C.J. Box Books in Order: Joe Pickett, Cassie Dewell & More

C.J. Box may be best known for Joe Pickett, but a full C.J. Box books in order guide needs to cover more than the Wyoming game warden novels. Alongside Joe’s long-running series, Box has also written the Cody Hoyt and Cassie Dewell books, standalone thrillers, short fiction, collaborative work, and anthology projects.

Below, you’ll find C.J. Box’s books organized by series first, then standalone books, short fiction, anthologies, and adaptations.

Jump to:

• C.J. Box Books in Order by Series
  • Joe Pickett Series
  • Cody Hoyt and Cassie Dewell Series
• C.J. Box Standalone Books
• C.J. Box Short Stories and Anthologies
• C.J. Box Adaptations
• Who Is C.J. Box?

C.J. Box Books in Order by Series

Joe Pickett Series

Joe Pickett is the series C.J. Box is best known for. It follows a Wyoming game warden whose cases pull him into murder investigations, land disputes, political pressure, wilderness danger, and long-running personal conflicts.

Publication order is the best way to read Joe Pickett because Joe’s career, family, friendships, and enemies build from book to book. I’ve included the optional short fiction where it fits, but if you only want the novels, you can skip the entries marked as short stories or collections.

For a deeper series-only breakdown, see my dedicated Joe Pickett books in order guide.

1. Open Season (2001)
2. Savage Run (2002)
3. Winterkill (2003)
4. Trophy Hunt (2004)
5. Dull Knife (2005, short story)
6. Out of Range (2005)
7. In Plain Sight (2006)
8. The Master Falconer (2006; ebook 2011, short story)
9. Free Fire (2007)
10. Blood Trail (2008)
11. Below Zero (2009)
12. Nowhere to Run (2010)
13. Cold Wind (2011)
14. Force of Nature (2012)
15. Breaking Point (2013)
16. Stone Cold (2014)
17. One-Car Bridge (2014, short story in Shots Fired)
18. Pirates of Yellowstone (2014, short story in Shots Fired)
19. Shots Fired (2014, short story collection)
20. Endangered (2015)
21. Off the Grid (2016)
22. Vicious Circle (2017)
23. Honor & … (2017 in MatchUp; single-story ebook 2019, crossover short story with Sandra Brown’s Lee Coburn)
24. The Disappeared (2018)
25. Wolf Pack (2019)
26. Long Range (2020)
27. Dark Sky (2021)
28. Shadows Reel (2022)
29. Precious Cargo (2022, audio short story from Birds of Prey)
30. Storm Watch (2023)
31. Three-Inch Teeth (2024)
32. Battle Mountain (2025)
33. The Crossroads (2026)
34. The Missing (2027)

Cody Hoyt and Cassie Dewell Series

These books are often grouped under the Highway or Hoyt/Dewell banner. Back of Beyond introduces Cody Hoyt first, while The Highway is where Cassie Dewell becomes central. That’s why some lists start the Cassie Dewell series with The Highway, but I’d start with Back of Beyond if you want the full sequence.

Read these in publication order. The cases change from book to book, but the character arcs and relationships work better when you follow the books from the beginning.

1. Back of Beyond (2011)
2. The Highway (2013)
3. Badlands (2015)
4. Paradise Valley (2017)
5. The Bitterroots (2019)
6. Treasure State (2022)

C.J. Box Standalone Books

Outside his series fiction, C.J. Box has written a small number of standalone novels. These are good options if you want to try Box’s writing without starting a long series.

1. Blue Heaven (2008)
2. Three Weeks to Say Goodbye (2009)

C.J. Box Short Stories and Anthologies

Box’s Joe Pickett-related short fiction appears in the Joe Pickett section above. These are the other short fiction, collaborative, editing, and anthology projects that are worth tracking on a complete C.J. Box bibliography.

1. Pronghorns of the Third Reich (2012)
2. Inherit the Dead (2013, collaborative novel with multiple authors)
3. The Best American Mystery Stories 2020 (2020, edited by C.J. Box and Otto Penzler)
4. Birds of Prey (2022, audio anthology featuring C.J. Box’s “Precious Cargo”)
5. Hard Country (2026, Rough Country Collection anthology appearance)

Birds of Prey is the source for “Precious Cargo,” which is why that story also appears inside the Joe Pickett list above. Hard Country is a multi-author anthology in the Rough Country Collection, so treat it as supplemental rather than a core C.J. Box novel.

C.J. Box Adaptations

The two major TV adaptations tied to C.J. Box’s books are Big Sky and Joe Pickett. Big Sky premiered on ABC in November 2020 and was developed from Box’s Cassie Dewell world, especially The Highway. The series starred Kylie Bunbury as Cassie Dewell and Ryan Phillippe as Cody Hoyt. It ran for three seasons before ABC canceled it in 2023.

Joe Pickett premiered in December 2021, with Michael Dorman as Joe Pickett and Julianna Guill as Marybeth Pickett. The show ran for two seasons, and C.J. Box served as an executive producer. It pulled from different parts of the book timeline rather than adapting one novel at a time.

Who Is C.J. Box?

C.J. Box is an American mystery and thriller author best known for creating Joe Pickett, the Wyoming game warden at the center of his longest-running series. His books often mix crime, wilderness, family pressure, politics, and the conflicts that come with land, power, and law enforcement in the American West.

Box began the Joe Pickett series with Open Season, then expanded his bibliography with the Cody Hoyt and Cassie Dewell books, standalone thrillers, short fiction, and anthology work. That’s why his books are easiest to browse by series instead of trying to force everything into one long list.

For most readers, Joe Pickett is still the best starting point. But if you want the full C.J. Box bibliography, the series sections above make it easier to see how his major books fit together without mixing every character and format into one confusing order.

Looking for similar books in order?

If you want more thriller authors and reading-order guides like this one, start with my Thriller Books in Order index.

• Books in Order (Full Index)
• Walt Longmire Books in Order
• William Kent Krueger Books in Order
• Paul Doiron Books in Order