Wolf Pack: A Joe Pickett Novel

When game warden Katelyn Hamm observes a herd of elk being stampeded by a drone in Edgar-winner Box’s excellent 19th novel starring Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett (after 2018’s The Disappeared), she enlists Joe’s aid in tracking down the drone’s owner. It turns out to be Bill Hill, who lives with several bodyguards in an upscale compound. After Hill scoffs at being fined by Joe for tormenting the elk, Joe tries to research Hill online, only to find him devoid of any background history. Meanwhile, Joe’s old friend Nate Romanowski offers to take down the drone with his trained falcons, and Nate’s falcon attack on the drone leads to a pair of arrogant FBI agents warning first Hamm and then Joe not to hassle the drone owner again, on pain of prosecution. But when dead bodies begin turning up showing clear signs of torture, Joe realizes that his county has been infested with something far more dangerous than a drone: a team of professional killers, sent by a Colombian cartel to eliminate a witness. The action-packed final quarter of the book ranks among Joe and Nate’s best and bloodiest confrontations. Box is the king of contemporary crime fiction set in the West. [em]Author tour. Agent: Ann Rittenberg, Ann Rittenberg Literary. (Mar.) [/em]