Cold Wind is the eleventh book in C.J. Box’s series centered on Maine Game Warden Joe Pickett. I do think you have to have some acquaintance with the characters by this point in the series to pick up the next book. There’s history behind a lot of what happens in Cold Wind, particularly in regard to Missy, Joe’s unlikable mother-in-law, and what she’s done to be as disliked as she is at this point.

Joe is out on patrol when he discovers Missy’s fifth husband, Earl Alden, dead atop one of the wind turbines on his property. Despite the fact that Missy is a rather small woman, the local sheriff immediately assumes she killed him based on circumstantial evidence and the testimony of Missy’s fourth husband, Bud Longbreak. Joe doesn’t like Missy, and the feeling is mutual, but she is his wife’s mother. When she asks for help, Joe reluctantly starts investigating the murder. He doesn’t like Missy, either, but he finds it hard to believe she could have murdered Earl and dragged the body atop a wind turbine to string him up.

As Joe investigates, he learns about the clean energy push and how much money there is in wind turbines, even if the energy production is not there just yet. Earl Alden was an opportunistic businessman who didn’t mind cheating his neighbors, just as Missy took full advantage of Bud to get his ranch in their divorce. There’s a lot of animosity against the two of them in town, which is one of the reasons Joe finds it so strange that the police arrested Missy on such flimsy evidence.

Joe’s usual partner in crime, Nate Romanowsky, is nowhere to be found, either. They had a falling-out at the end of the previous book, Nowhere to Run, and haven’t really spoken in quite some time. Both Marybeth and Nate’s woman, Alicia, want the two to reconcile, but the stubbornness in both men keeps them from engaging. Nate suffers some terrible consequences for the life he’s lived that he’s hiding from, and once Joe finds out what happened, he’s gutted for him, and the acrimony is forgotten.

Although the murder of Missy’s fourth husband is at the heart of Cold Wind, it’s really a character-driven story that moves along the characters who have become familiar to readers of the series. It also serves to clear the canvas of a number of recurring characters readers have gotten to know over the previous ten books. There is a lot of death in Cold Wind, and not just Earl Alden. I did like that I learned a little more about Nate and why he’s in the crosshairs of the government. Some of it I had guessed already, but there was also a lot more to his story than I suspected.

Joe struggles with his animosity for Missy during Cold Wind, versus his thinking that she is being railroaded for a murder she didn’t have anything to do with. If she were anyone else, he’d simply let the chips fall where they may. Sometimes karma delivers when you don’t expect it. Having alienated just about everyone in Saddlestring, there’s no one who will fight for her, and that’s Missy’s own doing. She’s not likable at all, which makes me wonder how she managed to raise such a good person as MaryBeth.

I love how Box writes these stories to tread the middle of the road. He’s pro-environment, but not an environmentalist. Joe thinks about all angles of the changes that are happening to his little corner of Wyoming. That has been consistent throughout the series. It’s not just the economy of the town being affected by the changes, but also the social construct, as outsiders like Earl Alden come in and make a fortune seeing the big picture that locals aren’t as aware of. He manages to raise all of the misgivings that exist in many rural communities as time goes on, and it feels like the people who actually live there are being negatively affected by those who will reap the rewards. These problems are harder to define than good vs. bad, local vs. outsider, progress vs. stagnation, and business vs. environment. I really like being made to think about the consequences of actions, even those we don’t often consider, while trying to be pro-environment.

David Chandler narrates the audiobook once again. At this point, I can’t imagine anyone else reading it. I’m used to how he animates the characters vocally, without getting too crazy trying to change his voice. I can hear how MaryBeth talks to Joe even as I write this.

The mystery at the heart of Cold Wind isn’t a particularly compelling one, although I was eager to see how it was resolved. The one person I thought the police should have looked at a bit harder proved to be right. There were no real surprises there. What actually happened was interesting, though. I’m not even sure that we know the truth at the end of the book, but it shows how much Joe loves his wife and cares about her emotional health that he’s going to let it go. What’s going to be interesting going forward is what happens in Nate’s life now.

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