Winterkill

By C. J. Box

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Joe Pickett’s pursuit of a killer through the rugged mountains of Wyoming takes a horrifying turn when his beloved foster daughter is kidnapped in this thriller in the #1 New York Times bestselling series.

It's an hour away from darkness, a bitter winter storm is raging, and Joe Pickett is deep in the forest edging Battle Mountain, shotgun in his left hand, his truck's detached steering wheel handcuffed to his right—and Lamar Gardiner's arrow-riddled corpse splayed against the tree in front of him. Lamar's murder and the sudden onslaught of the snowstorm warn: Get off the mountain. But Joe knows this episode is far from over. And when his own daughter gets caught up in his hunt for the killer, Joe will stop at nothing to get her back...

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Group
• Release date: Jun 29, 2004
• ISBN: 9781101204597

C. J. Box

C. J. BOX is the New York Times best-selling author of many novels including the Joe Pickett series. He has won the Edgar Alan Poe Award for Best Novel (Blue Heaven, 2009) as well as the Anthony Award, Prix Calibre 38 (France), the Macavity Award, the Gumshoe Award, and the Barry Award. Over four million copies of his novels have been sold in the U.S. alone and they have been translated into twenty-seven languages. He lives in Wyoming.  

Reviews for Winterkill

[shelbycassie · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I liked the character Nate. Hope he shows up in more books.

[jillkenna · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This was my favorite Joe Pickett book by far! The story was fantastic and the book was fast paced as well. I cannot wait to read the next one in the series~

[empressreece · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I love Nate Romanowski! I didn't know anything about raising & training falcons until reading this series. Very interesting!

[buffalogr · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Outstanding story and characters. Made me believe that I was in Montana with Joe Pickett and his family. The plot moved along and it was quite a fun listen. Narrator, David Chandler enhanced the enjoyment even more. The characters, including some really bad dudes, were even more dastardly than real life. In the end, Joe and Mary Beth Pickett continue with life and with a twist in the last few minutes of the listen.

[gbelik_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This series doesn't disappoint. The characters are complex individuals and the situations and crimes they deal with seem real and relevant.

[bookswoman · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is the third book in the Joe Pickett series and I'm still not sure if I can continue with the series. Don't get me wrong, I love Joe and his family, I like the writing style and the setting. I'm having a problem with the large body counts and *huge* things that keep cropping up. Secret societies that "run" the country, environmentalists that are dead (or are they) and the country wide conspiracies that surround them, and then having refuges from the biggest government fiasco's all show up in such a small town in Wyoming. It just seems like if all this happened in this town and around this man the state would do everything in its power to get rid of this blight on the area. I believe I will try the next book but I'm hoping that some of the problems can get smaller so that the characters shine through.

[becky_mckenna-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

What do you do when you see things hurdling toward disaster, but the only way to stop it would mean crossing an ethical line? What if it's your family at risk and everything about law, order, and the justice system is suddenly put to the test...and begins to fail? What do you do when the good guys become the bad guys?

Joe Pickett is confronted with all of these questions in C.J. Box's third installment of the series. Joe struggles with his emotions as he tries to work within a system that is breaking down. Joe is very "human" in his strengths and weaknesses. I felt his frustration and physical fatigue as he raced against the clock, desperately trying to do things "by the book" and save the day.

There are quite a few stand out characters here. Nate has really captured my attention. He's a mysterious guy with a razor sharp mentality, and dangerous. I don't think he's left those dangerous ways in the past, but I do hope we will see more of him. Melinda Strickland was one of the most manipulative and narcissistic characters I've read to date. She's second (IMHO) only to Maggie Osborne's Philadelphia in Silver Lining. We can tell something isn't quite right with Strickland from the beginning. It kept me guessing about her "true" motives. Wade Brockius also made me curious. He's definitely an anti-government fanatic, but I could also see a man who respects life and family.

I think this is a very powerful story. Box is a master of the slow build, setting the stage for a stunning climax that left me staring at the ceiling (in a WOW kinda way). This book really made me think. Yes, it made me cry in several places, but I like a good ugly cry now and then. It's the mark of a talented author when he or she can make you forget these are fictional characters. Nicely done!

[bcrowl399 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Another hit from C. J. Box. Once again the suspense builds and builds to a very satisfying conclusion. The end surprised me some because I wasn't expecting it, but still a great read.

[infjsarah · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I think this is the best one of all I've read so far. There was a mystery and it was not solved too quickly.

[bookconcierge · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A national forest service bureaucrat is brutally murdered just as a caravan of anti-government “sovereigns” arrive to set up camp in the Battle Mountain campground. This would not be Game Warden Joe Pickett’s concern except that the man who was killed was in his custody at the time, and the Sovereigns are sheltering the mother of Joe’s foster child, Lucy.

Book # 3 in the Joe Pickett series has two distinct plot lines – maybe three. Who is targeting the federal officers? How far with the clearly “not right in the head” FBI agent and NFS district manager go to prove their assertions and further their own careers without regard to health or safety of anyone else? And how can Joe and his wife Mary Beth fight the legal battle to adopt Lucy, when her biological mother gets a court order requiring them to return the child to the mother who abandoned her?

Joe Pickett is the quintessential “good guy.” I like his relationship with his wife and children. He is deliberate in his actions, almost always thinking through various possibilities and consequences before acting. However, he is also frequently unsure of his position, and has a tendency to beat himself up for either not acting more decisively or for losing his temper. This makes him vulnerable and likeable, but I’m getting a little tired of his inner struggles.

The main difficulty I had with this particular book, however, is that the plot got overly complicated. I don’t think the multiple story lines worked as well as they should have for this genre. The murder happened quickly, but then we got sidetracked with the egomaniacal district manager and FBI agent, and Lucy’s mother just further complicated the storyline while distracting from the original murder. Still, Box writes a fast-paced thriller and has a gift for making the landscape (and weather) as important a character as Joe.

[asheley-627878 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

JOE PICKETT is the best.I literally could not love this series any more than I do. It isn't possible.Joe Pickett is a Wyoming game warden. He has a reputation for doing things by the book, which means that sometimes he doesn't fit in with other federal and law enforcement officers in the area. The best thing about Joe is that what you see is what you get, he doesn't have baggage, he loves his family, he loves the job and the land. He is so doggone awesome.When a line of vehicles, all from different states, with some very interesting folks, drives thru the middle of Saddlestring and then settles high up in the mountains of Twelve Sleep County, the community takes notice. In particular, Joe and his family are on high alert because some of these people have the potential to hurt their family and way of life. Joe starts digging into exactly who these people are and what he finds out is astounding. He can't believe a group like this one ended up in his jurisdiction.Every one of C.J. Box's books takes on big issues while delivering an immensely entertaining story. This time, Joe Pickett has to contend with federal government agencies and officers vs. anti-government groups, resisters, and their sympathizers. I have loved the way Joe has dealt with the big game hunters and extreme environmental groups in the past books, but HOLY BATMAN, I wasn't expecting this story.Winterkill takes place about a year after the events of Savage Run. Joe and his wife Marybeth are doing well with their three daughters. Sheridan (my favorite Pickett daughter) is now eleven years old and just as fiery and free-spirited as she was in the previous books. As usual, Sheridan features pretty heavily in this book, but one of Joe's other daughters that has a more prominent role in this particular story.I'm forever in awe of the way CJ Box writes the setting, as if the nature and the landscape are their own major character. In Winterkill, the weather adds more depth to the setting in the form of blustery, super-snowy storm conditions throughout the most of the story. I actually felt like I had low visibility at times during the story, like snow was stinging my own face while I was reading. I felt like I was there. Joe Pickett finds himself in the most intense, crazy situations, but he does it in order to save other people or to bring the bad guys to justice.I just can barely believe someone can make a story so damn good. Winterkill was completely riveting and thrilling. I felt all sorts of things while the story was taking place, especially for Joe and Marybeth. Joe had to step it up in this story for reasons that I don't want to spoil, and it was interesting to see another side of Joe. More Joe. And I love Nate Romanowski in this story, the loner from up on the mountain, the falconer, the guy that doesn't really trust the government. I hope we see him again in future installments.These are the very best modern westerns. This series is so awesome. Emotional, intense, thrilling, fast-paced. I didn't want to put the book down (or turn the audiobook off) to sleep at night and couldn't wait until I could pick it up again the next day. There is nothing about this book that I did not like. Not one thing at all.Audiobook Notes: I'm SOLD on David Chandler's narration of this series, so I'll for sure be buying the audiobooks to go along with each book and I plan to relisten in the future. David Chandler IS Joe Pickett, and I always forget that it isn't Joe himself telling me the story instead of a narrator. Chandler has these great voices that he gives to secondary characters. My favorites are his more gravelly voices. This time Nate Romanowski got the gravelly voice, and I loved it so much because he's this sort of longer guy that lives on the fringes, not afraid to bend the law for justice, and also he is a falconer. Like Stewie the environmentalist from the previous book Savage Run, I'll definitely remember Nate's voice. I love that.Title: Winterkill by C.J. BoxSeries: Joe Pickett #3Narrated by: David ChandlerPublisher: Recorded BooksLength: 11 hours, 25 minutes, Unabridged

[olivermagnus · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is the third Joe Pickett mystery from C.J. Box and it has several subplots.

Wyoming game warden and devoted family man, Joe Pickett, finds the local U.S. Forest Service manager drunk, shooting into a herd of elk, and then trying to reload his gun with cigarettes.. Joe arrests him, but the man escapes and by the time Joe catches up with him, he's been murdered. A team is sent from Washington DC to head up the search for the killer.

A storm sets in and ruins their plans. By the time things are clear enough for them to go back to the murder site, Melinda Strickland, a high ranking Forest Service official and two vicious FBI agents, have made Joe's life a living hell. Strickland is the kind of sociopathic bureaucrat that makes everyone hate the government.

Back at home, the Pickett’s have been in the process of adopting April, the little girl abandoned by her mother in a prior book. She's finally starting to feel secure with Joe and Marybeth when her mother returns, along with a group of anti-government Sovereign Citizens, demanding her daughter back.

We are also introduced to Nate Romanowski, a mysterious man with a proclivity for bows and arrows, large-calibre handguns, and falconry. Where does he fit into the mix? Is he a killer or an ally?

I've recently become addicted to this series. The author excels at creating suspense as well as memorable characters. I love the atmospheric Wyoming setting. Winterkill is an intense and very emotional story. I can't wait to read the next one.

[jepeters333 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Joe Pickett's pursuit of a killer through the rugged mountains of Wyoming takes a horrifying turn when his beloved foster daughter is kidnapped. Now it's personal.

[jessiep73 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Loved it! Very suspenseful, although the climax was a little anti-climactic. Maybe it's because I get confused during scenes of chaos.

Joe Pickett is awesome.

[she_climber · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

The third in the series but probably my least favorite so far, which I don't know that the fault lays on the shoulder of the story, as it was a different narrator that wasn't all that great, or the fact that it was my third book in a row and perhaps I needed a break. Still going to continue with the series but going to take a break and welcome back the previous narrator.

[brianewilliams · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Game warden Joe Pickett has many challenges in this book. The challenges are both personal and professional and he manages to succcessfully overcome most of them. He even needs to endure an extended visit from his mother-in-law. This book is mostly plot driven, with some character development. I agree with other reviewers that Box's writing is getting better, although in this book he does not match Nevada Barr, whose books have similar themes.Despite this I will continue to read his Joe Pickett books.

[joycepa_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

3rd in the Joe Pickett series.Joe Pickett, game warden in Wyoming's Bighorn Mountains, runs across what is a massacre of elk just as a storm is about to hit. The killer is Lamar Gardniner, a district supervisor for the National Forest,and a friend of Joe’s. In the process of taking Gardiner in, Lamar manages to get the best of Joe, handcuff him to the steering wheel of his truck, and escape. Our antihero Joe removes the wheel from the steering column and tracks Gardiner down—to find him pinned to a tree by two arrows, quite dead.Thus begins another Joe Pickett adventure. Before he knows it, Joe will be caught up in Federal politics concerning oversight of land, and be forced to deal with an itinerant “nation” of the homeless and emotionally wounded who decide to “squat” on Federal land. In addition, he’s faced with personal tragedy in that the mother of the girl that he and his wife have been trying to adopt has come back to reclaim her daughter.Box always has good stories that involve issues that face the West today, such as the balance between Federal and state authority over public lands and how those lands are used. In this book he also has an interesting perspective on the roving homeless, and a different take on morality.I’m used to the idea that Box has interesting stories bound up totally in the West and that his sense of place is beautifully evoked. But what is surprising in this book is the definite uptick in the quality of his writing. He is still uncomfortable with portraying emotional states, but in every other regard, either he has taken a writing class or someone has coached and edited him to real improvement.I liked this series from the start even while taking the writing into account. With this book, Box takes a big step forward.