The word count is between 88,000 and 105,600 (estimated). 'Children were not pets, not furniture, not items put on earth to bring pleasure to people who owned them, she raged to herself.' It would take a slow reader 20 hours, an average reader 10 hours, and a fast reader 5 hours to read it. The word count is between 76,000 and 91,200 (estimated). 'Like most men, he had a tough time believing that his wife had had any kind of interesting life before she met him. It would take a slow reader 19 hours, an average reader 9 hours, and a fast reader 5 hours to read it. The word count is between 69,500 and 83,400 (estimated). 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.'Joe had always considered individual words as finite units of currency, and he believed in savings.' 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. 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.Īs 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.

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.

When he finds a local hunting outfitter dead, splayed out on the woodpile behind his state-owned home, he takes it personally.

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.

The first novel in the thrilling series featuring Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett from #1 New York Times bestselling author C. Don't miss the JOE PICKETT series-now streaming on Paramount+

Joe pickett open season