(2020) Very good, as always. An attempted assassination attempt on Judge Hewitt in his exclusive ranch home instead kills his wife Sue. The shooter uses a long range sniper's rifle from over a mile away and is assisted by a spotter. The enraged judge wants the shooter dead at any cost and the entire local law enforcement community is drawn into this including Joe. The inept sheriff finds an easy target for the investigation and arrests Nate Romanowski along with the attendant PR embellished press coverage. Joe actually investigates the crime and discovers that the spotter is the local district attorney who mistakenly thinks Sue is attracted to her and he wants to eliminate the Judge by helping the local corrupt (drug dealing) doctor who has a penchant for the long range firearm. After taking down the doctor with a unique ?Picket's Charge? maneuver Joe winds up in the hospital when wounded in the assault on the doctor's cabin. Nate's wife and infant daughter are kidnapped by the cartel involved in earlier books and he tracks them down in Roswell NM and kills the kidnapper. Nate now must go back off of the grid as he is hunted by both authorities and the cartel. Just another day in sleepy Twelve Sleep County Wyoming. KIRKUS: Once again, Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett gets mixed up in a killing whose principal suspect is his old friend Nate Romanowski, whose attempts to live off the grid keep breaking down in a series of felony charges.If Judge Hewitt hadn't bent over to pick up a spoon that had fallen from his dinner table, the sniper set up nearly a mile from his house in the gated community of the Eagle Mountain Club would have ended his life. As it was, the victim was Sue Hewitt, leaving the judge alive and free to rail and threaten anyone he suspected of the shooting. Incoming Twelve Sleep County Sheriff Brendan Kapelow's interest in using the case to promote his political ambitions and the judge's inability to see further than his nose make them the perfect targets for a frame-up of Nate, who just wants to be left alone in the middle of nowhere to train his falcons and help his bride, Liv Brannon, raise their baby, Kestrel. Nor are the sniper, the sheriff, and the judge Nate's only enemies. Orlando Panfile has been sent to Wyoming by the Sinaloan drug cartel to avenge the deaths of the four assassins whose careers Nate and Joe ended last time out (Wolf Pack, 2019). So it's up to Joe, with some timely data from his librarian wife, Marybeth, to hire a lawyer for Nate, make sure he doesn't bust out of jail before his trial, identify the real sniper, who continues to take an active role in the proceedings, and somehow protect him from a killer who regards Nate's arrest as an unwelcome complication. That's quite a tall order for someone who can't shoot straight, who keeps wrecking his state-issued vehicles, and whose appalling mother-in-law, Missy Vankeuren Hand, has returned from her latest European jaunt to suck up all the oxygen in Twelve Sleep County to hustle some illegal drugs for her cancer-stricken sixth husband. But fans of this outstanding series will know better than to place their money against Joe.One protest from an outraged innocent says it all: ?This is America. This is Wyoming.?Pub Date: March 3, 2020ISBN: 978-0-525-53823-3Page Count: 368Publisher: Putnam

A very good book,we love Joe Picket. It is a bit long winded. ( )

C. J. Box never disappoints and this installment in the Joe Pickett series is no exception. Box managed to craft a new mystery while also weaving in remnants from past stories without giving the reader the feeling that we’ve heard this story before. As in previous books in the series, I feel as though I’d distinctly enjoy hanging out with Joe, his family and Nate. I was worried that Nate might become a cast off character with his gaining a family, but I should have anticipated that Box would not let that happen. I highly recommend this entry in the series. ( )

Reverberations from the Wolfpack invasion are still resounding in Saddlestring. Lots of bad guys locally and imported to challenge Joe and Nat. Prime among them is the new sheriff in town. Snipers abound and Joe gets shot again but the plot is brisk and the story stays interesting. Another win for Mr. Box ( )

Another well written book by C J Box in the Joe Pickett series. This is a page turner with different plot twists and the usual I did not see that coming ending. ( )