The debut of a writer hailed by Tony Hillerman as "a great storyteller"-the first book in an engaging and gritty mystery series featuring Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett. "C. J. Box has hit the bull's eye his first time up". Margaret Maron "A fabulous debut-a great crime novel and a great modern-day Western rolled into one. All the elements are here-a tremendous sense of Wyoming's scenic grandeur, vivid characters, and a high-stakes plot that moves like a rifle bullet. C. J. Box is a keeper". Lee Child Few first mysteries have been welcomed as enthusiastically as Open Season, or with better cause. "When a high-powered bullet hits living flesh, it makes a distinctive -pow-WHOP-sound that is unmistakable even at tremendous distance". And so it begins for Joe Pickett, a Wyoming game warden who, with the shot of a rifle, is thrust into a race to save not only an endangered species, but also the life and family he loves. C. J. Box knows the wilderness and he knows how to create a wonderfully authentic, vividly alive sense of place. Most of all, he knows how to create a memorable new hero: a man who is full of failings, but strong and honorable. This is mystery writing at its best-and the beginning of a brilliant new career.