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It’s elk season in the Rockies, but this year one hunter is stalking a different kind of prey. When the call comes in on the radio, Joe Pickett can hardly believe his ears: game wardens have found a hunter dead at a camp in the mountains—strung up, gutted, skinned, and beheaded, as if he were the elk he’d been pursuing. A spent cartridge and a poker chip lie next to his body.
Ripples of horror spread through the community, and with a possibly psychotic killer on the loose, the governor is forced to end hunting season early for the first time in state history—outraging hunters and potentially crippling the state’s income from the loss of hunting license revenue.
This is the eighth book about game warden, Joe Pickett. 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. They’re trained and armed law enforcement officers.
Pickett is, in a way, the antithesis of many modern literary protagonists. He’s happily married with a growing family of daughters. He does not arrive with excess emotional baggage, or a dark past that haunts him. He works hard and tries, sincerely, to “do the right thing.” He doesn’t talk much. He’s human, and real, which means he sometimes screws up.
Bold, fast-paced, and sure to be controversial, Blood Trail is proof that C. J. Box never fails to keep the pages turning.