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.
Joe Pickett’s job gives the author a different angle on the series. Joe is a game warden, so his cases often start in places where a town detective would never be called first: either a hunting camp, a ranch road, a mountain trail, or some public land where a crime has been committed. The crimes are based on the land and the people who depend live on it.
This page lists all C.J. Box books in order, including the Joe Pickett series, the Cody Hoyt / Cassie Dewell books, standalone novels, short fiction, adaptations, and awards.
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Latest C.J. Box Books
More upcoming releases:
- The Missing (Joe Pickett #27) – February 23, 2027
Where to Start with C.J. Box
→ New to C.J. Box? Start with Open Season (Joe Pickett #1). It introduces Joe, Marybeth, the Pickett daughters, Twelve Sleep County, and the wildlife-law conflicts that are part of the series.
→ Watched the Joe Pickett TV series first? Start with Open Season rather than trying to continue from the show. The television version uses the book world and characters, but the novels work best from Joe’s first case.
→ Want Cassie Dewell and the Big Sky connection? Start with The Highway, the first book featuring Cassie Dewell. For the full Cody Hoyt world, read Back of Beyond before it.
→ Prefer a standalone novel? Try Blue Heaven. It is separate from any series and won the Edgar Award for Best Novel.
How the Series Connect
The Joe Pickett books and the Cody Hoyt / Cassie Dewell books are separate. The overlap happens in the Hoyt/Dewell series. Cdy Hoyt is first introduced in the standalone novel Three Weeks to Say Goodbye. He then becomes the main character of his own series in Back of Beyond, the first Cody Hoyt / Cassie Dewell book. Cassie Dewell is introduced in The Highway, and the series gradually shifts toward her.
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 is responsible for wildlife, hunters, land access, and outdoor crimes across a huge rural district.. The series begins with Open Season, when Joe is still new to Twelve Sleep County and finds a local hunting outfitter dead behind his home.
Joe is an average man, married with daughters who become more important as the series goes on, 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 also becomes more important in the later books.
- 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
- The Missing, 2027
Other Joe Pickett Books
Cody Hoyt / Cassie Dewell Series (Books in Order)
The Cody Hoyt / Cassie Dewell series starts with Cody Hoyt, a troubled Montana investigator, in Back of Beyond, then makes Cassie Dewell more important after The Highway. Cassie begins as an investigator and later works as a private investigator, taking cases involving missing people, long-haul roads, basically crimes happening in small towns. The Highway was adapted into ABC’s Big Sky television series.
- 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 author whose work includes the Joe Pickett series, the Cody Hoyt/Cassie Dewell series, 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. That Wyoming background is a major part of his novels. 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. Those jobs put him in close contact with working outdoor, with local politics, travel economy, and arguments related to the use of land that later became part of the Joe Pickett books.
His debut novel, Open Season, introduced Joe Pickett in 2001 and it immediately became a bestseller, winning four Best First Novel awards. The Joe Pickett series is known for the real-life portrayal of the job of game wardens. C.J. Box has said that he rode on patrol with game wardens to get the job right. As a result, he has received a certificate of appreciation from the Wyoming Game Warden Association for his accurate portrayal of this profession. Joe is a Wyoming game warden which is an unusual job for a main character in a crime series, but the job gave the author a way to bring in many aspects of rural investigations like poaching, endangered species, hunting, ranchers, outfitters, and people living in remote locations with no fast way to get help.
Blue Heaven, his first standalone novel set in Idaho, 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)
My husband and I started the Joe Pickett series this summer and are hooked. We read and discuss and often find something that stirs our own family memories of visiting Wyoming with our now grown kids. We read one after the other with very few days in between, keeping us immersed in the excellent writing of CJ Box! Just finished -#21 on Dec. 26, 2025! Heading to the library tomorrow!
I just discovered C.J. Box this year (June 2025) and am enjoying the Joe Pickett series. I am a country girl from Pa and am enjoying all the detail about Yellowstone, Montana, Wyoming and Idaho. I am up to Breaking Point. I purchased a swivel glider for my front porch and can consistently get my hour of sunshine daily while reading (in addition to yardwork, running around and other outdoor stuff). I appreciate the series and the education. Thank you.
I was on your email list to let me know when the next joe picket novel was coming out. I did not get one for battle mountain, what happened? are you no longer doing that. I have all your books and I came to see you when you were in Michigan and had you sign what I had at the time, one of your biggest fans.
Having read most of the Joe Picket novels, I decided to watch the series on Paramount. I was extremely disappointed with the character, Nate Romanaski. In the book Nate is a tall fit blond with a pony tail. The actor you chose to play Nate is a good actor, but he doesn’t fit the character in the books. Why??? Did you change the character?
I too have read all of JC Box’s books – I am hooked. And, so did I watch the TV series but was also disappointed for the same reasons you were. Yes, the acting was all good – but since I had read many of the series books, I expected the characters to be more to the description of the book characters. I can say the same for Marybeth’s mother. The TV character didn’t match the character in the books.
However, I would love to have the TV series come back, but making the characters more too the books.