Joe Pickett’s pursuit of a killer through the rugged mountains of Wyoming takes a horrifying turn when his beloved foster daughter is kidnapped in this thriller in the #1 New York Times bestselling series.   It's an hour away from darkness, a bitter winter storm is raging, and Wyoming Game Warden Joe Pickett is deep in the forest edging Battle Mountain, shotgun in his left hand, his truck's detached steering wheel handcuffed to his right--and an arrow-riddled corpse splayed against the tree in front of him. The apparent murder victim and the sudden onslaught of the snowstorm warn: Get off the mountain. But Joe knows this episode is far from over. And when his own daughter gets caught up in his hunt for the killer, Joe will stop at nothing to get her back... Praise for  Winterkill “ Winterkill  proves that Box...is one of the best new voices in the mystery game. [It's] a full-fledged thriller, Wyoming style.”— Rocky Mountain News “Exquisite descriptions...[Box's] story moves smoothly and suspensefully to the showdown.”— The Washington Post “The writing is strong, the scenery vivid, and the characters complex.”— Houston Chronicle “Pickett remains an utterly sympathetic, Gary Cooper-ish hero....A superb mystery series with an urgent message for troubled times.”— Booklist  (starred review) “Box's characters shine as brightly as the environment. Joe is a hero, but he is also quite human....A nice contemporary spin on the old-fashioned western.”— The Philadelphia Inquirer More Praise for the C. J. Box and the Joe Pickett novels “One of today’s solid-gold, A-list, must-read writers.”—Lee Child “Picking up a new C. J. Box thriller is like spending quality time with family you love and have missed...It’s a rare thriller series that has characters grow and change. An exciting reading experience for both loyal fans as well as newcomers.”—Associated Press “Box is a master.”— The Denver Post “Box knows what readers expect and delivers it with a flourish.”— Cleveland Plain Dealer “Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett strides in big boots over the ruggedly gorgeous landscape of C.J. Box's outdoor mysteries.”— The New York Times Book Review “Riveting...[A] skillfully crafted page-turner.”— People “Will keep you on the edge of your seat.”— The Philadelphia Enquirer C. J. Box is the author of twenty-five Joe Pickett novels, eight stand-alone novels, and a story collection. He has won the Edgar, Anthony, Macavity, Gumshoe, and two Barry awards, as well as the French Prix Calibre .38, the Western Heritage Award for Literature, and two Spur Awards. An avid outdoorsman, Box has hunted, fished, hiked, ridden, and skied throughout Wyoming and the Mountain West. He has been executive producer on television series based on his books, including ABC TV’s Big Sky and Joe Pickett on Paramount+. winterkill ['win•ter•kil] vt to kill (as a plant or animal) by, or to die as a result of, exposure to winter weather conditions PART ONE Severe Winter Storm Warning One Twelve Sleep County, Wyoming A storm was coming to the Bighorn Mountains. It was late December, four days before Christmas, the last week of the elk hunting season. Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett was in his green four-wheel drive pickup, parked just below the tree line in the southern Wolf range. The terrain he was patrolling was an enormous wooded bowl, and Joe was just below the eastern rim. The sea of dark pines in the bowl was interspersed with ancient clear-cuts and mountain meadows, and set off by knuckle-like granite ridges that defined each small drainage. Beyond the rim to the west was Battle Mountain, separated from the Wolf range by Crazy Woman Creek, which flowed, eventually, into the Twelve Sleep River. It was two hours away from nightfall, but the sky was leaden, dark, and threatening snow. The temperature had dropped during the afternoon as a bank of clouds moved over the sky and shut out the sun. It was now twenty-nine degrees with a slightly moist, icy breeze. The first severe winter storm warning of the season had been issued for northern Wyoming and southern Montana for that night and the following day, with another big Canadian front forming behind it. Beneath the high ceiling, clouds approached in tight formation, looking heavy and ominous. Joe felt like a soldier at a remote outpost, listening to the distant rumble and clank of enemy artillery pieces being moved into place before an opening barrage. For most of the afternoon, he had been watching a herd of twenty elk move cautiously from black timber into a windswept meadow to graze. He had watched the elk, then watched the sky, then turned back to the elk again. On the seat next to Joe was a sheaf of papers his wife Marybeth had gathered for him that had been brought home from school by his daughters. Now that all three girls were in school—eleven-year-old Sheridan in fifth grade, six-year-old Lucy in kindergarten, and their nine-year-old foster daughter April in third g