Blood Trail (Joe Pickett Series #8)

by C. J. Box

Overview

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It's elk season in the Rockies, but a different kind of hunter is stalking prey in this novel in the #1 New York Times bestselling Joe Pickett series.

Game wardens have found a man dead at a mountain camp—strung up, gutted, and flayed as if he were the elk he'd been hunting. Is the murder the work of a deranged anti-hunting activist or of a lone psychopath with a personal vendetta? Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett is the man to track the murderer and stop him, before someone declares open season on humans...

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781440630170
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	05/20/2008
Series:	Joe Pickett Series
Sold by:	Penguin Group
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
File size:	2 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

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

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Box...spins a story crammed with shock and suspense."
-SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE

"Box knows what readers expect and delivers it with a flourish."
-CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER

"An original voice."
-MICHAEL CONNELLY

"A killer opening."
-TAMPA TRIBUNE

"[Box] continues to be red-hot."
-BOOKLIST (STARRED REVIEW)

"Box ratchets up the suspense in this tightly plotted example of his writing genius."
-LIBRARY JOURNAL

Editorial Reviews

During elk hunting season, hikers in the Rockies can often hear distant shooters practicing their elk calls. This year, the mountains are quieter; the governor canceled the shooting season after game wardens found a hunter shot, strung up, gutted, beheaded, and flayed. Rumors spread quickly that a psychopathic anti-hunting activist is loose in the woods. As more bodies are found, horror rips through the hills, and the governor pressures Joe Pickett to stop carnage somehow, anyway he can. The eighth Joe Pickett novel is a corker.

Box sets the standards so high with his Joe Pickett series. . . . Box is a master at working New West issues into his stories . . . exploring pro and con arguments without missing a storytelling beat . . . he's forged a perfect alloy of familiar and fresh. . . . Once again, recommended for practically everybody.

Booklist

Praise for C. J. Box's Free Fire "Joe doesn't let us down, leading us on an exhilarating tour. . . .

New York Times Book Review

Wyoming Game and Fish Warden Joe Pickett (Free Fire, 2007, etc.), once again at the governor's behest, stalks the wraithlike figure who's targeting elk hunters for death. Frank Urman was taken down by a single rifle shot, field-dressed, beheaded and hung upside-down to bleed out. (You won't believe where his head eventually turns up.) The poker chip found near his body confirms that he's the third victim of the Wolverine, a killer whose animus against hunters is evidently being whipped up by anti-hunting activist Klamath Moore. The potential effects on the state's hunting revenues are so calamitous that Governor Spencer Rulon pulls out all the stops, and Pickett is forced to work directly with Wyoming Game and Fish Director Randy Pope, the boss who fired him from his regular job in Saddlestring District. Three more victims will die in rapid succession before Joe is given a more congenial colleague: Nate Romanowski, the outlaw falconer who pledged to protect Joe's family before he was taken into federal custody. As usual in this acclaimed series, the mystery is slight and its solution eminently guessable long before it's confirmed by testimony from an unlikely source. But the people and scenes and enduring conflicts that lead up to that solution will stick with you for a long time. More of a western than a mystery, like most of Joe's adventures, and all the better for the open physical clashes that periodically release the tension between the scheming adversaries. Agent: Ann Rittenberg/Ann Rittenberg Literary Agency

Kirkus Reviews

Praise for Blood Trail

“Box...spins a story crammed with shock and suspense.”—San Diego Union-Tribune

“Writing beautifully about the mountain West and its people, Box takes care to present both sides of the controversial issue of hunting.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“A killer opening.”—Tampa Tribune

“Box ratchets up the suspense in this tightly plotted example of his writing genius.”—Library Journal

More Praise for the C. J. Box and the Joe Pickett novels
 
“One of today’s solid-gold, A-list, must-read writers.”—Lee Child
 
“Picking up a new C. J. Box thriller is like spending quality time with family you love and have missed...It’s a rare thriller series that has characters grow and change. 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. Box's outdoor mysteries.”—The New York Times Book Review
 
“Riveting...[A] skillfully crafted page-turner.”—People
 
“Will keep you on the edge of your seat.”—The Philadelphia Enquirer

From the Publisher