Joe Pickett

There’s nothing unusual about the sound of a gunshot in Twelve Sleep. In remotest Wyoming, where elk roam the pine forests and cougars prowl the mountains, everyone owns a gun. But when Joe Pickett hears two sharp cracks ring out months before hunting season, it’s his job to investigate. As game warden, dad-of-two Joe is not only badly paid and poorly housed, he’s deeply unpopular. So when the source of the shots – a well-known poacher – gets off scot-free, the locals are delighted. And then the poacher turns up dead in the Picketts’ back yard.

Wyoming Game Warden Joe Pickett is called to a bizarre crime scene deep within the forests of Twelve Sleep County. Famous eco-activist Stewie Woods has been killed in an explosion, along with his new bride and ten head of cattle. The case is wrapped up far too quickly: an environmental publicity stunt gone wrong. But what is the millionaire rancher who owned the cattle hiding? And why is Joe’s wife Marybeth receiving mysterious phone calls from someone claiming to be Stewie Woods?

It’s an hour away from darkness, a bitter winter storm is raging, and Wyoming Game Warden Joe Pickett is deep in the forest near Battle Mountain: shotgun in his left hand, his truck’s steering wheel handcuffed to his right – and Lamar Gardiner’s arrow-riddled corpse splayed against the tree in front of him. Joe knows that Lamar’s murder and the sudden onslaught of the snowstorm mean he should get off the mountain. But he also knows this episode is far from over.

Butch Roberson was known by all as a local business owner, a hard worker, and a family man. Then he disappeared, leaving two dead bodies in his wake. Now he's known as a murderer - though Joe Pickett cannot believe someone as gentle as Butch could have the instincts of a killer.