The Crossroads

The 24th installment in the Joe Pickett series opens on a November morning when Marybeth Pickett receives an urgent call at the Twelve Sleep County Library in rural Wyoming. A bullet-riddled Game and Fish Department pickup has been found on Antler Creek Road with an unresponsive victim inside. Marybeth cannot confirm whether the truck belongs to her husband, Joe Pickett, the district's longtime game warden, because he did not share his route that morning. The deputy soon confirms it is Joe's truck: He has been shot at least twice, including once in the head.

Marybeth races to the junction where three private ranch roads diverge: the Double Diamond, owned by billionaire Michael Thompson; the Bucholz Cattle Company, run by John and Shelby Bucholz; and McElwee Land and Cattle, operated by sisters Lisa and Lainie McElwee. Joe's windshield is pierced by three rounds at driver's-eye level. Emergency medical technicians find a faint pulse and helicopter him to St. John's Hospital in Billings, Montana. Aboard the flight, Marybeth learns the 911 caller vanished before first responders arrived.

A flashback recounts how Joe and Marybeth met at the University of Wyoming, where Joe's calm courage in protecting her from an aggressive man at a party won her over. They married despite the disapproval of Marybeth's mother, Missy, who dismissed Joe as "Average Joe." The family moved between districts during Joe's game warden career before settling in Saddlestring with three daughters: Sheridan (27), April (25), and Lucy (23).

The narrative shifts to the shooters: Dorn Peddy, a large, overconfident man, and James Dale O'Bryan, a smaller, cautious figure. From a hillside cache, they argue about whether they should have verified Joe was dead. When they spot the unknown hunter calling 911, Peddy tries to shoot the witness but misses. He calls their employer and falsely reports the job went smoothly.

At the hospital, neurosurgeon Dr. Kelly Ralston explains that the bullet entered above Joe's right eyebrow and traveled upward through part of the frontal lobe before lodging in the meninx, the protective membrane surrounding the brain. The windshield likely deflected the bullet and slowed it. Ralston recommends a medical coma and warns that frontal lobe damage can cause unpredictable personality changes. April, who is in Billings on a case with private investigator Cassie Dewell, arrives at the hospital. Dewell concludes that bullet angles suggest multiple shooters and a planned ambush. The three sisters assemble at their parents' home, discuss each ranch as a suspect, and agree to coordinate with newly elected Sheriff Steve Sondergard while conducting their own parallel investigation.

Flashbacks reveal what Joe investigated before the ambush. Thompson pressured Joe to endorse a development project on the Double Diamond, and Joe noticed Thompson's foreman, Clay Hutmacher, had weapons suited for killing protected sage grouse whose habitat designation could block the project. At the Bucholz Ranch, Joe observed a survey helicopter and trucks from Global Exploration, a Texas company; the Bucholzes refused to explain a mysterious figure Joe glimpsed in an old cabin. At the McElwee Ranch, men had shot a captive elk that appeared intoxicated, and Joe discovered a nearby trailer serving as a fentanyl production lab.

In the present, Sheridan is arrested by Deputy Bowkley after sneaking into the county garage to photograph Joe's truck; her sisters secure her release. Peddy and O'Bryan kill a nearby hunter named Budd Betts whom Peddy mistakes for the 911 caller. The real witness, Earl Wright, later describes two camouflaged men who ambushed Joe from either side of the road. His descriptions match two men who followed the sisters home using aliases Sondergard recognizes as names of former Dallas Cowboys players.

The sisters execute coordinated visits to all three ranches. Lucy finds Thompson dismissive and repeatedly referring to Joe in the past tense; she secretly records the conversation. April visits the McElwees, where Lisa mistakes her for a drug dealer before armed ranch hands surround her vehicle; April bluffs her way out. Sheridan discovers Uncle Hank Bucholz imprisoned in a cabin on the Bucholz property, chained to the floor and wearing a collar he claims contains explosives. Confined for over three years under a conservatorship imposed by his nephew John, Hank fills his time writing a manuscript attempting to merge all world religions.

The sisters meet that evening with Sondergard and Nate Romanowski, a longtime family ally, to compare findings. Each argues for a different suspect. Sondergard reveals that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) have a pending investigation into the McElwees' drug operation. Nate declines to share a theory, saying they will not know until Joe wakes up.

Ralston successfully removes the intact bullet during surgery, reporting that the windshield deflection gave Joe an extraordinary chance at recovery, though she cautions that frontal lobe damage could still affect his personality and cognition.

Flashbacks to two days before the shooting show Joe piecing together evidence during a blizzard. He identified the trailer chemicals as fentanyl precursors and photographed data from the Global Exploration helicopter at the local airport. He learned from his elderly neighbor Lorne Trumley, owner of the adjacent Crazy Z-Bar Ranch, that John Bucholz had been pressuring Trumley to sell, specifically requesting mineral rights.

Meanwhile, Bowkley reveals himself as an inside man. He executes Peddy, destroys Joe's stolen notebook and phone, and drives with O'Bryan toward Billings carrying a livestock dosing gun loaded with lethal fentanyl to kill Joe in his hospital room. Their employer also orders them to silence the Pickett daughters.

Late that night, Sheridan makes two breakthroughs. Phone records show Joe's last calls came from a Scranton, Pennsylvania, area code, where Uncle Hank once lived. She identifies chemical symbols from the helicopter data as rare earth minerals used in electric vehicles and advanced technology. The deposit, worth potentially tens of billions of dollars, straddles the Bucholz and Trumley properties. She realizes John used his uncle's confiscated phone to lure Joe into the ambush.

At the hospital, a monitor malfunction causes Joe to be moved to a new room. O'Bryan enters the former room, reads Joe's name still on the whiteboard, and injects the only patient present with fentanyl, killing the wrong person. In the new room, Joe opens his eyes, recognizes Marybeth, and confirms he was heading to the Bucholz Ranch after receiving a call he believed was John disguising his voice.

At the Pickett home, O'Bryan enters through the back door while Sheridan kennels the dogs in response to a deceptive text from Bowkley. When he raises the dosing gun over the sleeping April, Lucy, who heard him on the stairs and retrieved her mother's .38 revolver, fires three times and kills him. Outside, Nate, who anticipated the attack, drags Bowkley from his vehicle and extracts a confession naming John Bucholz as their employer.

Five days later, Sondergard briefs the recovering Joe. John and Shelby are in custody. Global Exploration's survey revealed that 85% of the rare earth deposit lies on Trumley's ranch, with only 15% on Bucholz land. John's scheme depended on acquiring both properties before the discovery became public, and he targeted Joe to prevent him from alerting Trumley. Uncle Hank has been rescued. The FBI and DEA raided the McElwee Ranch, arresting the sisters and suspected Sinaloa cartel members. Thompson has hired Global Exploration to prospect his own ranch, hoping to find minerals that might resolve his legal troubles. The novel closes with Joe grumbling about being told to rest and noting that Sheridan and Sondergard appear to be becoming a couple.