She Treads Softly: The Crossroads

Friday, January 23, 2026

The Crossroads

The Crossroads by C. J. Box
2/24/26; 352 pages
Putnam
Joe Pickett Series #26

The Crossroads by C. J. Box is a very highly recommended investigative mystery and the winning 26th addition to the long running series. This time Joe's daughters lead the investigation as Joe is incapacitated.

Marybeth Pickett gets the call she has always dreaded when her husband, Wyoming Game Warden Joe Pickett, is found in his pickup at Antler Creek Junction, shot in the head, unconscious and barely holding on to life. He is airlifted to the hospital in Billings, Montana, accompanied by Marybeth, where he remains in critical condition and in a medically induced coma while being treated. The couples three daughters, Sheridan, April, and Lucy, converge on the family home, determined to investigate who was responsible for what happened to their father.

The three determine that the owners of the three ranches that connect off of Antler Creek Junction may have something to do with Joe's ambush. They talk to the new sheriff for the county of Twelve Sleep, Steve Sondergard, and they all agree to share any information they uncover in their investigations. The identity of the hired assassins, Dorn Peddy and James Dale O’Bryan, are identified early on in some chapters from their perspective but the identity of who hired them is kept a secret. Also included are chapters from Joe's point-of-view dating back before the ambush which provide extra information for readers.

The pace is fast and the tension rises as the suspects are delved into in this well-written installment of the series. The owners of the three ranches all have a reason to be implicated in Joe's ambush and need to be carefully questioned. The new Sheriff Sondergard has barely had time to settle in when he is confronted with this case and informed by Sheridan that she and her sisters will be investigating it too, with or without his approval. It is entertaining to follow Joe's daughters while they investigate and they prove to be insightful and intuitive, but Joe will be missed by those following the series. Who knew Wyoming could continue to be such a dangerous place to live.

The Crossroads is an excellent choice for anyone who enjoys investigative mysteries set in a rural area and, of course, for everyone following the Joe Pickett series. Thanks to Putnam for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

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John Updike's six rules for reviewing:

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation--at least one extended passage--of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.....Review the book, not the reputation.... Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.