Joe Pickett’s body lies in a bullet-ridden Game Warden pickup truck, with no indication of where he was going or who he expected to find. As he’s airlifted to a hospital and specialists go to work on him, his three daughters know what to do. Find out who did this — and get western on them. Although this book primarily follows the girls’ efforts to find out whodunit, with a little help from the young sheriff who is sweet on Sheridan, readers still get a bit of Joe through flashback chapters that follow an investigation of his that took him to that crossroads. I’ve been looking forward to this book, not just because I become a Pickettholic last year, but because the later books in that series often featured Sheridan or April playing strong parts, and I especially like Sheridan — who was partially mentored by her crazy libertarian ‘uncle’, Nate Romanowski, and schooled by him in the ways of falconry. The book lived up to expectations, though it was distressingly short: I hate it when Box books just surprise me with a back cover when I am fully prepared to sink into the world of literary Wyoming for hours more.

All three of the Pickett women get a good share of the spotlight here, I think, though Sheridan and April both have stronger ‘edges’: Sheridan, as mentioned, is a tough bird who has held a sheriff at gunpoint before, and April has a lot “Well, yeah, I smashed a whisky glass into his face, but I didn’t know he was a cop and HE HAD IT COMING” energy. She’s the one who dated the rodeo star who proved to be a jackal in human form. Lucy, who played the sweet princess to Sheridan’s tomboy and April’s chaos monster, also has a good showing here. Fortunately, there are three different ranching families in the area that Joe was shot in, so each Pickett takes one on — and all three of them turn out to be sketchy as hell. Box doesn’t bring in Nate until far later, using his off-grid lifestyle to make getting the word to him about Joe to good effect. When he does arrive, though, people start losing ears in keeping with tradition. This allows the book to be about the Pickett women, and not Nate’s roaring rampage of revenge. Sheridan and April performed to expectations, and Lucy was a nice surprise. As usual, Box sprinkled in a fair bit of humor despite the grim circumstances: the only downside is that Marybeth had a very subdued role, as the girls didn’t want their mom knowing they were putting themselves in danger. (I mean, more than usual. April works for a private detective and Sheridan deals with raptors.)

Wonderful as usual: I suppose I shall have to return to Doiron now, there being no more Box to sustain my addiction to game warden drama. Honestly, if Box writes April into more Dewell novels and she finds a way to bring Sheridan on board, I’d be up for that as a series itself.