Joe Pickett Books in Order
Joe Pickett is a game warden in Twelve Sleep County, Wyoming: underpaid, stubborn, a poor shot and almost impossible to bribe. Each novel starts with something in his district that doesn't add up, from a dead outfitter or a poached elk to a missing person, and follows Joe as he keeps asking questions long after everyone else wants the case closed.
The books mix outdoor mystery with thriller pacing. Wyoming's mountains, deserts and weather matter as much as the suspects, and many plots turn on real Western issues such as land rights, energy development, federal agencies and hunting. Joe's wife Marybeth, his daughters and his outlaw falconer friend Nate Romanowski grow and change across the series, so reading in order pays off.
A good fit for readers who like crime fiction with a strong sense of place, a decent hero with ordinary flaws, and a contemporary Western feel.
Open Season
Joe Pickett is a new, badly paid game warden in Twelve Sleep County, Wyoming, and the locals like him less for refusing to look the other way. When a hunting outfitter turns up dead on the woodpile behind Joe's house, the case gets closed fast, but Joe keeps digging and finds something powerful people want kept quiet. Box's debut sets the pattern: an honest, sometimes clumsy hero, his family, and land worth fighting over.
Published: 2001
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Savage Run
An environmental activist dies in a blast in the mountains of Twelve Sleep County, and everyone is happy to call it a publicity stunt gone wrong. Joe isn't. His questions lead him toward a pair of patient, professional killers and a plot that reaches well beyond his district. The second book pushes Joe into hard wilderness survival and makes it clear the series is as much about the Wyoming landscape as the crimes.
Published: 2002
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Winterkill
A Forest Service supervisor is found dead on Battle Mountain as a winter storm closes in, and Joe was the last man to see him alive. As federal officials and a camp of anti-government drifters crowd into the county, the case reaches Joe's own home through his foster daughter, April. Many readers name this as the book where the series hits its stride, with high personal stakes, brutal weather and a tense winter standoff.
Published: 2003
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Trophy Hunt
Joe is fly fishing with his daughters when he finds a moose mutilated with surgical precision. More animals follow, then people, and the town starts whispering about grizzlies, cults and things in the sky. Joe and a skeptical sheriff try to separate rumor from evidence before the killer moves on. A strange, eerie entry that leans into rural legend while keeping the investigation grounded in what Joe can actually prove.
Published: 2004
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Out of Range
After a fellow warden and friend dies by apparent suicide, Joe is sent to cover his district around Jackson. The money, politics and people there are a long way from Saddlestring, and Joe can't stop asking how his friend really died. Away from home and family, he faces temptation as well as danger. A quieter, more personal book that tests Joe's judgment as much as his nerve, and a good look at the wealthy side of Wyoming.
Published: 2005
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In Plain Sight
Opal Scarlett, matriarch of a powerful ranching family, has disappeared, and Joe suspects her quarreling sons know why. At the same time, someone starts targeting Joe and his family with cruel pranks that seem tied to his own history. Box splits the tension between a family feud over land and a slow-building threat at home, and the result is one of the darker books in the early run of the series.
Published: 2006
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Free Fire
Out of a job, Joe is hired by the governor to look into a lawyer who admitted killing four campers in a corner of Yellowstone where a legal gap means he can't be tried. Joe heads into the park to find out why it happened. The premise is drawn from a real jurisdictional quirk in Yellowstone, and it gives the book a clever hook alongside geysers, bison and plenty of backcountry danger.
Published: 2007
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Blood Trail
Someone is killing hunters in Wyoming and dressing them out like the elk they came for. Joe joins the search for the killer as fear spreads and hunting season carries on regardless. Is this an anti-hunting zealot or something more personal? A tense manhunt where Joe's knowledge of hunters, camps and the country around them matters more than any lab result, and the stakes keep rising.
Published: 2008
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Below Zero
The Pickett family starts receiving messages from someone claiming to be a person they lost years ago. The calls come from places where environmental crimes have just happened, and they are moving closer to Wyoming. Joe has to work out whether this is hope, cruelty or something else entirely. Below Zero ties a family mystery to a cross-country trail of killings and keeps both threads moving quickly.
Published: 2009
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Nowhere to Run
In his last week as a temporary warden in the remote district around Baggs, Joe checks on reports of looted camps, slashed tents and butchered elk. What he finds in the high country feels like a campfire story come true, and he is a long way from help. Much of the book is a straight survival story in the mountains, with Joe outnumbered, out of radio range and relying on his wits.
Published: 2010
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Cold Wind
Joe's wealthy mother-in-law, Missy, is arrested after her husband is found dead, hanging from one of his own wind turbines. Joe has never liked Missy and the evidence looks bad, but his wife wants the truth. Meanwhile his friend Nate Romanowski is on a dangerous errand of his own. A good mix of courthouse politics, energy money and family friction, with Joe stuck squarely in the middle.
Published: 2011
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Force of Nature
Nate Romanowski's secret past finally catches up with him. A man he served with in a covert special forces unit now holds real power in government and wants to silence anyone who knows what he did, starting with Nate's friends. The Pickett family becomes a target, and Joe has to decide how far outside the law he will go. Nate takes center stage, and the action is some of the series' most intense.
Published: 2012
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Breaking Point
Butch Roberson, a local businessman Joe likes, heads into the mountains claiming to scout elk just as two EPA employees turn up dead. Joe gets pulled into a federal manhunt across rugged, fire-prone country and starts to doubt who the real wrongdoer is. Inspired by a real dispute between landowners and the EPA, this is one of the series' sharpest looks at government power over private land.
Published: 2013
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Stone Cold
The governor sends Joe to the Black Hills corner of Wyoming to check out a reclusive rich man whose fortune is rumored to come from killing people. The ranch has a private airstrip, odd charities and two very dangerous men on hand, one of whom complicates things for Joe in unexpected ways. A tight, tense entry built around one strange household, with Joe now working mostly as the governor's troubleshooter.
Published: 2014
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Endangered
Joe's foster daughter April ran off with rodeo champion Dallas Cates. Now she has been found badly hurt beside the highway, and Joe is sure he knows who is responsible. Proving it means taking on the whole Cates family, who are tougher and stranger than anyone he has dealt with before. Endangered introduces one of the series' most memorable villain families and carries real emotional weight.
Published: 2015
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Off the Grid
Nate is lying low when a team of elite operators offers him a deal: help stop a terror cell in Wyoming's Red Desert and his criminal record goes away. Joe, sent out by the governor, starts to suspect the team has a very different plan. The Red Desert setting is harsh and empty, and the book plays like a contemporary western crossed with a military thriller. It debuted at number one on the New York Times list.
Published: 2016
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Vicious Circle
The Cates family has a long memory, and Joe has known for a while that a reckoning was coming. Now it has arrived, and the threat reaches every member of his family. With Nate at his side, Joe tries to see the attack coming before it lands. This follows directly from Endangered, so read that one first. Tight pacing and a strong sense that nobody in the Pickett household is safe.
Published: 2017
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The Disappeared
Wyoming's new governor doesn't quite trust Joe, but he needs him to find a British executive who vanished after a stay at an upscale guest ranch. Joe's daughter Sheridan works at that ranch, which complicates things. Joe is also pulled into a fight over eagle falconry permits on Nate's behalf. A more procedural mystery with a new political climate around Joe and a close look at the guest-ranch business.
Published: 2018
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Wolf Pack
Back in his old job, Joe tries to stop a drone that is harassing wildlife, only to be told by the FBI and the Justice Department to back off. The drone belongs to a wealthy newcomer with a protected past, and bodies start piling up around the district. Joe fears a team of cartel assassins known as the Wolf Pack is behind it. A fast, violent entry that brings modern technology and organized crime into Joe's world.
Published: 2019
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Long Range
Joe helps with the aftermath of a grizzly attack near Yellowstone, then is called home when someone shoots at a local judge from an almost impossible distance and badly wounds his wife. The hunt for the shooter turns personal when suspicion lands close to Joe's circle. A solid two-track mystery with a strong outdoor setting and a puzzle built around extreme long-range shooting.
Published: 2020
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Dark Sky
The governor orders Joe to guide a Silicon Valley tech chief on an elk hunt, a job he dreads from the start. Out in the backcountry, the two are stalked by a man set on revenge, and Joe ends up without a horse, a gun or any way to call for help. Nate has his own fight at the same time. Dark Sky won the Western Writers of America Spur Award for contemporary novel, and the survival chase is a highlight.
Published: 2021
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Shadows Reel
Just before Thanksgiving, Joe answers a poaching call that turns out to be the torture and murder of a local fishing guide. Meanwhile Marybeth opens a package at the library and finds a photo album that belonged to a notorious Nazi official, with links to Wyoming soldiers who fought in World War II. Nate is hunting an old enemy. Three threads, one family under pressure, and an unusual history hook.
Published: 2022
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Storm Watch
While tracking a wounded elk in a spring blizzard, Joe finds the body of a missing University of Wyoming professor near a secretive high-tech facility. Federal agents, local extremists and the governor himself all seem to want him to stop asking questions. Nate is rebuilding his falconry business with crypto mining money and gets tangled up with a militant group. A timely plot about technology, money and state politics.
Published: 2023
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Three-Inch Teeth
A rogue grizzly is killing people in Joe's district, and one victim is close to the Pickett family. At the same time Dallas Cates walks out of prison with six names tattooed on his body, and both Joe and Nate are on the list. Cates plans to use the bear attacks as cover for his revenge. Two threats, one animal and one human, make this a tense and personal book for readers who have followed the Cates storyline.
Published: 2024
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Battle Mountain
Nate has gone off the grid with his falcons after losing nearly everything, and he is planning revenge. Joe, meanwhile, is asked by the governor to find the governor's missing son-in-law in the Sierra Madre range, with help from rookie warden Susan Kany. The two separate journeys are heading for the same place. A strong Nate book with a classic manhunt structure and a big finish in rough country.
Published: 2025
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The Crossroads
Joe is found in his pickup at a remote junction with a gunshot wound to the head, and nobody knows why he was there. Three ranch families live up the three roads, and each has a reason to dislike the game warden. While Marybeth stays at his bedside, Sheridan, April and Lucy split up to investigate. A real change of format, with Joe's daughters carrying the story. It debuted at number one on the New York Times list.
Published: 2026
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