Hold on tight because things are fixin’ to get real Western’ come February 25th, when Battle Mountain, the 25th book in C.J. Box’s #1 New York Times bestselling series, officially hits bookstores.
If you read Box’s 24th Joe Pickett novel, Three-inch Teeth, then you know where things are headed. First, though, some quick Joe Pickett history . . .
Wyoming Game Warden Joe Pickett, the star of Box’s beloved series, was first introdiced to readers in Open Season way back in 2001. Two books later, Joe—a family man with a good heart who is honest, sometimes even to a fault—met Nate Romanowsi in Winterkill. Romanowski, an ex-special forces operator turned outlaw falconer, has proven to be a loyal and dependable friend to Joe, always showing up when he’s needed most. Generally, that’s whenever the action starts and the bullets begin flying.
And trust me when I say that, when the bullets, in fact, do fly, Nate is the guy you want by your side.
Over the years, Nate has been through a lot of personal heartache. No spoilers here (well, very minor series spoilers, but nothing major), but he’s lost in more ways than one and endured unthinkable pain before finally meeting the love of his life in Stone Cold (2014; book 14 in the series) and choosing to settle down. Stone Cold is also the book that introduced a young rodeo champ named Dallas Cates. Cates, a Wyoming native, hit it big on the rodeo circuit before setting his sights on Joe’s daughter, April. But their relationship goes downhill quickly, with Cates proving to have a much darker side than the one he shows his fans across the country. Things come to a head in Endangered (2015) when April is found beaten up by the side of the road. Cates is the prime suspect, but when Joe goes to confront them, things don’t quite go according to plan. Worse, Dallas and his sad*stic family recognized Nate as a threat, given his loyalty to Joe, and made moves to take him off the board that eventually backfired in spectacular fashion.
Then came Off the Grid (2016), which saw Nate, in the end, take steps to go legit and leave his outlaw life behind. More importantly, though, after the events of that book play out, Joe gets an email indicating that Dallas Cates has returned. That paved the way for Vicious Circle (2017; book 17), the book that officially cemented Dallas Cates as the series’ most prominent villain. War was waged between Cates and the Picketts, officially, and things—as the title suggests—turned vicious and violent almost immediately.
Flash forward seven years and seven books, all the way to Three-Inch Teeth, which was released earlier this year and again featured the return of Dallas Cates, and things have only escalated further. The ending of that book, the most shocking and jaw-dropping ending of Box’s career, left his fans absolutely stunned.
All of that is to say this . . .
It’s safe to say that the war is far from over, and Nate Romanowski, especially, is fixing to kick things up a notch.
No official plot details are available just yet, but let’s be honest—if you’ve read Three-Inch Teeth, combined with the striking cover for Battle Mountain, it’s pretty obvious what’s about to go down. It doesn’t take Robert Langdon to note the falcon, the dark and stormy sky, not the word “battle” in the title, in order to make an educated guess on what’s going to happen.
So, yeah, buckle up!
C. J. Box is the author of twenty-four Joe Pickett novels, eight stand-alone novels, and a story collection. He has won the Edgar, Anthony, Macavity, Gumshoe, and two Barry awards, as well as the French Prix Calibre .38, the Western Heritage Award for Literature, and two Spur Awards. An avid outdoorsman, Box has hunted, fished, hiked, ridden, and skied throughout Wyoming and the Mountain West. He has been an executive producer on television series based on his books, including ABC TV’s Big Sky and Joe Pickett on Paramount+.
Readers excited to get their hands on Battle Mountain, our pick for the most anticipated book of 2025, can now pre-order C.J. Box’s next novel here or anywhere else books are sold.
Praised as “One of the hardest working, most thoughtful, and fairest reviewers out there” by New York Times bestselling author Lisa Scottoline, Ryan Steck has “quickly established himself as the authority on mysteries and thrillers” (Author A.J. Tata). Steck also works full-time as a freelance editor in addition to running TRBS. He is the author of FIELDS OF FIRE, which #1 New York Times bestselling author Jack Carr says “will leave you speechless and begging for more,” LETHAL RANGE, OUT FOR BLOOD, and TED BELL’S MONARCH. For more information, follow him on Twitter, Facebook, and BookBub. To interact with other readers and talk about your favorite books and authors, join The Real Book Spy’s Discord server.
