The Crossroads: A Joe Pickett Novel

Box’s predictable latest thriller featuring Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett (after Battle Mountain) puts Joe’s daughters center stage. At the outset, Joe’s wife Marybeth gets a call from a hunter informing her that a bullet-riddled Game and Fish vehicle, possibly Joe’s, was spotted on an isolated road with somebody inside. Joe is soon identified as the victim, and his wounds, including a traumatic brain injury, have left him in a coma. While Joe recovers, his adult daughters Sheridan, April, and Lucy set out to find his assailants. Box identifies the culprits early on as a pair of dim-witted guns-for-hire named Dorn Peddy and James Dale O’Bryan but keeps the identity of the person who hired them a mystery. Unfortunately, Peddy and O’Bryan prove to be uninspiring antagonists, and Joe’s daughters aren’t particularly competent sleuths, taking far too long to identify the mastermind behind the assassination plot. This will leave series fans longing for Pickett’s glory days. Agent: Ann Rittenberg, Ann Rittenberg Literary. (Feb.)