Wyoming game warden, Joe Pickett, again stars in this the 16th novel, set in Twelve Sleep, Wyoming.
Amazon describes the novel as

“Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett has two lethal cases to contend with in the electrifying new novel from #1 New York Times-bestselling author C. J. Box.
Wyoming’s new governor isn’t sure what to make of Joe Pickett, but he has a job for him that is extremely delicate. A prominent female British executive never came home from the high-end guest ranch she was visiting, and the British Embassy is pressing hard. Pickett knows that happens sometimes–these ranches are stocked with handsome young cowboys, and “ranch romances” aren’t uncommon. But no sign of her months after she vanished? That suggests something else.

At the same time, his friend Nate Romanowski has asked Joe to intervene with the feds on behalf of falconers who can no longer hunt with eagles even though their permits are in order. Who is blocking the falconers and why? The more he investigates both cases, the more someone wants him to go away. Is it because of the missing woman or because he’s become Nate’s advocate? Or are they somehow connected? The answers, when they come, will be even worse than he’d imagined.

I reread this description today and wondered if I’d read the same book that Amazon described. First of all, Wyoming’s governor knows exactly what to make of Joe Pickett, a patsy. He sets Joe up to fail and in uncharacteristic style, Joe just takes it.

Secondly, the falconer case doesn’t seem to really be investigated at all. It is mentioned, but Pickett is much more interested in the disappearance of the British Executive.

I have to say this is the first Joe Pickett novel, and I own ten of them and have probably read the rest, that I was half way through before it really kept my interest. It seemed to plod along, but I kept at it because I couldn’t believe a CJ Box, Joe Pickett novel, could be disappointing. In the end, it wasn’t. Just stick with it through the first half.