The debut of a writer hailed by Tony Hillerman as "a greatstoryteller" -- the first book in an engaging and gritty mystery series featuring Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett. "C. J. Box has hit the bull's eye his first time up." --Margaret Maron "A fabulous debut -- a great crime novel and a great modern-day Western rolled into one. All the elements are here -- a tremendous sense of Wyoming's scenic grandeur, vivid characters, and a high-stakes plot that moves like a rifle bullet. C. J. Box is a keeper."--Lee Child Few first mysteries have been welcomed as enthusiastically as Open Season, or with better cause. "When a high-powered bullet hits living flesh, it makes a distinctive -pow-WHOP-sound that is unmistakable even at tremendous distance." And so it begins for Joe Pickett, a Wyoming game warden who, with the shot of a rifle, is thrust into a race to save not only an endangered species, but also the life and family he loves. C. J. Box knows the wilderness and he knows how to create a wonderfully authentic, vividly alive sense of place. Most of all, he knows how to create a memorable new hero: a man who is full of failings, but strong and honorable. This is mystery writing at its best-and the beginning of a brilliant new career. Author Biography: C. J. Box, a native of Wyoming, has worked as a ranch hand, a surveyor, a fishing guide, and as a small-town newspaper reporter and editor. Box is the president and CEO of Rocky Mountain International Corporation, a company that coordinates marketing for the state tourism departments of Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota, North Dakota, and Idaho.