Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Cold Wind
    Cold Wind
    Cold Wind
    Audiobook11 hours

    Cold Wind

    Written by C.J. Box

    Narrated by David Chandler

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Edgar, Anthony, Macavity, Gumshoe, and Barry Award winner C. J. Box's novels featuring game warden Joe Pickett are full of breathtaking thrills. Cold Wind, the 11th tale in the series, finds Pickett's mother-in-law suspected of murdering her husband. Pickett cannot stand the woman, and all the evidence is pointing straight toward her. Caught up in an investigation that is already personal, Pickett tries his best to keep things from getting too messy.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateMar 22, 2011
    ISBN9781461800057
    Cold Wind
    Author

    C.J. Box

    C. J. Box is the author of more than 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.

    More audiobooks from C.J. Box

    Related to Cold Wind

    Titles in the series (25)

    View More
    View More

    Related audiobooks

    Mystery For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Joe Pickett’s NEXT CHAPTER

      Jun 9, 2020

      Joe Pickett’s NEXT CHAPTER
      2 min read

    • Article

      Buying Greenland? That's Nothing To Gabriel García Márquez

      Aug 24, 2019

      Gabriel García Márquez's intricate, confusing, magnificent novel centers around a monstrous, nameless dictator — known only as the General or the Patriarch — who sells the entire Caribbean Sea.

      3 min read

    • Article

      Running Man Rock

      Nov 5, 2020

      Running Man Rock
      8 min read

    • Article

      Commonplace Book

      Jun 4, 2018

      I like long walks, especially when they are taken by people who annoy me. —Fred Allen I have always wondered, in reading travels, at the childish joy travellers felt at meeting people they knew, and their sense of loneliness when they did not, in

      4 min read

    • Article

      Hook, Line And Sinker

      Oct 18, 2018

      Hook, Line And Sinker
      4 min read

    • Article

      At the CENTER of It All

      Aug 11, 2022

      At the CENTER of It All
      9 min read

    • Article

      Town & Country Notebook

      Mar 3, 2021

      1) On what musical instrument would a nocturne typically be played? 2) Who was the last monarch before The Queen to have a Diamond Jubilee? 3) Complete the title of the 1990 British film starring Alan Rickman and Juliet Stevenson: Truly, Madly… wha

      1 min read

    • Article

      The Power And The Passion

      Sep 19, 2021

      The Power And The Passion
      4 min read

    • Article

      Parting the Waters

      Dec 29, 2022

      Parting the Waters
      12 min read

    • Article

      Texas Variety

      May 8, 2019

      Texas Variety
      7 min read

    • Article

      At The End Of The Highway

      Feb 20, 2020

      At The End Of The Highway
      11 min read

    • Article

      Humming Into The Void

      Mar 17, 2021

      DO you know about the South Somerset Hum? It isn’t the sound of bees in a cider orchard or Morris men girding up on the village green, nor the buzz of an instrument, like the homely humstrum of William Barnes’s dialect poem, whose ‘ingan-ing_ did rin

      2 min read

    • Article

      Please, Consider the Beaver

      Aug 1, 2018

      Please, Consider the Beaver
      8 min read

    • Article

      Life On The Edge

      Sep 20, 2023

      Life On The Edge
      4 min read

    • Article

      The Colorado River Frontier

      Jun 18, 2019

      The Colorado River Frontier
      9 min read

    • Article

      Hay, Good Looking

      Jun 28, 2023

      Hay, Good Looking
      4 min read

    • Article

      Tom And The Fat Boys

      Apr 24, 2018

      Tom And The Fat Boys
      14 min read

    • Article

      To The Mainland

      Dec 6, 2020

      To The Mainland
      5 min read

    • Article

      In The Thick Of It

      Feb 23, 2022

      In The Thick Of It
      3 min read

    • Article

      What Lies Beneath

      Feb 18, 2020

      What Lies Beneath
      4 min read

    • Article

      Emu Dreaming

      Jan 30, 2018

      Emu Dreaming
      7 min read

    • Article

      Fish Hippies

      Jul 13, 2021

      Fish Hippies
      12 min read

    • Article

      Waiting For A Queen To Fly

      May 15, 2019

      Waiting For A Queen To Fly
      10 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Cold Wind

    4/5

    349 ratings42 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      It all got a bit convoluted at the end but that twist!!!These are easy reads where you can just surf along and not worry too much about who, what or why.
    • 2/5
      A snappy modern western mystery peppered with middle American ideas about wind power and including a peculiar and unbelievable paranoid Rambo-like character.
    • 5/5
      As always a complicated plot with in-depth characters! An exciting read, I look forward to the next C J Box book!!!
    • 4/5
      I loved this book. Hating Missy was kind of fun,as usual. Joe Pickett books are well written, interesting, and good detective stories. CJ Box ties things together quite nicely. His characters are easy to “see”. He gave us a new bad guy that we are sure to see again. I would have liked to see more of Nate. I enjoyed this book start to finish.
    • 4/5
      Another great Joe Pickett novel. I'm enjoying seeing Joe pick up some Nate-like qualities while still remaining a "do-gooder" at heart. I also enjoyed the sub-plot surrounding Nate and can't wait to learn more about his story. I found the look into the wind turbines popping up around our state to be thought-provoking, as I do with the topics covered in other CJ Box books.
    • 5/5
      The "Box Books" keep getting better and better. In this outing, Joe's mother, Missy, is charged with the murder of her current husband, Earl Alden. Unfortunately, Joe found him tied to the blade of a windmill in the new wind farm that Earl had installed on part of his ranch. Earl had also been shot in the chest before he took his ride on the windmill. The side plot in the book is the shooting death of Nate Romanowski's woman, Alicia Whitefeather in an attack that was meant to finish off Nate. This one will keep the reader twisting and turning until the final page, and that last page left me reaching for the next book. Hurry, C.J.!
    • 5/5
      Thanks to Early Reviewers I have another new author. I loved Cold Wind by C.J.Box.This book takes place in the beautiful mountains of Wyoming. Joe Pickett is a Game Warden in the small community of Saddlestring. Joe is also the son-in law of the man who ends up tied to one of his own Wind Turbines. Joe's unlikeable mother-in-law is the prime suspect for this murder.The books takes you through well written and suspenseful twist and turns tofind out the truth of the murder. The solution involves the politics and greed of wind power, economics, family secrets and a touch of gossip.I highly recommend this book and thank librarything.com and G.P. Putman's Sons for the chance to read it. I have already started collecting the previous books and look forward to reading them in order.
    • 5/5
      Very exciting!! Loved it! Joe always gets his man Orr women!...
    • 3/5
      Another solid mystery featuring Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett. I keep coming back to this series.
    • 4/5
      Game warden Joe Pickett is finally back home in Saddlestring with his wife and daughters, no special projects for the governor or being sent to some else's territory. Except that with his usual knack for getting in trouble, he ends up finding a body tied to a wind turbine. As gruesome as this is, it shortly becomes a nightmare - the dead man is Earl Alden, Joe's mother-in-law's husband and before long Missy becomes the main suspect, not without the help of her ex-husband Bud Longbrake. As much as Joe does not like Missy (ok, that is probably the understatement of the year), even he cannot believe that she can be the killer - or that she could have ordered it. The problem is that everyone in the county can and does believe it - Missy had not made any friends with her behavior towards Bud or her general demeanor. The sheriff office and the prosecution is sure they have their murderer so Joe needs to find the truth.As with a lot of the Pickett novels, there is also a back story - in this case the development of wind turbines in Wyoming and how that influences the local communities and nature. As usual C. J. Box uses the real-life laws and actions to build his narrative and ties it into his fictional world, using the novel for a commentary of the politics of DC and the state in real life. And while dealing with Missy's issue, Joe also reconnects with Nate - after the Joe's betrayal (of a type) in an earlier book, Nate is now back - but so are his enemies. Before long Nate's life is shattered and a lot of the mellowing that we had seen in his character since he was introduced is gone. By the end of the novel, the murder is solved and Nate gets yet another reminder of his past.
    • 4/5
      Good story but it seems like the author wanted to rail about wind and did a story around it.
    • 5/5
      This book kept me up at night! Joe's mother in law is accused of murdering her rich hubby and Nate is back and on his own mission. There are ancillary issues, like wind power, sleazy lawyers, Sheridan's move to college and local politics. Box has created multi-dimensional characters, complete with imperfections, who grow and change from book to book. I can't wait for book #12.
    • 4/5
      Good story as usual for C.J. Box.
    • 4/5
      Having selected this book on a whim, I didn't realize there were ten in the series I should have read first. Oops. That means I missed a lot of the backstory, and references to things that happened in earlier books went over my head. That didn't stop me from enjoying this book, and I'll read more of the series, maybe even starting with #1.Noisy, sometimes useless wind turbines are dotting the landscape, a man is murdered and his body is made a grisly display, and game warden Joe Pickett's mother-in-law, not beloved by all, is accused of murder.The story moved at a quick pace and kept me entertained. Interesting information about wind turbines added to the story. I am one of those tree-hugger types, and can't go along with some of the prevalent Wyoming attitudes and taking the law into your own hands, but hey, this is a mystery novel, not a political treatise, so I don't have to agree with all the attitudes.If this book is typical of the series, it is a very good series, and well worth the time it takes to read or listen to it.(Audio edition from Audible)
    • 3/5
      This was the first Joe Pickett story I've read. Joe's step- father-in-law is murdered and strung up on the blade of a wind turbine on the wind farm that he has built by swindling neighbors out of land they've held for generations. The prime suspect is Missy, Joe's mother-in-law. Meanwhile Joe's estranged friend, Nate, is being stalked by two amateurs and a rocket launcher who muddle and kill the wrong person. Through a series of twists and turns, the two murders are connected. Interesting action, a little over-written at times, but an entertaining story line. Will have to put more Joe Pickett on the light reading list for travel.
    • 4/5
      Another winner from Box - love the Joe Pickett books. For once it seems like Joe's fondest wishes might come true - his much despised mother-in-law is arrested for her husband's murder. Problem is Joe's wife wants him to prove her mother innocent. The plot about the wind turbines and federal money got a bit convoluted, but the real meat here is the dynamics of family and friends and what you really know about them.
    • 4/5
      This is the 11th book in the series and I'm a huge fan. Sad that I am almost caught up and will have to wait like the rest of the masses. I highly recommend this seires, but start at the beginning there is just so much continous history to jump in the middle. Which is one of the reasons I love this series: it's like coming home where you know everyone. Never have like Missy and I liked what happened in this book. Good to see Nate making a comeback. Sad to see Sheridan go off to college. Can't wait to start the next one!
    • 4/5
      Clearly a set up for Force of Nature, and a jab at the exploitation of politics and finances when it comes to 'green' programs. This ties up a few loose ends, and brings the character of Nate prominently back into the story line. Joe's mother-in-law is truly ruthless, and seems to have less scruples than Joe's friend, who is currently still on the run from law enforcement. Solid characters and story telling, with a couple of minor twists, and the confidence that whatever happens, Joe will get the job done.
    • 3/5
      The story kept me entertained but I felt like I was also watching a commercial for renewable energy.
    • 4/5
      Cold Wind is an enjoyable mystery/thriller set in the wilds of Wyoming, Joe Pickett is a game warden who reluctantly finds himself investigating the death of his father in law, Earl Alden. The local police immediately arrest his mother in law, Missy and while Joe i snot averse to seeing the woman locked up, it seems unlikely she shot her husband, carelessly leaving the gun covered in prints in her car, and then hauled her husband's body 250ft in the air to hang him from the blades of his own wind turbine. Investigating on his own puts Joe at odds with the local law enforcement and DA, and without his long time friend Nate to back him up, Joe is at risk of getting in over his head.Identifying the killer in this tightly plotted mystery isn't easy as CJ Box presents several suspects. Earl Alden, a wealthy man had alienated many of his neighbors in his pursuit of land, had few friends to speak of and when Joe starts poking around he discovers there is something not quite right with the multi million dollar wind farm project Earl was building in a far corner of his ranch.Bud Longbreak, Missy's ex husband, started drinking when Missy left him to join Earl, taking his family ranch with her. It seems he is the state's star witness insisting Missy is responsible for the murder. As bitter about the loss of the family fortune is Bud's some who has slipped into town virtually unnoticed.Joe can't easily dismiss Missy either, his mother in law is the most manipulative and cold-hearted woman he has ever known but with his wife, MaryBeth, distraught at her mother's arrest he hopes the truth will prove her innocent.With clever misdirection, CJ Box puts all of the suspects in the frame at one time or another but just as one scenario seems most likely, an alternative is offered. Revealing the killer is, if not completely unexpected, a triumph of sorts for Joe.Cold Wind touches on several personal issues for Joe, while happy to be back in Saddlestring - his 'punishment' ended the Pickett family are struggling financially in the aftermath of the GFC and Joe's demotion, their foster daughter seems determined to make trouble and their oldest daughter is starting her first year at college. Joe's estrangement from close friend Nate, after a disagreement in Nowhere to Run is also troubling him.Nate provides the secondary plot for this book. He is forced out of hiding after a murderous attack on his mountain refuge and the falconer, once an elite soldier, will stop at nothing to get his revenge but his vendetta may make him vulnerable to an even greater threat.With strong characterisation, plenty of action and a complex mystery to solve, Cold Wind is an entertaining read. Despite Cold Wind being the 11th installment in the Joe Pickett series and the only title I have read, I felt the story stood alone on it's own merit. I do think being familiar with the history of the characters would have enhanced my satisfaction with the book, instead I am simply tempted to pick up this series from the beginning.
    • 4/5
      Great story line with Joe's father-in-law killed because of his wind farm. While not his first choice Joe seeks to find out what happened and who. Well written, the setting of ranch life in the far west is excellent. Living here in Texas where power lines from wind farmers raise public tempers this is a truly believable storyline. Recommended
    • 4/5
      I like this series very much. Box portrays Wyoming with an appreciation and understanding of its beauty, isolation and independence of its inhabitants. Joe Pickett is a hero is the tradition of the great Hollywood cowboys, generally driving a pickup instead of riding a horse. However, he does ride when necessary and loves his horses.In this series entry, Joe has to investigate the murder of his father-in-law, Earl Alden. Alden was a multi-millionaire landowner and media mogul who was having a wind turbine farm built on his land. He is shot in mid-gloat about his good fortune in getting it built.Meanwhile Joe Pickett, Wyoming game warden, is driving to Laramie (U of Wyoming) to take his 19-year-old daughter, Sheridan, to college. With him is his wife Marybeth; 14-year-old daughter, Lucy; and 16-year-old foster daughter, April. On the way Maribeth receives a cellphone call from her mother, Missy, but doesn't answer it. Oh-oh. When she finally answers one of her mother's calls she learns of Earl's death.Murder suspect Missy Vankueren Longbrake Alden, mid-sixties, 6 times married, is always seeking a richer husband. She has made an enemy of her previous husband and others in the community. Joe is caught in the middle of trying to find Alden's killer and overcoming his dislike for his mother-in-law to prove her innocence (if she is innocent.)The book presents wind farm construction in a way which most Americans don't take into consideration. Developing wind farms has developed into booming business in Wyoming at a time when other businesses have been hit hard by the recession. The wind turbines in this case require at least 50 acres per structure; the project of 100 would eventually stretch across 5,000 acres of Alden's land. There is concern about impacts on big game animals and their migratory routes. Land on neighboring ranches has been condemned in order to construct transmission lines from the field to consumers. Creating alternative energy resources is not without its hazards.
    • 5/5
      So 3 in a row and I'm all caught up with Joe Pickett... the ending will leave you waiting for the next book! Really enjoyed this book and it kept a good pace. It finished up a few older story lines and opened up a few new ones. My husband also enjoys this series but it;s hard to find them on audio, he listens while driving to work each day.
    • 4/5
      I love the Joe Pickett series, so I was predisposed to like this book, but in my opinion it really delivered. Hard to follow some of the threads if you haven't been a regular reader, but it tied together quite a few ends that have been hanging for a while. And with an ending that I didn't quite see coming.
    • 4/5
      The 11th book in the Joe Pickett series. Joe is a game warden in Wyoming. One morning he comes across a body hanging from a wind turbine. The deceased is Earl Alden, fourth husband of Joe’s mother-in-law. Earl was known as a shifty, conniving businessman who owned the largest ranch in Wyoming and was due to make a bundle of money by leasing out his land to a wind turbine company. There are a lot of people who had it out for Earl. He finagled a parcel of land from a neighbor by having it declared an imminent domain. Bud, husband #3 to Missy Alden, lost his ranch in his divorce from Missy. Bud’s son, although estranged from Bud, isn’t too fond of Missy for what she did to his father. As though things aren’t bad enough, it appears Missy has been framed for the murder. Joe isn’t too fond of his mother-in-law but his wife, Mary Beth, asks for his help in clearing her mother’s name. Meanwhile, Nate, Joe’s falconer friend, has a group from his past looking for him. Joe is extremely likeable with the typical family woes and the politics of his job. The author manages to balance all of the storylines in a page-turning follow-up to an enjoyable series.
    • 4/5
      I have just found C.J. Box and like his writing very much. In Cold Wind his much married mother-in-law is charged with the murder of her husband. A rich landowner, Earl is found tied to one of his wind farm turbines. How he got there, why and who is to blame takes the reader on a merry chase through politics of wind, family makeup, and small town gossip. A great read with a satisfying ending. I plan to read the earlier books.
    • 5/5
      I received this book through Early Reviewers. I've read C. J. Box for years and I have to say this is his best to date! Started off great and kept me up reading through the night. Joe Pickett is our law abiding Game Warden who is put between a rock and a hard place to track down the facts of the brutal killing of his father in law Earl Alden even if it proves his mother in law Missy guilty. Missy Alden is not a nice person, liked by few and hated by most. Did she do this despicable deed? Can the elite Wyoming Lawyer Marcus Hand get her off? Has she really been set up?While Joe's friend Nate is busy with troubles of his own trying to track down the killers of his girl friend Joe works hard despite his dislike of Missy and gets to the truth.Fast start, fast paced and great finish leading you to wish you didn't have to wait for the next in this series.Great job Mr. Box.
    • 5/5
      This is the very first Joe Pickett book I've read. wow what a way to start! this book was realy good! I love the characters to. it held me from the very first page! I liked it so much that now I'm going to go out and buy the first Pickett book and go from there till I'm caught up. I want to get to know the main characters even better. I really enjoyed this book a bunch!!!
    • 3/5
      I recieved this book from the Early Reviewers program. I have read some, but not all, of the other Joe Pickett books. The mystery in this book was really good- who killed the rancher and why was his body hanging from a wind turbine. I could have done without the secondary story centering on Joe's friend Nate. When I want to read about missile launchers, fake passports and secret government agencies, I'll choose a thriller, In this book, I could have done without that storyline and just enjoyed the main mystery.
    • 5/5
      The latest Joe Picket series ended worse than a daily soap opera! ;-) Hardley can wait for the next one, excellent as always.