Joe Pickett is back on the job riding the ranges, documenting wolf expansion into the Bighorns, and trying to figure out who is using a large drone to frighten elk and deer herds around. He doesn’t just find the drone annoying,  it’s also criminal: the stress is causing members of the herds who were weakened by winter to collapse from exhaustion and die. He’s working with the lady warden across the mountain,  Katelynn, since the drone appears to be working in her district but retreating to someplace in his. Suddenly, though, both he and Katelynn are confronted separately by two goonie boys who try to threaten and intimidate them into laying off their chief suspect, some strange man who lives on an isolated retreat outside of Saddlestring and who has  public records only going back two years.   While Katelynn – a young warden still learning the job – is overwhelmed with shock and fear at being threatened by feds simply for doing her duty,   this ain’t Joe’s first rodeo. He recorded their threats, and while they might’ve sweet-talked him into more ready cooperation, their suited thuggery leaves a bad taste in his mouth and he has no intention of helping them whatsoever.  But lo!   Then came the Mexican hit squad.  

  Wolf Pack begins with a game warden lead before quickly accelerating into DC vs Cartel warfare, with the small town of Saddlestring and Joe caught in the middle – and in more ways than one, because it seems his youngest daughter Lucy has been dating a boy who lives from within the mysterious compound. This is a particularly bloody book in the Pickett series, as the presence of a hit sq uad would hint at: the members include three generic killers and one  femme female, a beautiful woman who smiles and flirts alllllll the way until she jabs a stiletto into her victim’s heart.  Unfortunately for the people of Saddlestring, these operatives are increasingly desperate and likewise unhinged, and as they make mistakes their pool of “People we have to kill because they saw us killing people we had to kill because they saw us trying to kill our original targets” broadens and things get sloppy.  Unfortunately, we lose some characters.   

Another enjoyable thriller, though I liked it more when it was still about the jerk with a drone than the assassin psychos.  Villains are better when we know more about them from previous stories:   with these guys (y chica) I was just waiting for them to get themselves killed.