“We’ll see,” Joe said. . She knew from experience that uneven partnerships often resulted in tension and angst, but she had no capital to put into the deal. C. J. Joe knew that all year-old Labs were useless, and took her home to mature. Tim Singewald had thin sandy hair, small eyes, a sallow complexion, and a translucent mustache. Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett has now been the protagonist in more than twenty novels, starting with Open Season in 2001. Dulcie had the same concern with her severe dark business suit. But since Hannah had obtained her special learner’s permit and could drive a beat-up old sedan to the Pickett house herself, he’d seen less of her parents the past year. Singewald hadn’t drawn his before he was cut down. “I’ve heard there are more pronghorn antelope than people in this part of the state,” Singewald said. When there weren’t, she dropped the phone back into the pocket of her summer dress. Although the fence itself was the property of the U.S. Forest Service, Joe knew from experience it would take them weeks or even months to repair it due to the bureaucracy involved. Wilson Pickett (March 18, 1941 – January 19, 2006) was an American singer and songwriter.. A major figure in the development of American soul music, Pickett recorded over 50 songs which made the US R&B charts, many of which crossed over to the Billboard Hot 100.Among his best-known hits are "In the Midnight Hour" (which he co-wrote), "Land of 1,000 Dances", "Mustang Sally", and "Funky Broadway". bestselling novel, it may finally have caught up to him...  On a moonless night on Sanibel Island, Florida, marine biologist Marion “Doc” Ford carefully watches ... Cumberland Island, off the coast of Georgia, is a breathtaking setting for tedious fire presuppression ... Cumberland Island, off the coast of Georgia, is a breathtaking setting for tedious fire presuppression Dense cream lather worked out between the saddle and Toby’s sweaty back. Joe’s faithful dog – Daisy – and a never-ending series of Wyoming Fish & Game Dept pick-up trucks that Joe manages to wreck in the course of his often-violent adventures. Either we lost him or he decided to go into town and check in to his hotel.”. An exciting reading experience for both loyal fans as well as newcomers.”—Associated Press   “Box is a master.”—The Denver Post “Box knows what readers expect and delivers it with a flourish.”—Cleveland Plain Dealer   “Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett strides in big boots over the ruggedly gorgeous landscape of C.J. Butch chinned over his left shoulder in a vague westerly direction. In fact, I read it twice and didn’t like it any better the second time.”, “I don’t read ’em,” Singewald said, looking over Baker’s head in an attempt to signal the waitress. Both had packed a single change of clothing for the drive back the next day. I’m not a big fan of Buck Owens.”. Frank Zeller was a solid if taciturn man who managed the ranch with care. “That’s encouraging,” Joe said, climbing down. ©C.J. After all, there he was in the Bighorn Mountains on a sunny day with his horse and his dog, and he was doing the job he loved in the place he loved. Box.. But Joe, who saw Butch only hours before he disappeared, can't help wondering why the EPA was so interested in Butch, whose attempt to build a new house for his family in Aspen Highlands blew up in his face, and why the new, race-baiting EPA regional director Juan Julio Batista has taken such a personal interest in the case. The new dog had joined Tube, their less-than-ambulatory corgi-Lab cross, in the Pickett household. HE’D RECEIVED PERMISSION from Zeller to access the ranch. Parched herds from the mountains came down during drought years to drink, and pronghorns and mourning doves came up from the valley as well. Joe let the wire drop back to the grass and looked around. ON AN EARLY MORNING IN MID-AUGUST, EPA SPECIAL Agents Tim Singewald and Lenox Baker left the Region 8 Environmental Protection Agency building at 1595 Wynkoop Street in downtown Denver in a Chevrolet Malibu SA hybrid sedan they’d checked out from the motor pool. “And receipts, please.”. “Well, at least there’s something good about it,” Baker said. She could sleep, too, and that’s all she did on the days she wasn’t working as a waitress at the Burg-O-Pardner to earn money over the summer before starting her second year. “I hear he’s a hardheaded man,” Love said. Throw in his wife, his 3 daughters, his dog, Daisy, and his best friend Nate Romanowski - master falconer. Best Mystery, Thriller & Suspense . Box. Learn how to enable JavaScript on your browser. Game wardens are unique because they can legitimately be involved in just about every major event or situation that involves the outdoors and the rough edges of the rural new west. “Sure you don’t want to come with us?” Singewald asked Love. Grade: A.”—The Cleveland Plain Dealer, “An exceptionally well-told story that will entertain, thrill and maybe even outrage its readers.”—USA Today, “Will raise the hair on your neck and chill you to the bone.”—Bookreporter.com, “Thrilling wilderness chases, chilling stories of the abuse of power, and Pickett’s indomitable frontier spirit power this explosive novel.”—Publishers Weekly, “Fans of this series will burn through the pages…Another must-read.”—Library Journal (starred review), “Its basis in a real-life conflict makes Joe’s thirteenth case one of his most tendentious, but it’s Box who makes it one of his most exciting.”—Kirkus Reviews, Praise for Breaking Point“An explosive thriller that careens from one unpredictable twist to another.” —South Florida Sun-Sentinel“It’s the best installment yet in an already rich series. THE TERRAIN CHANGED as they drove north. Joe and Marybeth stayed up late that night, and the more she thought about it and they talked about it, the more excited she got. Butch seemed to be searching for the answer, and Joe noted the quick flick of his eyes in the direction of the rifle. When I think of Joe Pickett, I don’t think of an action hero, or a smooth operator, or an actor. Marybeth’s part-time salary at the library was small, and Joe’s game warden salary was hostage to an agency-wide freeze. String ties?”, “They don’t wear ties,” Singewald said. CJ Box is one of my favorite authors. Wish him luck. “Those are the Bighorns.”. And Joe realized the rest of the sentence might have had to do with Lucy. It’s not like the Feds send out line riders to check it.”, Butch looked away. His full name is Charles James Box and he is a native of Wyoming. VERDICT Like the forest fire described in the book, fans of this series will burn through the pages to discover who-dun-it and why. The land itself - the environment - plays a major role in all the Joe Pickett novels. “I guess we’ll do this ourselves,” he said. “Oh, all right,” Baker said with a groan, opening his door to get out. It’s his fatal flaw. Box, starting with Open Season in 2001. Striding across the landscape of an imperfect modern-day Wild West populated by homicidal cowboys, assassins, and shady bureaucrats, game warden Joe Pickett is almost a perfect hero. “We’ll follow you,” Singewald said with a shrug. I’ve been there, remember?”, “Yeah,” Baker said, settling back in his seat. (Mar. Vince Flynn- Mitch Rapp series 14. And even when he knows that pursuing justice will bring the community, state, and his superiors down on his head, well… he just can’t help it. Over that time, he’s taken on environmental terrorists, rogue federal land managers, animal mutilators, crazed cowboy hitmen, corrupt bureaucrats, homicidal animal rights advocates, and violent dysfunctional families. They claimed she was useless. But two years before, the Forest Service had decided to prohibit through traffic. And every twist tightens the analogy between the shiftless vigilantes after Butch and the Feds determined to capture or kill him, two parties that are not only equally villainous, but villainous in exactly the same way. THE NEXT AFTERNOON ON THE LONG WESTERN SLOPE of the Bighorn Range, where the sage and grass met the first lone scouts of pine preceding the army of dense timber descending from the mountain, game warden Joe Pickett encountered Butch Roberson. He has won the Edgar, Anthony, Macavity, Gumshoe, and two Barry awards, as well as the French Prix Calibre .38 and a French Elle magazine literary award.His books have been translated into twenty-seven languages. Joe wanted to tell him to relax. Carmel. The man was conspicuously checking his watch and glancing toward them as they found an empty spot. He wasn’t breathing. “Wyoming is a big-ass state.”, The GPS chirped that it had connected with the sky. There was still snow up there, even in August. Although it looked like he could have gotten closer before speaking, he wanted the occupant of the camp to know he was coming. He works hard and tries, sincerely, to "do the right thing." “I know a place there.”. Insects hummed at grass level, and Joe was so far away from the distant state highway he couldn’t hear traffic sounds from the occasional passing vehicles. 11. “IF WE DO THIS, we’d have to gut all the old rooms and knock down half of the walls between them,” Marybeth said, tracing with her finger on the blueprints, which were spread over an old door propped up by sawhorses. While working on ranches and exploration survey crews, I learned first-hand about the beauty, cruelty, and balance of the natural world. The speaker outfit on the hood was patched to the radio inside and broadcast chatter from the mutual-aid law enforcement channel. Joe turned Toby’s head slightly to the northeast in the direction of the breath of wind that carried the smoke. But there's something unusual about the boy that his captors don't even know, ... Doc Ford has long lived a double life. The man stood up slowly and turned toward Joe. The coup de grâce was a small rectangular brown metal sign that read ROAD CLOSED. It's a serious fight with enormous consequences. Blue humpback mountains had emerged from the prairie to the west. Baker pointed at a cluster of vivid brown-and-white dots placed on the slow-waving high grass out his window. “The Holiday Inn has a government rate, but the bar sucks. For a better shopping experience, please upgrade now. Take a little Joe Pickett, Wyoming game warden. As he approached each guzzler, he anticipated an explosion of doves and grouse that got Daisy excited, as well as deer bounding away through the sagebrush and elk crashing up into the timber. Instead, he tried for common ground. The new dog had been dropped off at the local veterinarian’s office by disgusted Pennsylvania bird hunters the winter before. Baker was an EPA Special Agent (Grade 12), one of 350-plus and growing. He had a way of standing bent slightly forward with his arms stiff at his sides that suggested he would launch into an attack at any provocation. Three girls, that is. Singewald had been divorced for six years. “I wasn’t there the first time he was given the word. Joe had read estimates that more than three million acres of trees in Wyoming were infested, and he’d seen entire mountainsides colored burnished red from dead standing timber. A Wyoming native, Box has also worked on a ranch and as a small-town newspaper reporter and editor. Butch was a serious man who didn’t use many words and who seemed to regard small talk as a waste of time and calories. When a Minnesota teen is kidnapped, Doc Ford is Real world experiences provide the background for Joe Pickett novels. Since she’d once helmed a small-business consulting firm and had contacts and experience, he said he’d thought of her first. As they cleared Metro Denver into Broomfield, Singewald reached up with his left hand and loosened the knot on his tie and then pulled it free and stuffed it into his jacket pocket. He was used to dealing with armed citizens in the outback on his own, and he routinely handled situations that would require backup procedure in urban settings. There was a slight reaction, a twitch on the corners of Butch’s mouth. Lucy never hesitated to tell Joe and Marybeth that she envied Hannah, who lived in town and could ride her bike everywhere. When Baker saw him do it, he reached up and did the same. And she wanted to show her daughters that rewards could come by hard work and risk, especially since the only person of wealth they had known was Marybeth’s mother, Missy, who’d acquired a fortune by trading up husbands for richer and richer men. The innocent ones, the men who hunted and fished within the regulations and took pride in their ethics and sportsmanship, often displayed signs of nervousness and anxiety because they were disturbed at the possibility of being under suspicion. He’d seen Butch mainly at Lucy’s plays and concerts, and the two had chatted at school functions and when one or the other was sent to pick up his daughter at the Pickett or Roberson home. Let’s face it, a Joe Picket television series not based closely on the books–isn’t even a Joe Pickett television series! His books have been translated into twenty-seven languages. He is a family man and dedicated to his job. “Keith McCafferty is a top-notch, first-rate, can’t-miss novelist.”—C.J. April, the victim of blunt force trauma, is in a coma. BAKER WAS PRACTICALLY SPUTTERING two and a half hours later when the brake lights of Love’s sedan flashed and the Corps of Engineers car took the Second Street exit in Casper and turned in at a truck stop. But in this electrifying New York Times ... Doc Ford has long lived a double life. When Love walked away to climb into his own sedan with U.S. Government plates, Baker said to Singewald, “What’s his problem?”, Singewald shrugged. As he was contemplating Armageddon as the result of fires stretching from Canada to Mexico, he smelled wood smoke. Joe hadn’t said anything because the fire ban was federally enforced and not in his purview. HE WAS LATER ASKED why he hadn’t simply ridden down the mountain to his pickup and used the radio inside the cab to report the fence and request assistance. Box $8.99 $10.00 SALE Trophy Hunt (Joe Pickett 4) by C.J. And in Twelve Sleep County, pickings were slim. Dulcie was single and the subject of local barroom speculation about her availability and sexual preferences, though Marybeth knew her friend was straight—but cautious. But I would guess that if a guy went down there with a stretcher and a fencing tool, he could fix it so no one would ever even know it was down. She kind of lost interest in that when . Baker’s weapon lay in the dirt between them. Joe Pickett is the local game warden and gets in the middle of some perplexing situations. Until he opened his mouth, that is, and his soft-spoken tone belied the package. It was hot, mid-eighties, and Joe felt sweat run down his spine and into his Wranglers. Unlike her, who was stuck in a state-owned Game and Fish Department house eight miles away from the action on a gravel road. He shook his head. She loved the idea. “Bighorns,” Singewald said. AS SINGEWALD WHEELED into the parking lot of the Federal Building in Cheyenne, he saw an older man in a windbreaker and sunglasses standing near the vestibule entrance. just waiting for a match. Joe faces powerful forces who want Roberson dead and his family ruined, while the feds use all resources at their command, including unmanned drones, during the ensuing manhunt. Relying on reason and his strong will, Joe unravels the complicated puzzle and finds corruption and abuse of authority that cause him to re-evaluate his life. Daisy had noted it, too, and Joe assumed by the string of drool from her mouth to the pine needle carpet that there must be an accompanying food smell too faint for him to notice. “So that’s where we’re going,” Baker said, looking at the GPS display, and then his watch. Each wire was now curled back, leaving a gaping hole in the Forest Service fence. It isn’t the kind of thing I signed up for, that’s for sure.”, “What’s the problem?” Baker said suddenly to Love, his tone incredulous. He knew the feeling. WHEN THE DRY CAMP came into view, Joe shouted, “Good afternoon.”. Book Blurb: Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett must investigate an attempted murder – a crime committed from a confoundingly long distance – in the riveting new novel from number one New York Times best-selling author C. J. Despite the setting, he found himself scanning the horizon for the ferocious snouts of thunderheads and sweeping his eyes over the ocean of trees for gusts or one-hundred-mile-an-hour microbursts or some other kind of trouble. Both series take place in Wyoming and involve local ranchers, cowboys, hunters, etc. They’d fortified the gate, chained it, and locked it with a combination lock. “Our buddy.”, “I guess he doesn’t like what we’re doing.”. The new dog had been dropped off at the local veterinarian’s office by disgusted Pennsylvania bird hunters the winter before. But if he didn’t drive a vehicle through the opening, what was the point of cutting the fence? When Dulcie’s stable had closed, Marybeth had offered space for Dulcie’s horse at their place, and now they saw each other twice a day when Dulcie drove out to feed Poke, her aging gelding. There was rich grass on both sides of the narrow trail, and Joe had to be constantly alert so Toby wouldn’t dip his head to grab a bite. Tell me what’s public about that?”. A character from the past reappears as Joe is on the hunt for April, a young girl who lived with them and was presumed dead but is now texting their daughter. Joe Pickett’s pursuit of a killer through the rugged mountains of Wyoming takes a horrifying turn when his beloved foster daughter is kidnapped in this thriller in the #1 New York Times bestselling series. “I’ve got three of ’em. Only the library stint helped pay the bills, and family finances were tighter than ever. His newest is "Long Range," the 20th in a series of novels about Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett. He chalked it up to interagency rivalry and didn’t let it bother him. There had been an official fire ban since early that summer, placed there by the Forest Service due to the dead trees. In the process, Joe had broken his hand and watched as a wounded Nate drove away. Whoever had cut the wire had either walked a long way from the highway—probably six to seven miles, he guessed, and across the muddy pastures and serpentine creek—or had come down from the National Forest above. Imagine dunes it makes me wonder just what the hell we’re doing. But in this electrifying New York Times It was set up like that so a game warden could be kept in communication when he was out of his truck, but Joe couldn’t figure out how to turn it off. “I try not to predict these things,” Singewald said, almost apologetically. Singewald knew he wouldn’t last much longer, either. A bulging pack hung on the branch of a dead pine, but there was no tent, horse, or ATV that Joe could see. Hannah had recently expressed an interest in horses, and Marybeth was thrilled to have some help feeding and grooming in the corral behind their house. “I can get it taken care of at the front counter.”. Breaking Point (Joe Pickett Series #13) Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett’s hunt for a fugitive reveals a conspiracy in this taut thriller in the #1 New York Times bestselling series.Joe Pickett always liked Butch Roberson—a hardworking local business-owner whose daughter is friends with his own. Lines of high white snow veined down from the summits and melded into dark timber. Joe noted how big and heavy the pack seemed to be for a day of scouting. Before there was The Allman Brothers Band, Duane Allman was trying to attract any kind of attention and make a name for himself. If it weren’t for a softhearted range officer, there were several times over the last few years when he shouldn’t have officially qualified. “So do you know what the sirens were about?” she asked Dulcie. I've ridden on patrol with game wardens to try and get it right. Because of all that, though, Marybeth was frustrated with their situation—living in the battered state-owned home, scrapping for a better life—and wanted to break out of it. It would be any day now, Joe thought, that a new Game and Fish director would be named by the governor and review his record and give him a call. Joe’s one-and-a-half-year-old yellow Labrador, Daisy, loped alongside or drifted behind so she could hoover up Toby’s droppings, even though Joe hollered at her to stop. He couldn’t draw breath, no matter how hard he tried, and he was drowning in his own blood. Robert Crais - Elvis Cole/Joe Pike series 12. Marybeth slipped a rubber band off a roll of blueprints to show Dulcie the plans. THE AGENTS DROVE another hour north and crossed the border into Wyoming. Later, Pickett learns that Roberson is the prime suspect in the killing of two armed EPA agents. The bear woofed at him and caused Toby to crow-hop and nearly dump Joe out of the saddle. Joe doesn’t enter every fight with an agenda other than to do the right thing. That was another thing he’d learned long before: never approach a stranger head-on. Then he dug his cell phone out of his breast pocket and opened it, thinking he would call Frank Zeller. Marybeth had never worked with her—or against her—but they shared a mutual interest in western dressage and simply being around horses. A bullet hole, like a third eye, looked out from his left eyebrow. He was stating a fact. Lenox Baker was fifteen years younger. “I already had lunch. AN HOUR LATER, sixty-seven miles north of Casper, Love caught up with them near Kaycee, Wyoming. Baker saw him do it and turned his head toward the back. The Joe Pickett series just keeps getting better and better. I don’t understand what you’re talking about.”, Love leaned forward on the table and balled his fists together. She’d announced once that she wanted to be a game warden herself, or a master falconer, or a horse trainer. The Joe Pickett series continues with Below Zero, which was released on 2009, Nowhere to Run (2010), and Cold Wind (2011). . “Nothing wrong with that. This one, he thought, was shot. “We want to restore it to its old glory.”, “An explosive thriller that careens from one unpredictable twist to another.” —South Florida Sun-Sentinel, “It’s the best installment yet in an already rich series. Imagine hurricane winds over the Sahara Desert, preceded by a cavalry of tornadoes. She was considering possibilities when Dulcie said, “Back to the tour.”. By the way Butch looked back at him, Joe knew something was seriously wrong. Book pages may have minor to moderate wear. He closed the phone and dug out his handheld radio from the saddlebag. It was one of the few of the big historic ranches in northern Wyoming still owned by the original family. JOE WAS RIDING between the seventh and eighth water guzzlers, through a stand of thigh-high aspen with their still, spadelike leaves, when he saw to his left that the three strands of barbed wire on the fence had been severed. That happened only when something of significance occurred—a high-speed chase on the highway, a hot pursuit in the county, or a felony in progress. Because water itself was rare and precious in a state that averaged less than thirteen inches of precipitation in a year—mostly snow—the wildlife literally flocked to it. Then he reined up for Toby to pause, and he turned in the saddle and looked far up into the timber on the mountain, where he’d last seen Butch Roberson. They claimed she was useless. It's uncertain if she will recover. Singewald made $154,615 per year, plus benefits. From what I understand, he was confused, mainly. He patrolled his five-thousand-square-mile district alone, and it was normal to be so far away from other law enforcement that it was pointless to call them. JOE HEARD his old replacement pickup from a distance. All of the other tables and booths were occupied by truck drivers and rough-looking locals who appeared as if they’d driven into town from building sites or oil rigs. Dallas Cates, the man April ran off with, denies any responsibility; and evidence begins pointing to another man. Box is the bestselling author of eighteen Joe Pickett novels, four standalones, and a collection of short stories called Shots Fired. May have … The situation was the object of jokes and asides at headquarters in Cheyenne because of Joe’s track record with state vehicles. When they’d installed the guzzlers, the two-track ranch road had joined with a Forest Service road on the other side of the fence. One for him and me,” he said, gesturing to Baker, “and one for him,” he nodded toward Love. “Things like this . “I need to get up here and do an elk trend count soon. Do they have any good places to eat up there?”, Singewald emitted a single harsh bark and shook his head. “Just scouting elk,” Butch said, finally. Then imagine all that at the bottom of the sea. given an unthinkable ultimatum, and only 36 hours to act on it. The deal wasn’t in place yet, and Marybeth wanted the advice of her friend before she proceeded, which is why she’d invited Dulcie to tour the building. Instead, he reached inside his jacket pocket and handed Love an official EPA business card. Park ranger Anna Pigeon is enjoying the open spaces of Colorado when she receives an ... Park ranger Anna Pigeon is enjoying the open spaces of Colorado when she receives an As he rode closer, he was surprised by the number of transmissions, and the frequency of them, even though he couldn’t yet make out the words.