Open Season

Author: C.J Box
Genre: Suspense
Type: Hardcover
Pages: 278
Publisher: Putnam
First Published: 2001
Series: #1 in the Joe Pickett series
Opening Lines: "When a high-powered rifle bullet hits living flesh it makes a distinctive - pow-WHOP - sound that is unmistakable even at tremendous distance."

Book Description from GoodReads: 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.

My Rating: 3.5 stars

My Review: Initially, the Joe Pickett series reminded me of the popular Longmire book and TV series and, if I'm being honest, a 'cowboy mystery' isn't a genre that's high on my TBR list. But after several recommendations from library patrons and my library manager (who has very similar reading tastes to my own), I got over my initial reservations and picked up the first book in this popular series. What do they say about assumptions again?

The series focuses on Wyoming Game Warden Joe Pickett. He's not what you'd typically expect for a main character in a mystery series. He has an interesting job, but the remote setting does lead one to wonder just how many murders can occur in the Wyoming backwoods for him to solve. With 19 books currently in this popular series, apparently Wyoming is rife with scandal and muuurder! Delightful!

This was a quick, easy and enjoyable read. Joe Pickett is a man with flaws, a cute family and a career that brings unique challenges. I found myself becoming invested in his personal and professional lives as well as the murder mystery which is set in the beautiful Wyoming wilderness and has quite the exciting, edge-of-your-seat build-up.

This was a strong start to a new-to-me series, and while I figured out the culprit fairly easily, overall it was a strong enough mystery that I already have the second book in the series, Savage Run, on hold at the library.