As fans of CJ Box’s intrepid mystery-solving game warden Joe Pickett count down the days until the release of his 26th Pickett adventure, the Wyoming author dropped a bombshell Wednesday: his literary worlds will collide — Cassie Dewell and Pickett are going to cross paths.
Dewell is the former sheriff’s investigator-turned-private-eye protagonist of Box’s other popular mystery series. She’s the focal character of six novels, starting with “Back of Beyond” in 2011 through 2022’s “Treasure State.”
“I haven’t started the next one yet,” Box said about the 27th Joe Pickett novel on Wednesday’s Cowboy State Daily Show with Jake Nichols.
Then he gave his fans something over which to obsess for awhile.
“OK, I will say that Cassie Dewell makes an appearance in the next Joe Picket book, which isn’t giving away too much,” Box said. “I like that kind of interplay.
“So, I don’t know where that’s going, but you know, I think it’s two worlds collide.”
‘That’s Amazing’
Jaycee Pillman is a huge CJ Box fan and gets to see all the latest releases as they come out working for Watermark Book Co. in Anacortes, Washington.
When asked about the potential for Pickett and Cassie Dewell to cross paths in a Box book, Pillman practically squealed with delight.
“Really! Oh my gosh, that’s so amazing,” she said. “Oh my gosh, I’m excited. I think his Cassie Dewell series is wonderful. I’ve always commended him for offing the main character (in that series) from Cody Hoyt to Cassie Dewell.”
Pillman said working at a bookstore is perfect for someone like her who loves to read.
“My job is amazing, and they support my crazy CJ Box habit,” she said. “The two worlds are going to collide.”
That’s big news for fans of both Box series and leaves room for plenty of speculation.
Will they team up? Will Cassie be a main player in the plot or a cameo? What use could the game warden have for an investigator when he has a true badass sidekick like Nate Romanowski?
Fans will have to wait, as Box is leaving them with a cliffhanger that Cassie will be in the next Joe Pickett book, but that’s all he’s revealing for now.
In the meantime, they can keep counting down the 152 days until “The Crossroads” is released Feb. 23, 2026.
Time Aware
In “The Crossroads,” Pickett fights for his life after being shot, motivating his daughters to try and unravel the crime and catch the shooter.
That’s an important evolution of the novels and their main characters, Box said Wednesday. That’s because he writes the books in “real time.”
That means Pickett and his world today are 24 years older than they were when the first novel, “Open Season,” came out.
“I had no thought at all 27 years later there would be this many books,” he said. “I didn’t intend to write a series, I was writing a book about, basically, the endangered species law and how well-meaning legislation can go awry on the ground where it actually takes place.”
It was based on the real Wyoming story of the discovery of black-footed ferrets near Meeteetse, showing they aren’t extinct.
In that first book, Pickett’s daughter Sheridan is 7 years old and Lucy is 3. Now 24 years and 25 books later, they’re grown and able to investigate on their own.
That helps keep Pickett grounded as a believable character, Box said.
“I think that is very helpful in the series, because I know that readers have to suspend belief to a pretty large degree to think a game warden is going to encounter (all that he has),” he said. “But I think that by keeping Joe real, it kind of helps with that sense of, you know, disbelief that you know no one is ever going to be involved in this many big predicaments.”
And don’t worry about the creative juices drying up anytime soon. There will be plenty for Pickett and Cassie to investigate, Box said.
“I haven’t had a problem yet coming up with a new idea for a new book,” he said. “I never have had this situation where I’m sitting there staring at a blank screen going, ‘What’s Joe Pickett going to do now?’”
Greg Johnson can be reached at greg@cowboystatedaily.com.
