STORM WATCH (Joe Pickett #23) (audiobook) by C.J. Box

 

Published by Recorded Books in February of 2023.
Read by David Chandler.
Duration: 9 hours, 4 minutes.
Unabridged.

Synopsis:

Game Warden Joe Pickett is out in a snowstorm chasing down an elk with a broken leg. An out of state driver plowed into an elk herd while consulting the GPS app on his phone and an injured elk somehow limped away. 

Joe and his dog Daisy are on a big ranch owned by an out of state multi-millionaire trying to track down the elk to put it out of its misery. Joe finds the elk, an SUV from a different part of the state, a metal building that is very out of place in this out of the way valley, and a dead man. 

Joe starts to nose around and gets shot at twice by snowmobilers at the top of the valley and that's just the beginning of his troubles...

My review:

For the past 13 years I have been happily reviewing C.J. Box's novels. I went back and looked at those reviews and bit-time politics has been a part of them since almost the beginning. His early books featured eco-terrorists, an EPA ruling about water rights, wind turbines, and more. 

Warning: ***spoilers***

But lately, the books are just getting more and more over the top. There is a running commentary by the lazy sheriff in the last few books that Joe Pickett keeps finding trouble. In the last two books Joe found a man who had been burned to death by Hungarian Nazis. He found his old lady neighbor was killed by the same Nazis. In this book, he discovered a Chinese communist spy who had been killed by meth-heads (actually he discovered it twice because the body was moved). He discovered a dead meth addict, and was nearly assassinated (don't worry - the bad guy was killed.) Joe's friend and self-appointed body guard Nate Romanowski along with Geronimo Jones (Geronimo is Nate Romanowski's Nate Romanowski) kill 6 more men. That's a body count of over a dozen in a county in America's least populated state (576,000 people) in just a few months. In the book before that 5 or 6 people died as well! 18 people dead in this one county in less than a year!

It seems to me that this lazy sheriff has a really good point. In 2020, Wyoming only had 25 murders and that was up quite a bit from previous years. 

I love the Joe Pickett game warden stories with Joe being out in the wild doing game warden stuff. He has fought terrorists with a missile, Nazis, dirty FBI agents, Mexican drug cartel hit teams, uncovered a Chinese Communist plot, fought Antifa extremists (extreme even for Antifa), and found body after body after body. There's a point where it gets to be too much. Who else can you take down after you have taken down Nazis, Communists, and the FBI?

***End Spoilers***

All of the griping being said, the book does move along quite well and, if you have read all of the books, is full of a lot of satisfying moments. 

This book wraps up so many loose ends that it may very well be close to the end of the Joe Pickett series. There are hints of another set of adventures with his daughter or Geronimo Jones or even with a Wyoming state trooper. 

I rate this book 3 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: STORM WATCH (Joe Pickett #23) by C.J. Box.

SHADOWS REEL (Joe Picket #22) (audiobook) by C.J. Box

 

Published in 2022 by Recorded Books.

Read by David Chandler.
Duration: 9 hours, 4 minutes.
Unabridged.

Synopsis:

Game Warden Joe Pickett investigates a report of a dead elk. Fearing that it is the victim of a botched attempt at poaching, he investigates. Instead, he finds a burned corpse and falls headlong into another murder investigation.

Meanwhile, Joe's wife Marybeth, the director of the local library discovers an odd package left at the library with connections to a prominent Nazi from World War II.

And...Nate Romanowski is in Denver hunting down an old enemy during the midst of an Antifa/BLM riot.

My review:

This is a book series about a game warden. Oftentimes, he is joined by a former special forces guy who is so into nature that he used to stand naked in a stream of water for hours at a time to get the feel of a river and its entire ecosystem - from the slime at the bottom to the fish to the birds that swoop down to the beavers that dam it up.

Antifa protest in Denver

There was almost no "game wardening" in this book and the man who is derisively called "nature boy" in this book spends 99% of this book navigating the urban world of Black Lives Matter and Antifa.

I have complained in my review of the 20th book in this series, Long Range, that Joe Pickett was getting involved in so many other types of police cases that it is easy to forget that the first books in the series - the books that made me start and keep reading a series - were mostly about game warden activities. Lots of searching for poachers. There was a book about eco-terrorists, one with survivalist weirdos and even a big forest fire.

This book seemed to be careening from one political commentary after another - BLM, Antifa, even Hungary. What does the author say? Antifa - irredeemably stupid. BLM - understandable, but over the top. Hungary, despite the popularity of its President in ultra-conservative circles, is linked in this book with violent reaction over careful consideration.

Is this what the author intended? I have no idea. He seems to be making a lot of political comments in his books lately in the Joe Pickett and the Cassie Dewell series. Some are subtle, some are not. I assume that is what he's pulling his characters out of the Wyoming countryside and placing them in cities all over the West, but maybe not. Maybe I am reading too much into it. Either way, I want Joe Pickett to get his butt back into the woods!

I rate this audiobook 2 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: SHADOWS REEL (Joe Picket #22) by C.J. Box.

DARK SKY (Joe Pickett #21) (audiobook) by C.J. Box

 

Published by Recorded Books in 2021.
Read by David Chandler.
Duration: 9 hours, 31 minutes.
Unabridged.

Winner of the Spur Award for Western Contemporary Novel (2022)

Synopsis:

Wyoming Game Warden Joe Pickett is good at his job and is known for dealing honestly with everyone. Usually, it's a good thing to have a great reputation. But, it can also mean that people dump the uncomfortable jobs on you because they know you will do them.

The new Governor of Wyoming has an idea that will pick up his slumping poll numbers - he will convince a tech mogul to build his latest server farm in Wyoming. He hopes that the prestige and, more importantly, new high-paying jobs will help the voting public overlook his scandals when it comes time for re-election.

The tech mogul is sort of a combination of Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerburg. He has new skills he wants to master and the current skill he wants to master is providing himself with all of his own food. He gardens and hunts everything and he is coming to Wyoming to go on an elk hunt in the mountains. Joe Pickett has been chosen to make sure he has a successful hunt and tell him all of the advantages of placing his server farm in Wyoming.

However, there is more awaiting this hunting party than a herd of elk...

My Review:

In my review of the 20th book in this series, Long Range, I wished that Joe Pickett would stop acting like a regular police officer and have cases that took him out into the mountains again. This book fits the bill perfectly! As a bonus, there was some discussion of the pluses and minuses of social media.

I rate this audiobook 5 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Dark Sky (Joe Pickett #21) by C.J. Box.

LONG RANGE (Joe Pickett #20) (audiobook) by C.J. Box

 

Published in 2020 by Recorded Books.
Read by David Chandler.
Duration: 10 hours, 35 minutes.
Unabridged

This book is the 20th in the Joe Pickett series, but in a lot of ways it is the sequel to the 19th book in the series: Wolf Pack. More about that below.

The book starts out with Joe in the deep woods on an investigation of a bear attack. But, he is called back to Saddlestring, Wyoming on an emergency run. The wife of a legendary local judge was shot during a presumed attempted very long range sniper attack on the judge. The judge has demanded that every law enforcement officer in the area investigate immediately, including Game Warden Joe Pickett.

Of course, things are more complicated than that...

************Spoilers*************

In Wolf Pack a Mexican drug cartel assassination team shot up Saddlestring, killing the sheriff, the prosecutor, critically injuring an FBI agent and more. Nate Romanowski killed the leader of the hit squad and in this book their best assassin comes after Nate to exact his revenge. 

Personally, I am getting tired of the plots that take Joe Pickett away from being a game warden. Joe and Nate have disrupted international terrorists and taken on Mexican drug cartels in the last few books. They are good adventure stories, but they get away from the types of stories that made me like this series and they start to get more and more improbable. 

I was more interested in the bear attack part of the book than the attempted assassination of the judge and WAY more interested in the bear attack part of the book than the return of the drug cartel. The drug cartel angle seemed to be a clunky, heavy handed way of redirecting the arc of the Nate Romanowski story line.

**********END SPOILERS***********

I rate this book 3 stars out of 5 mostly based on the fact that I like the main characters and it is always good to spend time with them, even in a frustrating book.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: LONG RANGE (Joe Pickett #20) by C.J. Box.

WOLF PACK (Joe Pickett #19)(audiobook) by C.J. Box

 

Published in 2019 by Recorded Books.

Read by David Chandler.
Duration: 9 hours, 51 minutes.
Unabridged.

Synopsis:

Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett is back on the job and glad to be doing the mundane work of a game warden once again.

The game warden in the district next to his reaches out and tells him about a fancy drone she has spotted. The drone is being used to drive winter-weakened deer and elk into groups and then panic them into stampedes, killing and maiming several of them. Of course, this is a violation of Wyoming law.

But, when they go to track down the owner, they find that they are stymied everywhere they look. Once they find the owner, it turns out that they wish they hadn't found what they are looking for...

Review:

This is a pretty engrossing thriller with lots of action.

But...

Huge chunks of this book is told from the perspective of characters that are guests in this series. I don't know exactly what percentage, but it felt like Joe Pickett was mostly a guest in book number 19 in the Joe Pickett series. There was not a lot of game wardens doing game warden things because the series has largely moved away from that and, in my opinion, that is simply a shame.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy Joe and his family and his friend Nate very much and I was happy to go along for another ride with them in this book. However, this was a good book, but not a great one because it moves away from Joe Pickett and becomes a thriller that could've have been adapted into any police series without a lot of thought. 

I rate this 4 stars out of 5 because it is a good thriller, but I am disappointed.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: WOLF PACK (Joe Pickett #19) by C.J. Box.

SAVAGE RUN (Joe Pickett #2) (audiobook) by C.J. Box

 

Originally published in 2002.

Published in 2010 by Recorded Books.
Read by David Chandler.
Duration: 8 hours, 48 minutes.
Unabridged.

I have been reading the Joe Pickett series for the last 10 years and I have been reading them all out of order. I started with book number one, went on to number thirteen and so on...

So, here I am ten years later with a review of Savage Run (book number two.)

The book starts out from the perspective of a radical environmentalist who leads a national organization. However, he is tired of using lawsuits to fight for the environment. He likes to get his hands dirty by spiking trees and cutting fences. While he is out doing that he gets blown up by a bomb that was strapped to a cow. 

Photo by DWD

Joe Pickett gets called out to the explosion site because there may have been wildlife injured or killed. He finds a horrible mess and soon enough gets sucked into another, much larger situation...

This is Box's sophomore effort and there is evidence of a sophomore slump here. It's not a bad book, it's just not as good as the rest of the series usually is. It has some very compelling parts, but the tension of what should have been the biggest moment of the chase scene is deflated by from comments that appear in the first part of the book.

I rate this book 3 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: SAVAGE RUN (Joe Pickett #2) by C.J. Box.

THE DISAPPEARED (Joe Pickett #18) by C.J. Box

Published in 2018 by G.P. Putnam's Sons.

Game Warden Joe Pickett and the new governor of Wyoming have a turbulent relationship at best. The previous governor used Joe as his own personal law enforcement officer from time-to-time. This wasn't because Joe was some sort of rogue cop - quite the opposite. He knew that Joe was a dogged investigator who had a talent for following clues where they led him - or at the very least stumbling around blind and stepping in the middle of the problem on accident. Sure, it had a real cost in damage to trucks (a tradition continued in this book), but Joe could be trusted to do the right thing.

In The Disappeared the new governor found about Joe and has tried to use him to deal with political problems masked as law enforcement problems. Joe has refused and the new governor does not deal with rejection well.

However, this time there is a real-life law enforcement issue to deal with. A female British executive and media darling has disappeared after vacationing at a very high end dude ranch - the same ranch that employs Joe's oldest daughter as a wrangler (cowgirl guide for the rich and famous that want to experience a bit of cowboy life). The British executive checked out, drove away in her rental car and never arrived at the airport. She just vanished and the British press is having a field day. The fancy dude ranch is concerned that it will hurt their business and this has gotten the attention of the governor and his surly chief of staff.

So, Joe is off to investigate in the middle of winter and enters the very touristy world of dude ranches for the world's elite. But, there are other issues to deal with - the Governor's office is very impatient, Joe's daughter has a serious boyfriend at the ranch and Nate Romanowski is pestering him about eagles...

All Joe Pickett books are a worthy read for me - I've been reading them for eight years now, thanks to the recommendation in a comment left on one of my online reviews. Joe is like an old friend and this one is a tough read because Joe is off balance for the duration of the book. It is also not as satisfying a read because it is clearly part of a two-part series (or more). One set of problems are resolved only to stumble upon even more problems and I am not satisfied only because I want to know what is going to happen next (If you are a Marvel movie fan, you know the feeling - it's the one you had at the end of Infinity War).

So, I rate this one 4 stars out of 5 and it can be found on Amazon.com here: THE DISAPPEARED (Joe Pickett #18) by C.J. Box.

P.S. Watch out for Nate Romanowski and his fish!

VICIOUS CIRCLE (A Joe Pickett Novel) by C.J. Box

Published in 2017 by G.P. Putnam's Sons.

In 2015's Endangered, C.J. Box introduced his readers to the Cates family. The Cates family was a dangerous group by anyone's standards - likely to poach wildlife, cheat business partners or maybe just get in a fight for the sheer fun of it. The most dangerous members of the family are the mom and the golden child Dallas. Dallas is also a champion professional rodeo star and should have been a real celebrity in his hometown of Saddlestring, except for the fact that no one can stand him or his family.

Joe Pickett helped break up the Cates family crime ring and in the process most of the family was killed. Dallas Cates and his mother went to jail. His mother is serving a life sentence. In the process of her family being taken down she broke her neck and is now paralyzed.

Joe Pickett has a problem. Dallas Cates has just been released from jail and it's clear that he wants revenge. He hasn't made a move yet, but it is obvious that he wants to punish Joe by taking out his family, just like Joe took out his.

And, to make matters worse, Joe Pickett's mother-in-law is back in town...

This was a great entry in the long-running Joe Pickett series. It was a return to the basics for Joe (no international plots - as in one of the more recent books). Just a story of revenge told well. A very modern version of a classic Western theme.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Vicious Circle by C.J. Box.

OUT of RANGE (Joe Pickett #5) by C. J. Box

Originally published in 2005.

Wyoming Game Warden Joe Pickett has been re-assigned in Out of Range. Normally, he covers the area around the town of Saddlestring but he has been temporarily re-assigned to a plum location - Jackson, Wyoming - the home of the Grand Tetons and a well-known retreat for the rich and the famous.

While Joe is thrilled for the opportunity, he is not happy about the circumstances behind it. A fellow game warden that he knew and respected suffered some sort of mental breakdown and killed himself. Plus, his family has been receiving ominous "breather" phone messages at all times of day and night...

So, Joe Pickett goes off to Jackson only to find that this new assignment is extraordinarily complicated by politically-connected power players, trendy protesters and the investigation into the previous game warden's suicide and things are getting weirder and more complicated all of the time...

I am reading this series in what seems to be an insane random order. A lot of the events in this book are referred to in other books down the line so this is an important chapter in his story. But, this was not the best of the Joe Pickett series and certainly not a good one to start with if you are thinking of starting the series. But, for me at least, a book with Joe Pickett is like a visit with old friends.

I rate this book 4 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazom.com here: OUT of RANGE (Joe Pickett #5) by C. J. Box.

Reviewed on May 15, 2017

WINTERKILL(Joe Pickett #3) by C.J. Box

When Joe Met Nate...   

Originally Published in 2003

Wyoming Game Warden Joe Pickett is making his rounds in Winterkill when he sees a hunter open fire on a herd of Elk, killing many more than a hunting license would allow. It turns out he is the local administrator of federal lands, the man who approves permits, makes rental agreements for grazing or logging and the like. He escapes Joe's custody for a few minutes, only to be found pinned to a tree - the victim of an attack with a hunting bow.

The local sheriff has a suspect in mind - a local anti-government type that Joe has heard of but has not met - Nate Romanowski (for those who have not read the series, Joe and Nate become de facto partners in many of the books in this series). Joe suspects that Nate is not the real killer and goes off on his own to do a little detective work on the side. He has his eyes on a wandering group of anti-government activists who have set up camp in a federal forest. And, they include the biological mother of the foster child Joe's family has been trying to adopt for the last several months. Throw in a nutty federal bureaucrat and a wild winter storm and you can see how things will get tough for Joe Pickett this winter...

I read the Joe Pickett books as I naturally find them. I could order them all and read them in order but, what's the fun in that?  This book is the beginning of four different multi-book plot lines and it would actually be a good place to start the series if you can't find book #1 or #2 in the series. The action is great, the tension over the proper use of federal lands is real, even if it is overdone by some of the characters in this book. 

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Winterkill by C.J. Box.

OFF the GRID (Joe Pickett #16) by C. J. Box

Published in 2016 by G.P. Putnam's Sons

This installment in the saga of Joe Pickett starts out with a bear encounter in the mountains and ends up in a violent confrontation in Wyoming's Red Desert.

Joe Pickett's special relationship with the Governor is coming to an end in Off the Grid because the Governor's term is coming to an end. But, that doesn't stop him from going on one last special mission to the Red Desert area of Wyoming.

Meanwhile, Nate Romanowski has been approached by men from a secret group of government agents who are worried about national security issues. They know all about Nate and his delicate legal situation and promise to clear all of that up if he goes on a special assignment for them in the Red Desert area of Wyoming.

Also, Joe's daughter Sheridan goes for a weekend camping trip to volunteer to help an unknown activist group in (you guessed it) the Red Desert area of Wyoming.

As you know, if you follow this series, when Nate and Joe and Joe's family get involved in some sort of nefarious activity, there's bound to be plenty of action and drama.

Despite the obvious forced coincidence of having all of these characters show up in the same corner of Wyoming at the same time, the action and spending more time with these characters makes up for it.

I rate this book 4 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Off the Grid by C.J. Box.

ENDANGERED (Joe Pickett # 15) by C.J. Box

Published in 2015 by G.P. Putnam's Sons

Technically, Endangered is a Joe Pickett and Nate Romanowski novel but they have no interaction throughout the book. Nate has been released from prison because of a complex deal between the feds and Joe Pickett's boss, the Governor of Wyoming. But, one of the conditions of his release is that he cannot have any contact with Joe Pickett - a part of the deal that was tossed in out of spite by the FBI agent that negotiated the deal.

Romanowski agrees and heads off to a new life with his new love interest.  They have opened a business in which he will use his hunting falcons to clear out smaller birds from barns and the like. But, Romanowski soon discovers that he was mostly let out of prison to become bait for the people that he testified against in prison so that the FBI can have a chance to nab them - maybe before they kill Nate, maybe not.

Meanwhile, Wyoming Game Warden Joe Pickett is dealing with troubles of his own. His adopted daughter April has returned to Twelve Sleep County, unbeknownst to her family. They find out when she is discovered on the side of the road nearly beaten to death. Pickett has his suspicions of the real culprit even though the clues are pointing to a strange loner who lives on the edge of town...

This is an exciting, suspenseful addition to the series. Lots of action, lots of drama and multiple story lines. The ending was satisfying, if not a little too pat for my tastes. 

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Endangered (Joe Pickett #15). 

TROPHY HUNT (Joe Pickett #4) by C.J. Box

First published in 2004.

I am a serious fan of C.J. Box, having been introduced to him by a person who left a suggestion on one on my reviews on Amazon.com. Since then I have read most of his books in the order that I have found them - which is no order at all. So, this is probably my 15th or 16th book by C.J. Box but it is only now that I am getting around to #4 in the Joe Pickett series.

Trophy Hunt is a weird one.

If you like to watch "news of the weird" type of stuff than you are probably familiar of the urban legend about cattle mutilations. These stories suggest that aliens are picking up cattle, performing surgeries on them and then leaving their mutilated bodies scattered across the countryside.

In Trophy Hunt, farm animals and wild animals are being mutilated. Their faces and genitals are being cut away with precise cuts so Game Warden Joe Pickett knows that they are not the result of animal attacks - at least not anything he's used to. When men are killed and mutilated as well Joe is appointed to a task force but even Joe cannot seriously entertain the suggestion that alien spaceships are involved...

Despite the weirdness, it is always good to check in with Joe Pickett and his family. This is not the best in the series, but it has its moments. Those moments and these characters makes for a rating of 4 out of 5 stars.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Trophy Hunt.

BLOOD TRAIL (Joe Pickett #8) by C. J. Box

Published in 2008

Wyoming Game Warden Joe Pickett is still on special assignment from the Governor in Blood Trail. What this means is he has no home territory and is always on the edge of being fired But, he is kept around because he has a knack for solving big problems involving dangerous people.

Joe's strength does not come from his tracking ability (he's good but not great), or his ability as a crack shot (he's horrible with a pistol) or his abilities as an outdoorsman (he is very good but he is not a survivalist).

No - his strength comes from his own family and from a sense that the rules are important. Joe is a straight arrow who does all that he can to stay within the rules. IF he has break one of those rules, he does not rest easily.

Joe is called away from a long-needed session of household chores to a crime scene in a hunting camp. The only thing he knows is that it is a gruesome scene. The sheriff and the Warden that now covers his old territory race to the scene. When they arrive they find a hunter field dressed, having been dropped by a single shot from a rifle. Clearly, someone is trying to send an anti-hunting message.

At the same time, an anti-hunting activist shows up in town and calls attention to the murder. Soon, Joe's research uncovers earlier murders of hunters that were not so blatant but are clearly related and now the whole country knows that in Wyoming the hunters are now the hunted...

This is a gruesome but engrossing entry in this series. I figured out the mystery before the end (I am pretty sure everyone was supposed to figure it out) but I was very surprised at the methods used to flush out the murderer. Plus, there is a true (and quite gratifying) surprise at the end, almost as an epilogue. 

I rate this story 5 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Blood Trail (A Joe Pickett Novel)

SHOTS FIRED: STORIES from JOE PICKETT COUNTRY by C.J. Box

Published in 2014

Normally, I am not much of a fan of short stories. For me, by the time I figure out what's going on in the story it's over and then I have to go through the whole process again in the next story. The exception to this has always been Stephen King - he creates characters that the reader can buy into very quickly in a story.

I will add C.J. Box to that list with Stephen King. Throughout Shots Fired Box quickly establishes the parameters of the story and then delivers 10 good short stories. Four of them feature his previously established characters joe Pickett or Nate Romanowski. Nine of them take place in modern times. Nine take place in Wyoming.

The one that does not take place in Wyoming features members of the Sioux nation who are working at Euro-Disney in France. It is one of my favorites in the collection.

A quote from the book: "Giving alcohol to an alcoholic makes him happy, but it doesn't help him. Buying stuff for people who won't work makes you popular, but it doesn't get them a job or any self-respect." (p. 174)

I rate this collection 4 stars out of 5. 

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Shots Fired: Stories from Joe Pickett Country

STONE COLD (Joe Pickett #14) by C.J. Box

Originally published in March of 2014.

Installment #13 in the Joe Pickett series left us wondering what Joe would do with himself and how the series could continue. Joe had just quit his job as a Wyoming game warden due to his absolute disgust with a case of government abusing its power and causing an innocent man to be pushed beyond his breaking point.

But, what would Joe Pickett do if he wasn't a game warden? As a practical matter, how would the series even continue? It's not like Joe Pickett and Nate Romanowski could open up a private detective service in rural Wyoming.

So, in Stone Cold, Joe is back to what he was doing a few books ago - he has been restored as a game warden again but he is working for the governor as a "troubleshooter." He is the governor's one man personal police force, but the governor hasn't called on him for anything...until now.

The governor wants him to discretely look into a mysterious out-of-state man who has moved into north-eastern Wyoming, bought up huge chunks of land and has made himself the most important man in that part of the state. He owns the most land, pays the most taxes, owns the most businesses, has the most employees and basically lives like a medieval lord in that he is above the law. 

On top of that, there are persistent rumors that this man runs a very high-end hit man operation. The targets are always people who arguably deserved it (like a Bernie Madoff, for example) but murder is still murder. Rumor has it that his professional killers stay at his mansion and Joe recognizes one of these hit men in a blurry photo - Nate Romanowski. 

It took a while for this book to get into its main plot line. However, that does not mean that it was wasted time, it was just more carefully laid out. Once Joe makes it out to the Black Hills of Wyoming the story is absolutely riveting. Joe's unerring ability to find trouble pushes the story along as he starts to dig.

I rate this story 5 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Stone Cold (A Joe Pickett Novel)

FREE FIRE (Joe Picket #7) by C.J. Box

Published in May of 2008

In the previous book in the Joe Pickett series, In Plain Sight, Joe lost his job as a Wyoming game warden. In Free Fire, Joe gets his job back, sort of. Governor Rulon, a man who delights in doing things that irritate bureaucracies, has offered him a chance to work as a Game Warden "without portfolio" (as they might say in diplomatic circles). Joe is an independent agent, working for the Governor but the Governor wants plausible deniability for everything Joe does.

The Governor offers this to Joe because of a situation that developed in Yellowstone National Park. A local attorney went into a part of the park that is in Idaho, shot four campers and then turned himself in. The campers all worked for Zephyr, a private contractor that runs the hotels, the gift shops and does the maintenance around the park. But, due to a loophole in the law described in detail here he was not able to be tried for anything. Due to federal law and his right to a trial by jury the attorney was simply not able to be brought to trial and he walked away.

The Governor sends Joe in to see if the Park Rangers and the FBI have done a thorough job of investigating. Specifically, he wants to know why the attorney killed the campers - his claim that they made fun of him and he took their guns away from them and shot them just does not sound plausible.

The Governor makes it clear that he is not sending Joe because Joe is some sort of genius investigator. Instead, he knows that Joe has a way of blundering around a case until something shakes loose. 

So, armed with a new badge, a new truck and unofficially accompanied by his fugitive friend Nate Romanowski, Joe heads off to Yellowstone and discovers that there is way more to this case than anyone has told the press...

****

Free Fire is much more gritty and brutal than most of the books in the series. There are lots of descriptions of the beauty and wonder of Yellowstone and I would imagine if you have not been you would find yourself a little overwhelmed by the descriptions. If anything, C.J. Box has restrained himself in his descriptions of one of the most amazing places on the planet. The sheer size of the park becomes an issue. It reminded me of the Chee/Leaphorn books where long rides in the truck become a routine part of the story.

For fear of spoilers I will not describe any more of the mystery, but I will say that the science of the park and the strange community that has developed around it make this a unique and fascinating book.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon here: Free Fire: A Joe Pickett Novel

IN PLAIN SIGHT (Joe Pickett #6) by C.J. Box

Published in 2006.

I have been reading C.J. Box's series about Wyoming Game Warden Joe Pickett for the last five years now after having someone recommend him to me on Amazon. The problem is, I have made absolutely no effort to read them in order - I just read them as I find them. So, I have read #1 and #9-13 plus several of Box's standalone novels. In Plain Sight is the first one that I felt a little lost in it as I jumped in but I got things figured out after 50 or 60 pages and still enjoyed another adventure with Joe Pickett.

In this book, Joe is dealing with a new boss at the state level who is much more bureaucrat than he is game warden. While they butt heads, the town of Saddlestring is being torn apart by an internal family feud with the Scarlett family. The Scarletts are one of the original white families to move into the area and they have been stunningly successful over the generations. They have the biggest ranch with the best land. They are on all of the boards, in the state legislature and employ lots of people. This family civil war splits the town apart and has gotten to the point where it looks like there will be an old-fashioned range war. And Joe is in the middle of it because his daughter is best friends with a daughter of one of the rivals.

Throw in a mysterious new ranch hand with an explosive temper who has a grudge against Joe Pickett and several brutal animal mutilations designed to taunt the game warden and terrify his family and you have a situation that Joe just can't ignore, even if his boss wants him to for political considerations...

For me, this story took a little while to get going partially because of my initial confusion (see the first paragraph). That being said, I give it an entirely respectable 4 stars out of 5 because once it got going it grabbed my attention.

In Plain Sight can be found on Amazon here: In Plain Sight (A Joe Pickett Novel)

NOWHERE to RUN (Joe Pickett #10) by C.J. Box

Published in 2010 by G.P. Putnam's Sons

Wyoming Game Warden Joe Pickett is in the last week of his exile to a lonely post - Baggs, Wyoming in Nowhere to Run. Most men would take this last week to fill out the last bits of paper work, say goodbye to new acquaintances and maybe just take it easy. Not Joe Pickett. Joe loves the mountains of Wyoming and he looks at this as one last chance to take a pass through some wild and rugged territory that he may never get to see again. So, he heads off to check into a complaint about butchered elk (a hunter wounded an elk and before he could catch up to it to finish it off someone had already finished it, butchered it and carted off the best pieces) and several comments from long-time locals that the area just felt like something was wrong.

So, Joe heads off with a couple of horses, his nearly useless pistol (Joe is a great guy but a terrible shot with a pistol),his trusty shotgun, and all sorts of camping gear to investigate. He also has his satellite phone that he uses to check in with his wife and family every night.

Sure enough, everything feels wrong and soon Joe comes across Caleb Grim, a giant of a man. Caleb and his twin brother Camish are living illegally in this protected area. Joe stops to cite them. He should have ran when Caleb looked him in the eye and said, "You coulda just rode away." But, Joe is not that kind of guy. 

And, his family knows something is wrong when he doesn't call home that night...

Nowhere to Run is much more action-packed than most of the Joe Pickett novels and C.J. Box does a great job of describing action. It is inspired by a true story of a game warden encountering twin mountain men but it still felt a little forced. It was good, sometimes it was impossible to put down but there were times when it just didn't feel like the story really should have fit together the way that it was being told.  The whole book rates a very respectable 4 stars out of 5. 

I strongly recommend this series.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: NOWHERE to RUN (Joe Pickett #10) by C.J. Box.

BELOW ZERO (Joe Pickett #9) by C.J. Box

Published in 2009 by G.P. Putnam's Sons.

Years ago, person who left a comment on one of my Amazon reviews told me about C.J. Box and gave me the title to his first book featuring Joe Pickett. I found it at the library and I was hooked. If you like Michael Connelly or Robert Crais, you will love C.J. Box. If you like Tony Hillerman's Navajo Tribal Police books than I am sure that you will enjoy Box's descriptions of the local landscape and the people of Wyoming.

In Below Zero Wyoming Game Warden Joe Pickett is working on two cases. The first case (and the minor one in the story) concern's Joe's pursuit of the Mad Archer, a poacher that likes to shoot his arrows at just about anything. Besides out of season game, the Mad Archer has shot a bald eagle and Tube, the ultra-friendly Corgi-Labrador mix that Pickett has adopted. Joe arrests him and he promptly skips town while out on bail and Joe goes back on the hunt for him.

The main story concerns a dying Chicago mobster enforcer named Stenko and his ultra-environmentalist son who wants Stenko to make amends for the gigantic carbon footprint that he has accrued over a lifetime of high roller living. Stenko and his son are roaming through South Dakota, Wyoming and Colorado looking for opportunities to stop people from contributing to America's overall carbon footprint. Typically, this involves Stenko using skills with a pistol to kill heavy polluters or try to shake them down to pay for carbon offsets.

At first I was thrown off by the heavy-handed tactics of Stenko and son, thinking that it was over-the-top nonsense. But, I started doing some more thinking and I remembered some quotes from ultra-environmentalists like these:

"I suspect that eradicating small pox was wrong. It played an important part in balancing ecosystems." -- John Davis, editor of Earth First! Journal

"Phasing out the human race will solve every problem on earth, social and environmental." -- Dave Forman, Founder of Earth First!

and

"To feed a starving child is to exacerbate the world population problem" -- Lamont Cole

So, take these comments and add action to them and Stenko and son don't seem quite so unrealistic. 

Normally, Joe Pickett wouldn't be too worried about this mobster since it is not really a game warden issue. But, when Joe's daughter gets a phone call from April Keeley (their foster daughter that was presumed to be dead from a federal raid in an earlier book) he cannot help but be curious - even more so when it looks like April is being forced to ride along with Stenko and son...

Nate Romanowski plays a large role in this story. Normally, I am not a fan of Nate, but I liked him quite a bit in this one. In fact, I liked this book quite a bit. I tore right through it.

Great quote from the book: "...there is no sound in nature that makes men move along faster than the pumping of a shotgun." (p. 39)

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: BELOW ZERO (Joe Pickett #9) by C.J. Box.