Kirkus: Wyoming Game and Fish Warden Joe Pickett (Free Fire, 2007, etc.), once again at the governor’s behest, stalks the wraithlike figure who’s targeting elk hunters for death.

Frank Urman was taken down by a single rifle shot, field-dressed, beheaded and hung upside-down to bleed out. (You won’t believe where his head eventually turns up.) The poker chip found near his body confirms that he’s the third victim of the Wolverine, a killer whose animus against hunters is evidently being whipped up by anti-hunting activist Klamath Moore. The potential effects on the state’s hunting revenues are so calamitous that Governor Spencer Rulon pulls out all the stops, and Pickett is forced to work directly with Wyoming Game and Fish Director Randy Pope, the boss who fired him from his regular job in Saddlestring District. Three more victims will die in rapid succession before Joe is given a more congenial colleague: Nate Romanowski, the outlaw falconer who pledged to protect Joe’s family before he was taken into federal custody. As usual in this acclaimed series, the mystery is slight and its solution eminently guessable long before it’s confirmed by testimony from an unlikely source. But the people and scenes and enduring conflicts that lead up to that solution will stick with you for a long time.

More of a western than a mystery, like most of Joe’s adventures, and all the better for the open physical clashes that periodically release the tension between the scheming adversaries. ( )

(2008)Someone is killing hunters as if they are being hunted, even to the point of being field dressed. Causes the Wyoming governor to cancel all hunting in the state and bring in Joe Pickett to find the killer and stop the state disaster. Joe figures out that the killer is a woman who was raped by a hunting party of 5 but no charges were brought at the time. She kills each one leaving a poker chip at the scene since they were playing poker after the rape. This does bring the death of Randy Pope, Pickett's boss who is incompetent and a real thorn in the side of Joe for several of the last few books. A fitting end to a real prick.KIRKUS REVIEWWyoming Game and Fish Warden Joe Pickett (Free Fire, 2007, etc.), once again at the governor's behest, stalks the wraithlike figure who's targeting elk hunters for death.Frank Urman was taken down by a single rifle shot, field-dressed, beheaded and hung upside-down to bleed out. (You won't believe where his head eventually turns up.) The poker chip found near his body confirms that he's the third victim of the Wolverine, a killer whose animus against hunters is evidently being whipped up by anti-hunting activist Klamath Moore. The potential effects on the state's hunting revenues are so calamitous that Governor Spencer Rulon pulls out all the stops, and Pickett is forced to work directly with Wyoming Game and Fish Director Randy Pope, the boss who fired him from his regular job in Saddlestring District. Three more victims will die in rapid succession before Joe is given a more congenial colleague: Nate Romanowski, the outlaw falconer who pledged to protect Joe's family before he was taken into federal custody. As usual in this acclaimed series, the mystery is slight and its solution eminently guessable long before it's confirmed by testimony from an unlikely source. But the people and scenes and enduring conflicts that lead up to that solution will stick with you for a long time.More of a western than a mystery, like most of Joe's adventures, and all the better for the open physical clashes that periodically release the tension between the scheming adversaries.Pub Date: May 20th, 2008ISBN: 978-0-399-15488-1Page count: 320ppPublisher: PutnamReview Posted Online: May 20th, 2010Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15th, 2008

I do enjoy these books, even though they get a little repetitive. This one, I figured out who the killer was almost as soon as we gained a bit of information about them, so about 2/3 of the way through. Hunting doesn't really interest me, although I don't have a moral stance on hunting for food. Trophy hunting I think is ridiculous. So all the back and forth about the morality of hunting was actually not that compelling to me. The villains in Box's books are always kind of cardboard, but I like the wilderness scenes and I felt a certain sympathy for the killer. ( )

Another entertaining gallop around Wyoming forests. I find the writing and plotting has improved from the first books. ( )

Solid entry in the Joe Pickett series. Box dependably provides a solid well-written mystery with vivid descriptions, an interesting current social issue for backdrop, a good whodonit, and an exciting climax, and this one is no exception. ( )