Play Book Tag discussion

Wyoming Game Warden Joe Pickett has been blindsided by a near tragedy within his own family. He and his wife Marybeth are terrified that their adopted daughter April will not recover from a brutal beating that left her unconscious and broken along the side of a road. April is now lying comatose in the ICU of a Montana hospital and Joe is determined to find her attacker. He is sure it is Dallas Cates, a handsome young rodeo champion that April left home with several months ago. Although the two seemed head over heels in love, Joe never liked the man and did not trust him. Now it appears that Dallas could not have hurt April as he was injured in his last rodeo appearance having been thrown from a bull. His family swears that Dallas had returned home several days earlier and that he and April had broken up quite a while ago. The Cates family are heavily ruled by the mother Brenda who obviously prefers her shining son Dallas over the rest of them.

Meanwhile Joe's friend Nate Romanowski has been released from jail, mainly to be used as bait for a group of murderers the FBI wants to catch. Nate and his girlfriend Liv begin their raptor business when Nate is hired to help remove starlings from a horse barn. When Nate enters the barn he is immediately gunned down and left for dead. Liv is kidnapped by the shooters believing Nate is dead.

Joe is still convinced the Cates family has something to do with April's injuries. Unfortunately, it does not look promising for her recovery and she may never be able to tell him what happened. Someone is on the way to the hospital to make certain that never happens.

This is probably one of my favorites of the series so far. The story is such a personal one for Joe this time and he does not hesitate to put himself in harm's way for his family.