The first novel in the bestselling Joe Pickett series by award winning author, C.J. Box, is Open Season, where Joe Picket is first introduced. Joe Pickett is the new game warden, and he doesn’t pull any punches and he makes sure things are on the up and up. When he discovers a man murdered and splayed in the back woodpile, he has to think things through and investigate all the clues that don’t make sense.

Joe Pickett is a unique character and is beloved by those who like rugged outdoorsy types. He is quite well developed in this first novel (but it gets better as the subsequent novels are read). Box does an excellent job with his characters and they seem real. He also does an excellent job of keeping the storyline going so that readers won’t want to put the book down. The author is obviously very familiar with the outdoors and the area of Wyoming where the novel takes place, so readers will be able to feel like they are there.

All told, this is a series for anyone who likes a rugged type protagonist who is likeable and honest. Joe Pickett is great, and readers will definitely want to pick up the subsequent novels and savor them. Box is a bestselling and award winning author for a reason. This novel is excellent.

Special thanks to NetGalley for supplying a review copy of this book.

C.J. Box introduces the indefatigable Park Ranger Joe Pickett. There are some heroes that are flawed, tormented, and work in the gray areas. Joe Pickett is definitely not one of them. Instead, Joe Pickett will enforce the hunting, fishing and wildlife laws and regulations even when it would be practical and politic to do otherwise. Joe is known for enforcing these laws against the Governor of Montana.

Joe Pickett also has an uncanny way of being in the middle of a problem. He finds improperly and illegally killed wildlife, gory murder scenes, dead bodies. Somehow, through his plodding method and luck he will fall into grave danger, suffer the anger of the higher ups in his agency and the anger of the local law enforcement. But Joe Pickett doesn't back down, he is honorable and follows through. And he is easily one of my favorite new heroes.

Thank you for the chance to review this book, however, unfortunately, I was unable to download this title before it was archived

Though I've been a C.J. Box fan for a while, I somehow missed his series starring game warden Joe Pickett until recently - Open Season is its debut, portraying Joe as a rookie warden (with a couple of major stumbles to his credit) with a young family and a Meader salary.

As the novel opens, Joe's young daughter spies a 'monster' outside her home - though this one (a man on the verge of death) is not a real monster, there are others in the story and one comes after the child again. And the plot is still very relevant today, relating to an endangered species and a pipeline in progress.

A highly satisfying read!

CJ Box novels are part western, part romance, part all around general life. Joe Pickett seems to be a man more comfortable in a time long past, riding the range, hunting, and fishing. If not for his family he could easily stay in the woods and never talk to anyone. But because of them he needs to live in both worlds.