In Plain Sight is the sixth book in C.J. Box’s series about Wyoming Game Warden Joe Pickett. This picks up not long after events in the previous book, Out of Range. I think by this point, you really need to have read the earlier books in the series to grasp what is happening here. Most of the events that take place in In Plain Sight involve the ongoing events that began in Open Season and Joe and MaryBeth Pickett’s foster daughter, April.

The Thunderhead Ranch is the largest ranch in Twelve Sleep County. It’s owned by Opal Scarlett, a woman who has some crazy ideas about what she’s entitled to. One issue is that the river runs through the ranch, and despite the family’s wealth, Opal shakes down river guides, threatening to string a wire across the river unless they pay her. Her three sons also live on the ranch, but they don’t get along very well. Joe’s daughter Sheridan is currently best friends with Opal’s granddaughter, complicating matters further.

When Opal goes missing, the family feud is on. Two of the brothers believe the ranch now belongs to them and engage in a war of using the law to paint the other as a criminal. Family secrets are becoming public, and the town is caught in the middle. The obvious suspect is a river guide whom Opal had words with earlier on the day she disappeared, who has admitted to throwing her in the river. He swears she was still alive when he last saw her, though. Without a body, everyone is spinning their wheels.

Meanwhile, someone is terrorizing Joe and his family. It starts out small but horrific. One of the once thought extinct Miller’s Weasels is found on Joe’s front door with a knife through it. When he’s out, Joe senses that someone is watching him and stalking him. His friend, Nate Romanowski, isn’t around, and Joe could really use his help. Randy Pope is Joe’s new boss, much to everyone’s consternation. He’s micro-managing Joe to the point that Joe can barely function in his role as Game Warden.

In Plain Sight is a good mystery. We know who’s stalking Joe and his family and why, but as readers are powerless to do anything about it. It’s like a horror movie where you want to scream at someone not to open the door. Meanwhile, the disappearance of Opal Scarlett is the big mystery, and the answers to that won’t come until the end. I had several guesses as to what happened, and all of them were wrong. Box managed to come up with a twist that I did not see coming.

Having Joe back among his family is refreshing. He gets his strength from his family, particularly MaryBeth. There’s a bit of a strain there, especially with Nate not being around and questions rattling around in Joe’s head about what happened in the previous book when he was up in Jackson. I could feel his frustration at not being able to protect his family and not being sure exactly what was happening. Box also writes about teenage girls very well. He captures Sheridan caught between wanting to be cool and not rely on her parents, while at the same time wanting the safety she feels when her father is around.

The way Box describes the Wyoming landscape is also well done. I have a friend who is in that area for the summer, and I’ve been enjoying her pictures, thinking about Joe Pickett being there. It really matches what Box has been writing and is beautiful, if isolated.

The narration on the audiobook is good. David Chandler seems to be the narrator for the entire series, and so far, he’s done a good job. He creates variances in his voice for different characters without becoming laughable. He doesn’t try to imitate a teenage girl when Sheridan speaks, but adds just enough of a difference to his voice that it sounds younger. The same is true for other characters, where he’ll add a gravelly or whistful quality to his own voice to identify them. I’m enjoying it very much.

I highly recommend In Plain Sight, but only if you’ve read the prior books in the series. This is the first one that really relies on events in previous stories to tell this tale, and I guess this is how it will be for the series from here on out. The book ends with what will likely be some drastic changes for the Pickett family, and I’m excited to see where the series goes from here.

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