Shots Fired is a bit of a stray on the CJ Box book ranch, a collection of short stories rather than a Pickett novel – and some of the stories don’t even involve Joe!  Interestingly, there’s also a bit of historical fiction in here.  The stories appear set a bit later in Joe’s career – say, ten years or so into the series.  One of the stories features Nate,  and in his commentary Box writes that the story set the stage for the later Nate-focused novel and his connection to Arab falconers.  {He also writes that this story allowed him to vent his contempt for the murderous Saud family and the American favor they continue to hold (corporate and government) despite  their direct complicity with 9/11.}   The stories are mostly set in Wyoming, with the exception of one that follows two Northern Arapaho to Paris. That one is cringey, and intentionally so, playing off how Native Americans are fetishized by  elite whites – on both sides of the pond, evidently.  While the Pickett stories are written and can be read as standalones, they’re nevertheless connected to the novels: one antagonist was originally arrested by Joe, and here attempts to get revenge after escaping from prison.  The best title in the collection is “Pronghorns of the Third Reich”. and nope, I’m not explaining it There were a couple of soft apples in the bunch, especially “No Bad Day on the River”, in a man who is planning on a little human deep-sixing inexplicably brings along a guest.  It made for easier narration, but it complicates the ‘execution’, shall we say. The most memorable will be the historical fiction, set as it is in a cabin overwhelmed by winter and two trappers who are driving each other insane.

To fish when it was twenty-two below took a particular kind of dedication, or madness. Joe often thought that if he caught an ice fisherman without a license, the violator should be sentenced to more ice fishing for punishment.

“Hey, White Buffalo,” Joe said. “A real Indian would know not to run across a frozen river naked, I think.”