Open Season

By C.J. Box

Don't miss the JOE PICKETT series—now streaming on Paramount+

The first novel in the thrilling series featuring Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett from #1 New York Times bestselling author C. J. Box.

Joe Pickett is the new game warden in Twelve Sleep, Wyoming, a town where nearly everyone hunts and the game warden—especially one like Joe who won't take bribes or look the other way—is far from popular. When he finds a local hunting outfitter dead, splayed out on the woodpile behind his state-owned home, he takes it personally. There had to be a reason that the outfitter, with whom he's had run-ins before, chose his backyard, his woodpile to die in. Even after the "outfitter murders," as they have been dubbed by the local press after the discovery of the two more bodies, are solved, Joe continues to investigate, uneasy with the easy explanation offered by the local police.

As Joe digs deeper into the murders, he soon discovers that the outfitter brought more than death to his backdoor: he brought Joe an endangered species, thought to be extinct, which is now living in his woodpile. But if word of the existence of this endangered species gets out, it will destroy any chance of InterWest, a multi-national natural gas company, building an oil pipeline that would bring the company billions of dollars across Wyoming, through the mountains and forests of Twelve Sleep. The closer Joe comes to the truth behind the outfitter murders, the endangered species and InterWest, the closer he comes to losing everything he holds dear.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Group
• Release date: May 7, 2002
• ISBN: 9781101463802

C.J. Box

C. J. Box is the author of over 30 novels including the Joe Pickett and Cassie Dewell series. He has won Edgar, Anthony, Macavity, Gumshoe and Barry Awards, as well as numerous other US and international awards for literature. Two television series based on his novels have been produced (Big Sky on ABC/Disney+ and Joe Pickett on Paramount+) and he is an Executive Producer for both series. He and his wife Laurie live on their ranch in Wyoming. Follow C.J. Box on @cjboxauthor and cjbox.net

Reviews for Open Season

[curlupandread · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I really enjoyed this book! Loved the storyline and characters.

[quondame · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is so guy-lit. Upright, thoughtfully taciturn game warden with everything at stake (pregnant wife, 2 daughters) pursues further information in a "closed" multiple murder. There really isn't much mystery as the bad guys are pretty totally telegraphed as is the MacGuffin The women are described in terms of physical attributes and are supportive, or wantons, or mother-in-laws, but not players.

[michelynn2016 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I'll be reading the next Joe Pickett novel

[infjsarah · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I've been meaning to try this series for a while. I enjoyed it. It's light reading and while the mystery wasn't very mysterious, I found the end with the daughter very suspenseful. If you're after a light short crime read then this will do.

[shelbycassie · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Joe Pickett is a good character. Seems kind of innocent, but I liked that. He has to deal with people who are anything but innocent. Good murder mystery, and I like that the setting is in Wyoming and not some big city.

[empressreece · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I started reading this series years ago and I'm still trying to update my acct with all of the books I've read from before I joined GR. I don't remember offhand specific details about each book in this series but I liked it a lot because it's set in the back-country wilderness. I remember I had started reading it because I just got caught up on the Nevada Barr- Anna Pigeon series and I was looking for something similar. This one fit the bill. It's a great series especially if you like outdoor settings and mysteries.

[peterwhitfield · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A good thriller but the context is very American and written for a male audience- everyone has guns and there are nutters in the backwoods, not just the survivalists!
World 2/5 US & guns
Writing 3/5 good but not literature
Plot 3/5 a bit slow to start and then things get more interesting
Characters 4/5 good goodies v bad nasties!

[macygma · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Back in 2001, CJ Box wrote the first novel featuring Joe Pickett. This is it. A great story that keeps you up wondering who/what and, most importantly - why? People are willing to kill over land - always have been - but this is particularly brutal. Land leases, government projects with big money pay days, little forest critters. These all combine in a tale of good guys gone bad.

[rosalita_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is the first novel in the mystery series featuring Joe Pickett, a game warden in Wyoming who stumbles into a mystery involving poachers, endangered species, Big Oil. The Wyoming setting invites comparison to Craig Johnson's [Walt Longmire], and at least in this first book Box doesn't quite deliver. Pickett is an appealing protagonist, although I found his portrayal at the outset of the story as a sort of bumbling Barney Fife of the High Plains to be drawn a little too crudely to make his intelligence and deduction skills later in the book entirely believable. Still, it's a promising start to a series that captured my interest enough to pick up the next book.

[carol420 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

From Book Cover:

While still a Wyoming state game warden trainee, Joe Pickett ticketed a man fishing without a license. The man turned out to be the state governor. One week after being assigned to Twelve Sleep County, Joe fines outfitter Ote Keeley for shooting a buck out of season. However, Ote takes Joe's gun away and points it at the game warden's head before calmly accepting his ticket. Though he continues working hard, Joe has never fully recovered from the Keeley incident.
A few months later, Keeley reenters Joe's life when his daughter finds the outfitter dead at the woodpile near the Pickett home. Next to the corpse is a cooler containing pellets of excrement. Joe and fellow warden Wacey Hedeman assist sheriff Bud Barnum with the investigation. However, soon Joe is in trouble with his superiors, his pregnant wife for jeopardizing his job, and with a killer trying to add a nosy game warden to the list.

My Thoughts:
An extremely good first novel, and we hope the writer has some more ideas to write about that will continue our attention to his special outlook.

[mysterymax_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

So far, C.J. Box has never disappointed.

[sriddell_8 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

First in the long-running Joe Pickett series, this book introduces us to Joe Pickett. Joe is a Game Warden in Wyoming, where he lives with his young family.

The book opens with a local hunting guide found dead in Joe's backyard. The hunting guide is known to cross the lines when it comes to hunting practices, and he's already had a previous run in with Joe. It appears the guide was shot somewhere else and made a big effort to reach Joe before he died. But why?

The book takes a lot of unexpected twists and turns. Overall a good "thriller" type mystery.

[whybehave2002 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I am a huge fan of Nevada Barr's Park Ranger series and Paul Doiron's Game Warden series so it only seemed natural to pick up the first book in this series staring Joe Pickett as a Game Warden in Wyoming. Right away there are very obvious differences with this series. Joe is married and has a family. There is also the legalese that started many chapters explaining the laws that Joe must turn to in order to be an ethical Warden. I enjoyed the family aspect and learning about Wyoming. I found the policies made me lose my reading momentum. I prefer this type of information to be built into the story so that, yes, I learn but that it doesn't stop the story to explain what I am learning. That whole "spoon full of sugar" concept. :)

[kindleifier · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

At present I have got stuck on this. The characters have not developed enough personality to want me to continue, their behaviour unconvincing, and the plot, so far, is not drawing me in. I may come back to it. Or not.

[jthierer_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I seem to be on a string of reading debut novels lately, and I'll say you can almost always tell when an author is just starting out, especially when trying to establish a set of characters to be revisited in future installments of a series. In this one, the tell was, as with many debuts, a reliance on telling instead of showing. You don't have to tell me Joe loves his wife, you actually did a good job of showing me with his actions. I'll read more to see if the style continues to improve.

[datrappert · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The first book in the succesful series is overlong, overwritten, and predictable, although the Wyoming setting is quite well done. A little too paint-by-numbers for my liking. The actions of the bad guy toward the end of the book don't make a lot of sense if he is trying to get away with the crime.

[cheriedooryard · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I've been trying to expand my appreciation for mysteries, and CJ Box was recommended by a friend. This was very good, even if it had that awkward intro feeling that first books often have. Joe Pickett is a great everyman character with good potential for growth. This is pretty suspenseful, more so than I find Robert Parker books, but not awful--even for an anxious person like me.

[judygibson-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It's been a long time since I've read a whole book in one day! This one had me in its grip from page one. I like the setting--Wyoming wilderness--and the characters--a game warden and his family (though most of the rest are pretty ugly)--in this first of a long series of mysteries by this author. Although I'm not sure the complex chain of events holds together perfectly, it keeps on moving.

A big thank you to the person who recommended these books. I'll definitely read more!

[toobusyreading · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Having read a later book in this series, I thought I'd go back to the beginning and read this first book. While I am sure it will have fans, it just didn't work for me. I should have known that a series about a game warden wouldn't appeal. There are little creatures that appear in a woodpile. Cool, but there are too many holes in the story of these little ones. It felt rather jumbled.I hated that the game warden's children lost their puppy and kitty to coyotes. You'd think a game warden wouldn't give his kid pets only to let them die. There was a good deal of environmental positing, and not always a view I support. Too much hunting, too much violence, not a strong enough story line. One rather grisly image of a kitty, and violence directed at children.I can understand why many will like this series, but having given two books in it a chance, I'm done.I listened to an Audible unabridged version of this book.

[bookconcierge · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

3.5 starsJoe Pickett's debut - a Wyoming State Game Warden, and all-around good guy. A little "slow" on the uptake - or so everyone thinks. They think wrong. Good plotting and likable character I want to get to know better. I'll keep reading this series.

[ellsbethb · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was an engaging read. There were times I found myself angry at the author for the choices he made with his characters, but the way the ending worked out, those choices made sense. Box does a good job depicting Wyoming and I look forward to reading more of his novels.

[labdaddy4 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I wanted to read the authors books in the order they were written. This is his first and the first with the primary character being Joe Pickett. A good read - the pace picked up as the book progresses. The book had a very interesting blend of environmentalism and crime drama. I llok forward to reading more by this author.

[eadieb-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Great debut and great series! Loved this first book by C. J. Box. Can't wait to read the 2nd book in the series. Breezed right through this one! C. J. Box can tell a great story where you feel you are right there in the outdoors of Wyoming. Riveting suspense which make the pages turn fast!

[gbelik_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is the first book in a series. Joe Picket is a Wyoming Game Warden who seems singularly un-macho. He seems to be on the fringes of the law enforcement community in the area. He started his career there by ticketing the governor for fishing without a license and he is having trouble living that down. A body turns up in his own woodpile and his own child becomes involved so he takes this problem on with gusto. A great series beginning.

[buffalogr · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The first novel of a series featuring Joe Pickett, a Wyoming game warden who get involved in a mystery with poachers, endangered species, big oil and some really nefarious characters. The setting is cool; Wyoming wilderness, family man, mystery. A tale of good guys gone bad. I especially liked the 4 year old girl, who acted like one.Think I'll have another book, thank you.

[paradiseporch · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

(Fiction, Mystery, Series)#1 in the Game Warden Joe Pickett series, set in Wyoming.This was a wonderful introduction to a great new-to-me series, now at #18. It featured a likeable and believable protagonist and a solid mystery. There is ‘good suspense’, but it is not overwhelming as it seems to be in so many ‘crime’ novels these days.Clearly, I have some catch-up reading to do.4½ stars

[pattylee-621744 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Not my usual fare. Very masculine, lots of guns, wild critters, wilderness- in spite of how sensitive the main character is. Also page turning ending replete with a rather gory denouement.

[streamsong_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is the first of the twenty plus installments of the Joe Pickett mysteries. Joe is a Wyoming game warden. He has just been given his first district to oversee. His pregnant wife and two young daughters have joined him in tiny, outdated isolated government housing. He’d love to be able to give them more. His wife (and her mother) especially chafe under the low wages and tight housing.Besides the usual wildlife concerns, a natural gas pipeline company is spending a huge amount of money to push a pipeline through the district.Then one night, his oldest daughter sees a monster come down from the mountain. There are strange rumors about the impossible in the high country. Bodies began to pile up.What will a good and moral man do to protect his district and, more especially, his family?I love the mountains and the wildlife in this book. I also like the protagonist's character. It's reassuring to me in this time of moral ambiguity to have a 'straight shooting' protagonist.I found some scenes quite intense, almost uncomfortably so. Threatening small children can make a tough read. I live in an area where hunting is a fact of life, and although there can be abuses, I believe it is necessary. However, those with anti-hunting sentiments will probably not enjoy this series. Athough a game warden is responsible for all the wildlife in the district, hunting is of course, a primary concern.

[burritapal · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Ote Keely is a hunting outfitter, in the redneck country that this story takes place in, somewhere in wyoming. He gets killed, and this story centers around the mystery of his and other hunting outfitter's deaths.
Joe pickett, the protagonist Wyoming game warden, attends his funeral, where he is being buried in his pickup truck. He goes to offer condolences to the widow, and this is what she has to say:
"Joe had introduced himself to her before the services began and had said he was sorry about what happened and that he had children, too, with another on the way.
She had glared at him, her eyes narrowing into slits. 'Aren't you the mother fucking prick who wanted to take my otie's outfitting license away?' her southern accent made the last word sound like 'uh-why.'
The little girl didn't flinch at her language, but Joe did. Joe said he was sorry, that this was probably a bad time, and scuttled back to the loose knot of mourners on the side of the pickup."

The author certainly has a point when he has Joe thinking this, about hunters, and the Open season that keeps him busy nearly 24 hours a day;
"Joe had no problem with Hunter's hunting for meat. He felt, compared with buying it at the supermarket in cellophane-wrapped parcels, that hunting was basically more honest. He had never understood the arguments of people who opposed hunting on principle while eating a cheeseburger. He thought it was important for people to know that animals died in order for them to eat meat. The process of stalking, killing, dressing, and eating an animal was much simpler and easier to understand to Joe than having a cow killed by a sledgehammer-swinging meat-processing plant employee and having the eventual results appear as a small packet in a shopping cart. He appreciated people like Hans and Jack."

When Joe begins to understand that the hunting outfitters deaths has something to do with an endangered species showing up, he finds out to his dismay that his predecessor, Vern, has something to do with it:
" 'you know, joe, what I'm about to say will shock you,' Vern said. 'But I know good men who have found an endangered species on their land and shot it and buried it without a second thought rather than announce it to the world. I know a Rancher over by Cody who cornered some kind of Wolverine-type creature that he knew was supposed to be extinct. He blew that little sucker away and fed the pieces to his dogs. That Rancher knew that if he had reported it, he would have been kicked off of his own land so that a bunch of bark-Beetle elitists could claim they were saving the world.
'do you realize what would happen to this valley if it got out that there might be something in the mountains? Even if it was nothing more than a silly rumor started by a couple of gossipy old hens? Even if there was no more to it than a couple of future Alzheimer's candidates blabbering into the wind? Or even if you, as the game warden, announced that you thought there was something up there?
'Think of the people who work in the lumber mill,' Vern said. 'think of the logging truck drivers, the cowboys, the outfitters, the fishing guys. They'd be unemployed while the feds roped off the entire valley for the future. Environmentalist from all over the country would move in with their little round glasses and sandals and start giving press conferences on how they're here to protect the innocent little creatures from the ignorant locals. Whether or not anything was ever found up there, the environmentalists would keep things tied up in the courts for decades just so that they can tell their members they're actually doing something with their dues.
'Third-generation ranchers would lose their ranches. Support people -- teachers, retailers, restaurant owners -- would lose their jobs or move on eventually. All because Joe pickett, Master game warden extraordinaire, suspects that there might be some rare thing in the mountains.
'Half the people in this town would hate your guts,' Vern said. 'Some would lose their jobs. Your cute little girlies would catch all kinds of horrible crap in school. They would bear the brunt of it, joe, and it would all be your fault.'

[bcrowl399 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I've only recently discovered C. J. Box. I love his stories. I love the setting in Montana and the characters are terrific. The scenery and wildlife are a great backdrop for interesting and suspenseful tales. I plan to read all of his books. I'll keep this book for the author signature.