C. J. Box Books in Order
C. J. Box is an American crime and thriller author best known for the Joe Pickett series following a Wyoming game warden who keeps finding himself in the middle of investigations that go beyond the scope of his job. C. J. Box is a #1 New York Times bestselling author whose debut, Open Season, won four Best First Novel awards including the Anthony and Barry Awards, and whose standalone Blue Heaven won the Edgar Award for Best Novel. His books have been translated into more than 27 languages and have sold over twenty million copies worldwide.
This page lists all C. J. Box books in order, including the Joe Pickett series, the Cody Hoyt/Cassie Dewell series, standalone novels, and short stories.
Latest C. J. Box Books
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Joe Pickett Series (Books in Order)
The Joe Pickett series follows Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett, who goes regularly on patrol on the public lands of Twelve Sleep County and keeps stumbling into cases that go well beyond poaching and wildlife violations. Corrupt officials, environmental cover-ups, violent outsiders are just some of the things he comes across in addition to threats to his own family.
Joe is an average man rather than a typical thriller hero. He is married with daughters, and he also admits he is a lousy shot. The series is set in the Mountain West, and the Wyoming terrain is the main background of the books. Nate Romanowski, a former Special Forces operative turned falconer with a complicated past, is a recurring character who becomes more important as the series goes on.
Reading Order
- Open Season, 2001
- Savage Run, 2002
- Winterkill, 2003
- Trophy Hunt, 2004
- Dull Knife, 2011
- Out of Range, 2005
- In Plain Sight, 2006
- Free Fire, 2007
- Blood Trail, 2008
- Below Zero, 2009
- Nowhere to Run, 2010
- Cold Wind, 2011
- The Master Falconer, 2011
- Force of Nature, 2012
- Breaking Point, 2013
- Stone Cold, 2014
- Shots Fired: Stories from Joe Pickett Country, 2014
- Endangered, 2015
- Off the Grid, 2016
- Vicious Circle, 2017
- Disappeared, 2018
- Wolf Pack, 2019
- Long Range, 2020
- Dark Sky, 2021
- Shadows Reel, 2022
- Storm Watch, 2023
- Three-Inch Teeth, 2024
- Battle Mountain, 2025
- The Crossroads, 2026
Other Joe Pickett Books
Cody Hoyt / Cassie Dewell Series (Books in Order)
The Cody Hoyt/Cassie Dewell series begins with troubled investigator Cody Hoyt and his rookie partner Cassie Dewell tracking violent crimes across the Montana and Wyoming backcountry. The series features a more isolated version of the Mountain West than the Joe Pickett books, and its focus is more on serial crime and the vulnerabilities of people living in such remote places.
The Highway was adapted into ABC’s Big Sky television series. Back of Beyond introduces Cody Hoyt, and Cassie eventually takes over as the main character, working as a private investigator starting from Badlands, while already becoming an important character in The Highway.
Reading Order
- Back of Beyond, 2011
- The Highway, 2013
- Badlands, 2015
- Paradise Valley, 2017
- The Bitterroots, 2019
- Treasure State, 2022
Standalone Novels
- Blue Heaven, 2008
- Three Weeks to Say Goodbye, 2009
- Inherit the Dead, 2013 (with Lee Child, Mary Higgins Clark, John Connolly, Jonathan Santlofer, and Lisa Unger)
Novellas and Short Stories
- Honor & …, 2018 (with Sandra Brown)
- Pronghorns of the Third Reich, 2012 (Bibliomysteries)
Short Story Collections and Anthologies
- The Best American Mystery Stories 2006, 2006
- Once Upon a Crime, 2009
- Hook, Line & Sinister, 2010
- Live Noir or Die Trying (Damn Near Dead #2), 2010
- Mysterious Writers: The Many Facets of Mystery Writing, 2010
- Inherit the Dead, 2013
- Death Sentences, 2014
- The Highway Kind, 2016
- Best American Mystery Stories 2017, 2017
- MatchUp, 2017 (edited by Lee Child)
- Murder, They Wrote, 2018
- Gather at the River, 2019
- The Best American Mystery Stories 2020, 2020
- Birds of Prey, 2022
- Killin’ Time in San Diego 2023, 2023
- Hard Country, 2026
Non-Fiction Books
- Travel Smart: Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho, 1998 (with Paul Otteson)
C.J. Box Biography
C. J. Box is an American crime and thriller author whose work includes the Joe Pickett series, the Cody Hoyt/Cassie Dewell series, several standalone novels, and short stories. He has published more than 30 books since his debut, Open Season, in 2001.
Official website: cjbox.net
Born in 1958 in Casper, Wyoming, Charles James Box, Jr. grew up in the state and has lived there most of his life. He graduated from the University of Denver with a degree in Mass Communications, then spent several years as a reporter and editor at a small newspaper in Saratoga, Wyoming. Before writing full-time, he also worked as a ranch hand, fishing guide, and surveyor, and co-owned an international tourism marketing firm with his wife Laurie.
That background in rural Wyoming inspired his books, as the Joe Pickett series is known for the real-life portrayal of the job of game wardens. As a result, C.J. Box has received a certificate of appreciation from the Wyoming Game Warden Association for his accurate portrayal of this profession.
Open Season started the Joe Pickett series, and it immediately became a bestseller, winning four Best First Novel awards. Blue Heaven, his first standalone novel, won the Edgar Award for Best Novel the year after its publication. In addition, he has also won two Spur Awards from the Western Writers of America for Off the Grid and Dark Sky, as well as the Western Heritage Award for Literature from the National Cowboy Museum. He has been executive producer on two television adaptations of his work: Big Sky, which was based on the Cassie Dewell series, and Joe Pickett.
In addition, C. J. Box is a frequent public speaker on outdoor and wildlife issues, and over the years, he has served on the board of directors for the Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo and the Wyoming Humanities Council. He currently lives with his family in Wyoming.
C.J. Box Book Adaptations
- Cody Hoyt / Cassie Dewell series – adapted into the television series Big Sky (2020–2023)
- Joe Pickett series – adapted into the television series Joe Pickett (2021–2023)
C.J. Box Awards and Honors
Awards
- Open Season – Anthony Award for Best First Novel (2002)
- Open Season – Barry Award for Best First Novel (2002)
- Open Season – Macavity Award for Best First Novel (2002)
- Open Season – Gumshoe Award for Best First Novel (2002)
- Blue Heaven – Edgar Award for Best Novel (2009)
- Blue Heaven – Prix Calibre .38, France (2009)
- Badlands – Barry Award for Best Novel (2016)
- National Cowboy Museum Western Heritage Award for Literature (2016)
- Off the Grid – Spur Award for Best Contemporary Novel, Western Writers of America (2017)
- Breaking Point— Falcon Award, Japan (2021)
- Dark Sky – Spur Award for Best Contemporary Novel, Western Writers of America (2022)
Nominations and Shortlists
- Open Season – Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Mystery/Thriller (2002)
- Open Season – Edgar Award for Best First Novel (2002)
- Free Fire – Lefty Award (Rocky Mountain Region) (2008)
- Nowhere to Run – Barry Award for Best Novel (2011)
Why did out of range lead in to free fire….skipping in plain sight?
Not sure what you mean? In Plain Sight is listed right between Out of Range and Free Fire.
CJBox is a talented writer… I love the way he captures your attention from the beginning…his books are wonderful from beginning to end……I love Joe Pickett and his family…..and his friendship with Nate…..I have read all of the Joe Pickett Series…..I am ready to start the standalones………
Omg…I have read all the comments and I don’t think I can add anything different.
I love all the ones I have read so far. I am reading them in order and I’m just ready to start “Breaking Point”
Keep on writing CJ Box….I hope you can keep this series going for quite awhile.
A minor error I noted in the above article on the Joe Pickett novels. Joe is from Saddle String. Ten Sleep is the river in the area, running through town. These books are great! I can’t wait until the next one. I listened to all of them in order. More please!
Having read every single CJ Box book, they are singularly immersive. And all great. If you were perusing these comments looking for an absolute favorite. 1. Nowhere to Run is my favorite book of all time.
2. Wolf Pack is my second favorite Joe Pickett Book.
3. Of the non Joe Pickett, Back of Beyond is a great place to start and Blue Heaven is great too.
I absolutely love all of the CJ Box novels I have read so far. In the Pickett series I just finished Force of Nature, so I still have a few more to go. I’ve read all the books in the Hoyt/Dewell series as well as the standalones. My two favorites are Nowhere to Run, Winterkill and Three Weeks to Say Goodbye. Breaking Point is next!
i have loved all your books – thought i had read them in order but find i missed dull knife. Am reading Three Weeks to Say Goodbye. Please don’t stop writing about Joe Pickett. I just like your style of writing. Keep it up.
Love your books, I’ve lived in Livingston, Bozeman, Bigfork, and Alberton for around 40 years; I know the country you tell about around the Yellowstone. You descriptions of people, events, way’s of living in that interesting part of the world are spot on. Parts of your stories cause me to laugh out loud as you depict the types of folks one can encounter there. I love your sense of justice too. Just started the Cassie Dewell series, because of the TV show. I stopped watching the tv and went straight to the source of the inspiration for it and am so glad I did.
I worked for a Paso Fino ranch outside of Livingston for about 2.5 years. It was at the top of Coke Dale Rd. something like 6000 +/- acres. The owner was a nut, a well known nut. She’d been adopted by a wealthy Shell Oil daughter.. They were actually lovers, but in order for my boss to receive a substantial inheritance from her lover when she passed, they had to become mother and daughter. Both of them were a bit off, well more that a bit, and the huge amount of money caused them to become seriously eccentric. Anyway, it’s just interesting the types of people who are in the world.
I now live in MO. It fits my budget and lifestyle. Thank you so much for your super fun books and for your honesty in portraying the kinds of folks and adventures you’ve encountered in the north west part of this country.
I had the pleasure of visiting Yellowstone in Winter (a New York Times trip) this past January and absolutely loved every minute. Born and raised in Sweden I spent my summers on an island with no running water, electricity or indoor plumbing. The Joe Pickett series was introduced to me and I have almost finished the whole series. I LOVE these books. C.J. Box has an uncanny ability to describe the nature and having spent time watching for wildlife in freezing cold temperatures I can feel the winters and storms he describes. Thank You! Love the mysterious mr N.
just wondering when your next book will be out, enjoy all your books ,but Joe Pickett is the best, I have read all of your books and collect them. I also lived in wyo. most of my life ( rock river ) but have retired in vernal ut.
have a merry xmass
I can’t wait for the upcoming book i have been having a great time and sometimes read.one in one day 😌
Lost that speech.. Enjoy your books .