by C. J. Box
Part of Joe Pickett, book 15
First published 2015
Joe Pickett already had plenty of reasons to hate Dallas Cates, rodeo champion or not. Now his eighteen-year-old ward April has disappeared with the man. The news gets worse fast. A girl lies broken in a roadside ditch, barely breathing after suffering massive head trauma. The victim is April. Doctors cannot promise she will survive her injuries. Cates claims innocence and insists April ran from him too. Evidence points toward a different suspect entirely. Joe's instincts tell him otherwise. He knows Cates did this, but proving it means confronting the entire Cates clan. This family operates by rules Joe has never encountered before. They present dangers he cannot anticipate. Joe will uncover the truth behind April's attack no matter what it costs him. This time the price might be his life.
Genres: mystery, crime, thriller, action
Vibes: dark, fast-paced, suspenseful
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, investigation
Setting: United States
Period: 21st-century
369 pages · Hardcover · Putnam Adult
Content warnings: violence