The Master Falconer is a short story set between books four and five of author C.J. Box’s series centered around Wyoming Game Warden Joe Pickett. It’s a story that features Joe’s friend, Nate Romanowski, who has been evasive about his background up until now. It’s been alluded to that he was in the military in covert operations, and is now wanted by authorities for an unknown reason.

A wealthy foreigner shows up at Saddlestring Airport looking for Nate. We learn that Nate was once in Special Forces in Afghanistan, where he studied falconry. Al-Nura Abd Saud knew him then. He has periodically turned up in Nate’s life, looking for Nate to keep him supplied with young falcons. For unknown reasons, Nate has acquiesced to Saud’s demands.

Until now.

Saud had Nate’s birds stolen from him and is holding them hostage until Nate fills his most recent order. This comes after a disturbance in Saddlestring, which has upset Nate. He is a quiet person who likes to lay low, and Saud and his men coming into town and drawing attention to themselves – and Nate by extension – has his hackles up. Nate turns to Joe for help, although Joe really is in the background here as Nate figures out a way to get Saud to return his birds and leave.

This is a good short story that fills in a little bit more about Nate. I learned he developed his affinity for falconry while a part of Special Forces in Afghanistan. There’s also a new woman in Nate’s life, a Native American woman named Alicia who is a teacher at a nearby reservation. The character is developed nicely into something more than someone who seems to appear any time Joe needs him.

There’s not much that intimidates Nate. The fact that he defers to Saud up until now generally means that he has something on Nate, although that isn’t revealed. Nate could possibly owe him for something that happened, but it seems doubtful that Nate would be supplying him with endangered birds as a way of repaying him for saving his life. There’s still plenty of mystery about Nate, but he seems to be even more of a force to be reckoned with after reading The Master Falconer.

This is a good short story in between the novels in the series. It only took me about an hour to read, and it was nice to see things reversed for a change, with Nate at the forefront and Joe backing him up.

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