Blue Heaven

C. J. Box

Mystery & Thrillers

A twelve-year-old girl and her younger brother go on the run in the woods of North Idaho, pursued by four men they have just watched commit murder---four men who know exactly who W... show more ▼illiam and Annie are, and who know exactly where their desperate mother is waiting for news of her children’s fate. Retired cops from Los Angeles, the killers easily persuade the inexperienced sheriff to let them lead the search for the missing children. William and Annie’s unexpected savior comes in the form of an old-school rancher teetering on the brink of foreclosure. But as one man against four who will stop at nothing to silence their witnesses, Jess Rawlins needs allies, and he knows that one word to the wrong person could seal the fate of the children or their mother. In a town where most of the ranches like his have turned into acres of ranchettes populated by strangers, finding someone to trust won’t be easy. With true-to-life, unforgettable characters and a ticking-clock plot that spans just over forty-eight hours, C.J. Box has created a thriller that delves into issues close to the heart: the ruthless power of greed over broken ideals, the healing power of community where unlikely heroes find themselves at the crossroads of duty and courage, and the truth about what constitutes a family. In a setting whose awesome beauty is threatened by those who want a piece of it, Blue Heaven delivers twists and turns until its last breathtaking page. Blue Heaven is the winner of the 2009 Edgar Award for Best Novel.

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• 1 070

• Published: 2007

Pronghorns of the Third Reich

C. J. Box

Mystery & Thrillers

In frigid Wyoming lies a mystery that stretches back to Nazi Germany. Lyle and Juan wait outside the lawyer’s house in ski masks, pistols hidden behind their backs. Shortly after... show more ▼ dawn, Paul Parker, an aged lawyer, and his old dog step into the cold. The thugs kill the dog, and take the lawyer hostage. Parker’s day has started badly and is going to get much worse. Once a fine lawyer, Parker’s enthusiasm has slipped with age, and criminals like Lyle are part of the reason for his disillusionment. Years after they last saw each other in court, Lyle is convinced that Parker owes him something. At gunpoint, Lyle and Juan make Parker lead them to the old Angler ranch, to open up a hidden library whose volumes hold the secret to forgotten riches, and the strangest war profiteering scheme to ever come out of the Great Plains. The Bibliomysteries are a series of short tales about deadly books, by top mystery authors.

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• 1 014

• Published: 2012

Back of Beyond

C. J. Box

Mystery & Thrillers

Edgar® Award-winning and New York Times bestselling author C.J. Box delivers a thriller about a troubled cop trying to save his son from a killer in Yellowstone. Cody Hoyt, while ... show more ▼a brilliant cop, is an alcoholic struggling with two months of sobriety when his mentor and AA sponsor Hank Winters is found burned to death in a remote mountain cabin. At first it looks like the suicide of a man who's fallen off the wagon, but Cody knows Hank better than that. Sober for fourteen years, Hank took pride in his hard-won sobriety and never hesitated to drop whatever he was doing to talk Cody off a ledge. When Cody takes a closer look at the scene of his friend's death, it becomes apparent that foul play is at hand. After years of bad behavior with his department, he's in no position to be investigating a homicide, but this man was a friend and Cody's determined to find his killer. When clues found at the scene link the murderer to an outfitter leading tourists on a multi-day wilderness horseback trip into the remote corners of Yellowstone National Park--a pack trip that includes his son Justin--Cody is desperate to get on their trail and stop the killer before the group heads into the wild. Among the tourists is fourteen-year-old Gracie Sullivan, an awkward but intelligent loner who begins to suspect that someone in their party is dangerous. In a fatal cat and mouse game, where it becomes apparent the murderer is somehow aware of Cody's every move, Cody treks into the wilderness to stop a killer hell bent on ruining the only thing in his life he cares about. Back of Beyond is a Kirkus Reviews Best of 2011 Mysteries title.

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• 1 006

• Published: 2011

Savage Run

C. J. Box

Mystery & Thrillers

In Savage Run C.J. Box's acclaimed follow-up to his career-making debut Open Season game warden Joe Pickett looks into the bizarre death of an environmental activist...and what he ... show more ▼finds is bigger and far more sinister than anything he imagined."

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• 963

• Published: 2002

C J Box - [Joe Pickett 01]

C. J. Box

Mystery & Thrillers

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• 934

• Published: 1999

Vicious Circle

C. J. Box

Mystery & Thrillers

The plane circled in the dark. Joe Pickett could just make out down below a figure in the snow and timber, and then three other figures closing in. There was nothing he could do ab... show more ▼out it. And Joe knew that he might be their next target. The Cates family had always been a bad lot. Game warden Joe Pickett had been able to strike a fierce blow against them when the life of his daughter April had been endangered, but he’d always wondered if there’d be a day of reckoning. He’s not wondering any longer. Joe knows they’re coming after him and his family now. He has his friend Nate by his side, but will that be enough this time? All he can do is prepare . . . and wait for them to make the first move.

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• 901

• Published: 2017

The Highway

C. J. Box

Mystery & Thrillers

Winner of the Edgar Award for Best Novel, the New York Times bestselling author of Back of Beyond and Breaking Point and the creator of the Joe Pickett series is back. "If CJ Box... show more ▼ isn't already on your list, put him there." - USA Today When two sisters set out across a remote stretch of Montana road to visit their friend, little do they know it will be the last time anyone might ever hear from them again. The girls--and their car--simply vanish. Former police investigator Cody Hoyt has just lost his job and has fallen off the wagon after a long stretch of sobriety. Convinced by his son and his former rookie partner, Cassie Dewell, he begins the drive south to the girls' last known location. As Cody makes his way to the lonely stretch of Montana highway where they went missing, Cassie discovers that Gracie and Danielle Sullivan aren't the first girls who have disappeared in this area. This majestic landscape is the hunting ground for a killer whose viciousness is outmatched only by his intelligence. And he might not be working alone. Time is running out for Gracie and Danielle…Can Cassie overcome her doubts and lack of experience and use her innate skill? Can Cody Hoyt battle his own demons and find this killer before another victim vanishes on the highway?

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• 859

• Published: 2013

Free Fire

C. J. Box

Mystery & Thrillers

Joe Picket returns, this time to the wilds of Yellowstone National Park. Deftly plotted and full of intrigue, Free Fire is C. J. Box's best novel yet. Joe Pickett, having recent... show more ▼ly been fired from his job as a Wyoming game warden, is working on his father-in-law's ranch when he receives a call from the governor's office. Governor Rulon-a devious but down-home politico-has a special request, one Joe knows he can't refuse. For weeks, the headlines have been abuzz with the story of Clay McCann, a lawyer who slaughtered four campers in cold blood in a far-off corner of Yellowstone National Park. After the murders, McCann immediately turned himself in at the nearest park ranger station. It seemed like a slam-dunk case for law enforcement-except that the crimes were committed in a thin sliver of land with zero residents and overlapping jurisdiction, the so-called free-fire zone. McCann had taken advantage of a loophole in the law: neither the state of Wyoming nor the federal government can try him for his crime, so he walks out of prison a free man. Governor Rulon, sensitive to the rising tide of public outrage over the McCann case, wants his own investigation into the murders. The governor will reinstate Joe as a game warden if he'll go to Yellowstone to investigate. Joe, happy to get his badge back, even under these circumstances, agrees. However, it quickly becomes clear to Joe that McCann is deeply involved with some illegal activity taking place in the park-something tremendously lucrative and unusually dangerous. As Joe and his partner Nate Romanowski search in the unlikeliest places to find the key to the murders, they find out that it may be hidden in the rugged terrain of the park itself.

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• 841

• Published: 2007

Dull Knife

C. J. Box

Mystery & Thrillers

A chilling short story of death and retribution from the "New York Times"-bestselling author of "Cold Wind." Twenty-two degrees below zero on a high mountain lake in Wyoming. Game ... show more ▼warden Joe Pickett was carefully sliding across to check the licenses of a group of ice fishermen on the lake, when he saw the strange faint yellow glow coming from beneath the surface and, when he got closer, the thin, spindly, black thing sticking up in the middle of it. His first thought was that it was a tree branch. But it wasn't. It was a frozen human hand, reaching up through the ice...

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• 808

• Published: 2011

Endangered

C. J. Box

Mystery & Thrillers

New York Times–bestselling writer C. J. Box returns with a thrilling new novel, featuring Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett. She was gone. Joe Pickett had good reason to dislike Da... show more ▼llas Cates, even if he was a rodeo champion, and now he has even more—Joe’s eighteen-year-old ward, April, has run off with him. And then comes even worse news: The body of a girl has been found in a ditch along the highway—alive, but just barely, the victim of blunt force trauma. It is April, and the doctors aren’t sure if she’ll recover. Cates denies having anything to do with it—says she ran away from him, too—and there’s evidence that points to another man. But Joe knows in his gut who’s responsible. What he doesn’t know is the kind of danger he’s about to encounter. Cates is bad enough, but Cates’s family is like none Joe has ever met before. Joe’s going to find out the truth, even if it kills him. But this time, it just might.

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• 787

• Published: 2015

Force of Nature

C. J. Box

Mystery & Thrillers

In 1995, Nate Romanowski was in a Special Forces unit abroad when his commander, John Nemecek, did something terrible. Now the high-ranking government official and cold-blooded soc... show more ▼iopath is determined to eliminate anyone who knows about it—like Nate, who’s hidden himself away in Wyoming’s Bighorn Mountains. And he knows exactly how Nemecek will do it—by targeting Nate's friends to draw him out. That includes his friend, game warden Joe Pickett, and Pickett’s entire family. The only way to fight back is outside the law. Nate knows he can do it, but he isn't sure about his straight-arrow friend. And all their lives could depend on it.

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• 752

• Published: 2012

Out of Range

C. J. Box

Mystery & Thrillers

Game warden Joe Pickett returns in a twisting, action-packed tale of greed, power, and murder. Joe Pickett is attempting to enjoy-all right, survive-his mother-in-law's wedding t... show more ▼o a local big-shot rancher when he receives some disturbing news: Will Jensen,a fellow Wyoming game warden and a good friend, has killed himself. And Joe's been picked to temporarily run Jensen's Teton district. Jackson, Wyoming, is a far cry from Joe's hometown of Saddlestring-it's the epicenter for many environmental extremists and an elite playground for the rich and powerful-and Joe quickly finds himself in over his head. Yet despite the pressures of his new job, he can't get his friend's suicide out of his mind. By all accounts, Will had changed in the last few months, becoming violent and unpredictable. The closer Joe comes to the truth about Will's death, the more his own life spirals out of control-and he realizes that if he's not careful, he may end up as Jackson's next victim. Out of Range proves once again that C. J. Box is one of the most original and entertaining voices in mystery fiction.

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• 721

• Published: 2005

The Bitterroots

C. J. Box

Mystery & Thrillers

The ties that bind can burn you. Former sheriff's investigator Cassie Dewell is trying to start over with her own private investigation firm. She's her own boss answering to no on... show more ▼e – and that's just the way she likes it after the past few tumultuous years. But it's all going to change when an old friend calls in a favour: she wants Cassie to help exonerate a man accused of assaulting a young woman from an influential family. Against her own better judgment, Cassie agrees. But out by the Bitterroot Mountains of Montana, twisted family loyalty runs as deep as the ties to the land, and there's always something more to the story. The Kleinsassers have ruled this part of Montana for decades, and the Iron Cross Ranch is their stronghold. They want to see Blake Kleinsasser, the black sheep of the family, put away forever for the assault. As Cassie attempts to uncover the truth, she must not only confront a family whose roots are tangled and deadly –...

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• 680

• Published: 2019

Stone Cold

C. J. Box

Mystery & Thrillers

The electrifying new Joe Pickett novel from the New York Times bestselling author. Everything about the man is a mystery: the massive ranch in the remote Black Hills of Wyoming tha... show more ▼t nobody ever visits, the women who live with him, the secret philanthropies, the private airstrip, the sudden disappearances. And especially the persistent rumors that the man’s wealth comes from killing people. Joe Pickett, still officially a game warden but now mostly a troubleshooter for the governor, is assigned to find out what the truth is, but he discovers a lot more than he’d bargained for. There are two other men living up at that ranch. One is a stone-cold killer who takes an instant dislike to Joe. The other is new—but Joe knows him all too well. The first man doesn’t frighten Joe. The second is another story entirely.

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• 669

• Published: 2014

Shots Fired: Stories From Joe Pickett Country

C. J. Box

Mystery & Thrillers

Over the course of eighteen books, C. J. Box has been consistently hailed for his brilliant storytelling and extraordinary skills at creating character, suspense, and a deep sense ... show more ▼of place. All of those strengths are in the ten riveting stories—three of them never before published—that make up Shots Fired. In “One-Car Bridge,” one of four Joe Pickett stories, Pickett goes up against a “just plain mean” landowner, with disastrous results, and in “Shots Fired,” his investigation into the radio call referred to in the title nearly ends up being the last thing he ever does. In “Pirates of Yellowstone,” two Eastern European tough guys find out what it means to be strangers in a strange land, and in “Le Sauvage Noble,” the stranger is a Lakota in Paris who enjoys playing the “noble savage” for the French women—until he meets Sophie. Then he discovers what “savage” really means. Shots Fired is proof once again why “Box is a force to be reckoned with” (The Providence Journal-Bulletin).

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• 668

• Published: 2014