Shadows Reel by C.J. Box

 

It's the day before Thanksgiving and game warden Joe Pickett and his librarian wife Marybeth are thankful.  All three of their girls will be home for the holiday and that hasn't happened in a while.  But the day turns bad.  Marybeth is left a package at the library door and she seems an older man scurrying off into the darkness.  Joe finds a body; a fishing guide he knew slightly.  The man had been tortured and burnt.  Joe calls the new sheriff although he doubts his efficiency.  The sheriff arrives and tosses Joe out of his crime scene.

Meanwhile, their friend Nate has taken off on a mission.  A man broke into his house, terrorized Nate's wife and small daughter and stole his entire stock of falcons, essentially putting Nate out of business.  Nate uses the raptors to rid customers of problem birds and has built a good business.  The man who stole them is ex-military like Nate and Nate is determined to track him down.

Marybeth discovers that the package she received was a photo album.  It appears to have belonged to one of Hitler's strongest supporters.  How did such an item show up in Wyoming?  She decides to take it home and stops to drop off a bag of romance novels with an elderly neighbor.  When that neighbor is also killed, she and Joe realize that someone is following Marybeth and thought they were breaking into the Pickett house, looking for the album.  

Nate finds an ally on the road and the two men track Alex, the thief.  Alex hates the government and his mission is to set the police and protestors such as Antifa and BLM against each other, inciting violence between the two groups.  Can Nate and his ally find Alex before he accomplishes his goal? 

This is the twenty-second book in this series.  Joe and Marybeth seem to be drawn into anything dangerous that occurs in the area and the police are wary of Joe's help.  Both Joe and Nate may make the reader uneasy as their willingness to work outside the law is unnerving, especially Nate.  Longtime readers of the series will have watched the couple's daughters grow up but I read this as a standalone and it works well that way as well.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.