• Booklist Reviews : Booklist Reviews 2017 February #2
  In the seventeenth installment of the Joe Pickett series, the Wyoming game warden faces a threat to what matters most: his family. Dallas Cates, the ex-rodeo star sent to prison after an attack on Joe's adopted daughter, April, has been released and is back in Saddlestring with revenge on his mind. Joe hates Cates and is fully aware of the danger Cates poses, but at the same time feels guilt about his own complicity in the way the law was bent to get him sent away in the first place—he even sympathizes with Cates' rage somewhat. Fortunately, Nate Romanowski, finally back on the grid, is on hand to play id to Joe's superego. We've noted previously how the fully fleshed family dynamic is one of this series' enduring strengths, and that pays dividends here as we viscerally feel Joe's fear for his loved ones and his powerlessness to protect them. Box masterfully tightens the suspense until we're caught in a vicious circle of our own and unable to stop reading. Copyright 2017 Booklist Reviews.

C.J. Box is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of seventeen Joe Pickett novels, most recently Off the Grid; five stand-alone novels, most recently Badlands; and the story collection Shots Fired. He was 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. He and his wife Laurie split their time between their home and ranch in Wyoming.