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

The Crossroads
The Crossroads (Joe Pickett #26), February 2026

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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

  1. Open Season, 2001
  2. Savage Run, 2002
  3. Winterkill, 2003
  4. Trophy Hunt, 2004
  5. Dull Knife, 2011
  6. Out of Range, 2005
  7. In Plain Sight, 2006
  8. Free Fire, 2007
  9. Blood Trail, 2008
  10. Below Zero, 2009
  11. Nowhere to Run, 2010
  12. Cold Wind, 2011
  13. The Master Falconer, 2011
  14. Force of Nature, 2012
  15. Breaking Point, 2013
  16. Stone Cold, 2014
  17. Shots Fired: Stories from Joe Pickett Country, 2014
  18. Endangered, 2015
  19. Off the Grid, 2016
  20. Vicious Circle, 2017
  21. Disappeared, 2018
  22. Wolf Pack, 2019
  23. Long Range, 2020
  24. Dark Sky, 2021
  25. Shadows Reel, 2022
  26. Storm Watch, 2023
  27. Three-Inch Teeth, 2024
  28. Battle Mountain, 2025
  29. 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

  1. Back of Beyond, 2011
  2. The Highway, 2013
  3. Badlands, 2015
  4. Paradise Valley, 2017
  5. The Bitterroots, 2019
  6. Treasure State, 2022

Standalone Novels

Novellas and Short Stories

Short Story Collections and Anthologies

Non-Fiction Books

C.J. Box Biography

C J Box books in order

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)

Edited by

Marika

Founder of Mystery Sequels, a reference site focused on listing mystery and thriller books in the correct reading order. I maintain and update the site’s bibliographies as new titles are released, ensuring accuracy and consistency across author and series pages.

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67 Comments

  1. Would love to meet this great author. We live in kimball ne. 60 miles from Cheyenne

  2. I am enjoying all of the books, reading through the Joe Pickett series. I actually got interested in the television series before knowing about the books. I loved the series because it didn’t exist to show sexual scenes, terribly vulgar language, and promote split families. Just good, basically down to earth for a series, acting. Great characters! I even liked this better than Longmire, which is a favorite. So hoping you’ll find a way, quickly, to bring this excellent series back to us with many future seasons to enjoy. It’s refreshing to find something that isn’t trashy nowadays.
    5 stars from me!

  3. Love his books, please sign me up for the newsletter! More Joe Pickett stories please!!!!!!!!

  4. I have read ever C.J. Box books, and Joe Pickett is my most favorite character. Then I saw they were making a series on it, and I thought, who could play Joe? And if they didn’t pick an actor who embodies Joe Pickett.
    Man, my husband never watches shows based on books, and he is the one hollering for me now to get into the Living Room, He’s going to start Joe Pickett.

  5. Husband was never a reader in high school and beyond. Now he cannot stop – loves the stories, the locale and the characters. Thanks.

  6. His books are so suspenseful! 8 can’t put them down!

  7. Love them all, even have the travel books you did before Joe Picket, Montana Wyoming & Idaho both editions. The 4 limited edition,Le Sauvage Noble, The Master Falconer, Dull Knife, The River God. Pronghorns of the Third Reich Compact Disc, Power Wagon in The Highway Kind, Pirates of Yellowstone in Meeting Across thje River, Fire & Ice in Inherit the Dead, The Encampment: The Hotter, Younger Sister in Gather the River. Mystery Stories C. J. Box Editor, Wolf Pack and The Disappeared in Readers Digest, Every Day is A Good Day On The River in Hook, Line & Sinister.

  8. I don’t know what it is about these novels but they have a tremendously calming effect on me. It’s not like there is no violence… I think there is just such a lack of good, honest people/men in our society that loves their wife and family, makes mistakes and works to correct them. I, for one, wish Joe Pickett was a real person!

  9. Wish all the Joe Pickett novels were on audible —— absolutely love everyone I have listened to —– thank you for writing such wonderful stories.

  10. Stopped watching the ‘Big Sky’ series before the first season ended. Why would they take a very good book , have it rewritten and turn it into a inclusion-woke tv series?

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