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Book Summary and Reviews of The Crossroads by C.J. Box

The Crossroads by C.J. Box

The Crossroads

Joe Pickett Novel

by C.J. Box

  • Critics' Consensus (8):
  • Published:
  • Feb 2026, 368 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

Game warden Joe Pickett fights for his life as his daughters try to uncover who shot him and left him for dead in this riveting new novel from #1 New York Times bestseller C. J. Box.

Marybeth Pickett gets the call she has always dreaded: her husband Joe is in critical condition with a gunshot wound to the head.

Joe was found in his pickup at Antler Creek Junction, a crossroads connecting three ranches. Each road leading to a dangerous family. Each family with a different bone to pick with the local game warden. Marybeth and the new sheriff assume that Joe was ambushed by one of the families, but they have no idea which one since Joe didn't say where he was going or why.

With Joe unconscious and fighting for his life with Marybeth at his side, Sheridan, April, and Lucy split up and investigate each of families to uncover the truth of what happened to their father, before it's too late.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"Unfortunately, Peddy and O'Bryan prove to be uninspiring antagonists, and Joe's daughters aren't particularly competent sleuths, taking far too long to identify the mastermind behind the assassination plot. This will leave series fans longing for Pickett's glory days." —Publishers Weekly

"Box unspools a series of flashbacks ... [The] hero's 26th adventure bears the hallmarks of a formal detective story." —Kirkus Reviews

"Readers will be happy to be back with the Pickett family in Twelve Sleep County despite the circumstances. Given their chance to shine, the now all-grown up 'girls' are amazing. Box again delivers an entertaining narrative set against an epic Western landscape in the twenty-sixth installment of an equally epic series." —Booklist

"Warning: don't open The Crossroads if you've got a busy week. Once you start it, there's no walking away. Box's writing is like a porcupine quill. It hooks into you and won't let go." —Steven Rinella, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Catch a Crayfish, Count the Stars

"The terrific C.J. Box shifts into overdrive at The Crossroads ... the Pickett family fills this riveting thriller with heart as big as the American West." —Lisa Scottoline, #1 bestselling author of The Unraveling of Julia

This information about The Crossroads was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

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Author Information

C.J. Box Author Biography

C. J. Box is the author of thirty books, including the Joe Pickett series and the Cassie Dewell series, and a story collection. His books have been translated into twenty-seven languages. He has won the Edgar, Anthony, Macavity, Gumshoe, and Barry Awards, as well as the French Prix Calibre .38, and has been a Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist. A Wyoming native, Box has also worked on a ranch and as a small-town newspaper reporter and editor. He's an executive producer of ABC TV's Big Sky, which is based on his Cody Hoyt/Cassie Dewell novels, as well as executive producer of the Joe Pickett television series for Spectrum Originals. He lives with his wife on their ranch in Wyoming.

Link to C.J. Box's Website

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