C. J. Box, one of mystery's most exciting new talents, offers more thrills and chills amid the dangerous beauties of the Wyoming wilderness in Winterkill.

What city dweller hasn't occasionally longed for the simple life in the mountains, with civilization near enough to provide the essentials but not the entanglements?

C.J. Box has done it again with this third appearance of Joe Pickett, who lives and works in Saddlestring, Wyo.

It's tough being a Wyoming game warden. Fifty-five underpaid game wardens patrol the entire 97,000 square miles of land.

The setting in some novels is as important as the characters or the plot. That's the case with two well-crafted murder mysteries.

Maybe you think you've lived your whole life without knowing what life might be like in a place called Saddlestring, Wyoming and that's okay with you.

Box makes it a resounding three for three with this worthy successor to last year’s celebrated Savage Run, which followed his acclaimed debut, Open Season (2001).

Westerners and lovers of things Western, rejoice - there's a new book out by Wyoming writer C.J. Box, and it's a doozy.

In Box's third Joe Pickett novel, the murder of an employee of Twelve Sleep National Forest leads investigators to a reclusive hunter with a grudge.

Few mystery authors who use the environment as a plot foundation are as even-handed and clear-eyed in their approach as C.J. Box.

Mysteries often provide unexpected pleasures. Intricate plots and surprise endings are standard fare, but a delightful fringe benefit can be a mini-travelogue.

If Nevada Barr were a guy, she might write like C. J. Box. Two things the authors do have in common is their love for the great outdoors and memorable protagonists.

Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett is back for his third Western adventure (after Savage Run), again confronted with murder and mystery while doing his job during a rugged mountain winter.

Our Tip of the Ice Pick Award for May goes to C.J. Box for Winterkill (Putnam, $23.95, 400 pages, ISBN 0399150455), his third installment in the series featuring Game Warden Joe Pickett.

Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett returns in this third adventure in C.J. Box's tough, tender, and engrossing series, which just keeps getting better.

Booklist (starred review) says "Box makes it a resounding three for three...Pickett remains an utterly sympathetic, Gary Cooperish hero...Pickett is our voice for decency...A superb mystery series wit