Trophy Hunt is the fourth book in author C.J. Box’s series about Wyoming Game Warden Joe Pickett. One of the things that I am really enjoying about the series is how events in previous books are still having an impact on Joe, his family, and his friends. It’s not like things are forgotten and glossed over. Although I think there’s enough information here that you could read it without having read earlier books, I really don’t recommend it.

Joe is off fishing with his two daughters when they discover the corpse of a moose that has been mutilated in such a deliberate and specific manner that he doesn’t believe a scavenger or other animal could have done it. It shakes Joe up. A few days later, he overhears a call to the local sheriff about mutilated cattle. Joe shows up on the scene, to the consternation of Sheriff Barnum, and finds the cattle in a similar condition to the moose.

Meanwhile, Joe’s wife, MaryBeth, is embarking on a new career. After losing their foster-daughter, April, in the previous book, MaryBeth is struggling and throws herself into a new career as a bookkeeper. One of her clients, a local real estate firm, commands most of her attention, and she gets close to the owners. When they start talking about adding her to the staff full-time, MaryBeth has a vision of the family’s financial woes being over. The sale of a big ranch to a mysterious buyer with all the gas mining in the area would give them unprecedented success in the tiny town of Saddlestring, Wyoming.

The bodies of two men turn up, murdered on the same night and mutilated in a similar way to the cattle and the moose. The governor orders the creation of a task force to track down who is responsible. Joe would rather investigate on his own, and he’s only names to the task force as the representative of the Warden Service. He and Barnum frequently clash, and the bad blood between them looks like it’s about to erupt.

There’s a supernatural edge to Trophy Hunt that people either love or hate. Having read The Paranormal Ranger, I believe there are things out there we don’t understand. My first thought about the cattle mutilations was “skin walker.” Barnum has a deputy who is sure it’s aliens. It doesn’t help that this has happened before, as well as in different locations all over the West. Then I thought it had to do with the gas mining, particularly when people report being disoriented. The mystery stayed a mystery until the author was ready to reveal it. I could guess all I wanted, but I didn’t have it right, even having a bit of a belief in all of the possibilities. There was a clue early on that I was sure had something to do with it, and it did in the end, but it was a roundabout way getting there.

The impact of losing April is felt by the family still. I like that Joe still blames himself for his wife getting shot in the first book, rather than glossing over it. Although he loves and supports his wife, he still has the patriarchal obsession with being the protector of the family. Yet, he gives her the space to find her place in the world again, even if her new devotion to her career means more nights of take-out and fast food. To be fair, MaryBeth has supported Joe completely in his career, so it’s only right that he does the same. Written in 2004, this was still a bit of a revolutionary idea that a woman was on equal footing with her spouse when it came to being a provider. This is a family trying to find the balance that works for all of them, and Joe is anything but a traditional man.

I love the character of Nate Romanowski. His friendship with Joe grew out of the previous book when Joe proved him innocent of murder. He shares a bond with Joe’s daughter, Sheridan, that made me uncomfortable at times. Sheridan also observes her mother’s change in behavior whenever Nate is around. There are complications in this area that will be interesting to see where it goes. Nate believes in many things that Joe doesn’t and helps him open his mind to some of the possibilities surrounding the murders and mutilation. It helps the book’s narrative without Joe having to dive headfirst into the paranormal.

The audiobook narration is good. David Chandler is a great narrator, and he didn’t go into whiny, exaggerated voices for those we aren’t supposed to like as he did in the previous novel. I get the idea that a narrator can add something to the book, but they can also do too much inflection. Chandler has a great balance here, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

If you aren’t open to paranormal events, Trophy Hunt might not appeal to you. Some things are resolved, and some can’t be. It’s not a tidy ending at all, and that is something I like about Box’s writing. It’s really an ongoing story of the Pickett family, with mysteries popping up for Joe to solve. April hasn’t been forgotten, MaryBeth’s mother is still driving Joe crazy, and Sheriff Barnum would like to see Joe disappear. I enjoy how Joe tries to strike a balance in both his personal and professional life and see all the sides of an equation.

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