Trophy Hunt

by C. J. Box

Part of Joe Pickett, book 4

First published 2005

Game warden Joe Pickett takes his daughters fly-fishing on a perfect late summer day in Saddlestring, Wyoming. Their peaceful outing turns dark when Joe discovers a moose corpse with half its face carved away and skin stripped from flesh. The brutal precision of the wounds troubles him. Days pass before ranchers report finding mutilated cattle with identical injuries. Local officials blame a grizzly bear, but Joe recognizes the truth. The cuts are too clean and deliberate for animal claws or teeth to have made them. Someone used a blade with surgical skill. Joe fears the animals are merely practice targets for a killer preparing to hunt bigger game. His worst suspicions prove correct when two men turn up dead within hours of each other at different locations. Their wounds match those on the moose and cattle exactly. A methodical killer now stalks Saddlestring like a modern Jack the Ripper, and the carnage appears to be escalating.

Genres: adventure, mystery, crime, thriller, action

Vibes: dark, fast-paced, suspenseful

Tropes: investigative-journalism, serial-killer

Setting: Saddlestring, Wyoming

352 pages · Mass Market Paperback · G.P. Putnam's Sons

Content warnings: animal-death, graphic-violence, murder

More by C. J. Box

• The Best American Mystery Stories 2020
• Three Weeks To Say Goodbye
• Back of Beyond
• The Highway
• Badlands
• Below Zero
• Nowhere To Run
• Cold Wind

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