The word count is between 80,000 and 96,000 (estimated). 'Before going outside to his pickup for his gun, the Wyoming game warden cooked and ate four and a half pounds of meat.' It would take a slow reader 23 hours, an average reader 12 hours, and a fast reader 6 hours to read it. The word count is between 88,000 and 105,600 (estimated).

'I never thought I’d care a good goddamn about a little Brit orphan, but.' 'Children were not pets, not furniture, not items put on earth to bring pleasure to people who owned them, she raged to herself.' It would take a slow reader 20 hours, an average reader 10 hours, and a fast reader 5 hours to read it. The word count is between 76,000 and 91,200 (estimated). 'Like most men, he had a tough time believing that his wife had had any kind of interesting life before she met him. It would take a slow reader 19 hours, an average reader 9 hours, and a fast reader 5 hours to read it. The word count is between 69,500 and 83,400 (estimated). How did the dead man get to his house? What was in the empty cooler by his side? And why do his colleagues want to sweep the case under the rug? Battling grudge-holding neighbours, corrupt officials and out-of-town activists, Joe begins to unravel a mystery that threatens the life and the family he loves.'Joe had always considered individual words as finite units of currency, and he believed in savings.' Charged with investigating the first murder he's ever encountered, Joe soon finds himself swamped with questions. And then the poacher turns up dead in the Pickett's backyard. So when the source of the shots - a well-known poacher - gets off scott-free after a humiliating confrontation, the locals are delighted. As game warden in Twelve Sleep, father-of-two Joe Pickett is not only badly paid and poorly housed, but deeply unpopular. But when Joe Pickett hears two sharp cracks ring out months before hunting season, it's his job to investigate.

Here in remotest Wyoming, where elk roam the pine forests and cougars prowl the mountains, everyone owns a gun.

There's nothing unusual about the sound of a gunshot in Twelve Sleep.

Joe pickett open season