemis. Chief of Police Josie Gray is watching and aching to help friends on the Mexican side, but powerless. On her return to the office, she finds out that the head of a flaky second amendments group called the Gunners (no knowing reference to the London football side) has been shot and placed in the mobile home of a sympathetic but clueless waitress, Pegasus Winning. Add a grandstanding chauvinistic mayor, a sympathetic ex-Hippie town founder, inadequate resources at the police and sheriffs department, and a complicated relationship between the two warring cartels, and you have the makings of a fascinating mystery/thriller. A central dilemma: do you run or hide from evil, or do you confront it? Tricia Fields does a very good job connecting and resolving these strands into an informative and satisfying read.
July 29, 2018
The Territory refers to a vast expanse of land that straddles the border between Texas and Mexico. The novel is set in a small border town, Artemis. Chief Josie Gray is dealing with issues not common to small town law enforcement, drug cartels. The geographic location of Artemis makes it an ideal place for cross border gun running and other criminal activities. Despite being ill-equipped to deal with the hostile incursions of the cartels, Gray makes a stand.
This is a satisfying debut by Tricia Fields who highlights the ruthlessness of the cartels as they push their criminal enterprises into the US. It's the first in a series and I'm interested to see how she moves this topic forward.
This is a satisfying debut by Tricia Fields who highlights the ruthlessness of the cartels as they push their criminal enterprises into the US. It's the first in a series and I'm interested to see how she moves this topic forward.
June 30, 2021
I'm not sure how you take a story about rival drug cartels and make it so boring. This book took me nearly two months to finish. It just wasn't very exciting or believable. Several times, it seemed like characters got mixed up. I vaguely remember the lead guy from one of the cartels telling the sheriff that she killed one of his best friends even though the guy she killed was there to murder his father. Just sloppy mistakes in the writing. Lots and lots of clichés. The dumb guys that all own guns and are so redneck and perverted. The sheriff seemed more lucky than skilled. I sort of powered through it so I don't remember a lot except I rolled my eyes a bunch.
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