Blood Trail

It''s elk season in the Rockies, but this year one hunter is stalking a different kind of prey.

When the call comes in on the radio, Joe Pickett can hardly believe his ears: game wardens have found a hunter dead at a camp in the mountains - strung up, gutted, skinned, and beheaded, as if he were the elk he''d been pursuing. A spent cartridge and a poker chip lie next to his body.

Ripples of horror spread through the community, and with a possibly psychotic killer on the loose, Governor Rulon is forced to end hunting season early for the first time in state history - outraging hunters and potentially crippling the state''s income from the loss of hunting license revenue. But when the brutal murders eerily coincide with the arrival of radical anti-hunting activist Klamath Moore, Pickett knows the Governor''s ruling is the least of his worries. Are the murders the work of a deranged activist or of a lone psychopath with a personal vendetta?

As always, Joe Pickett is the governor''s go-to man, and he''s put on the case to track the murderous hunter, as more bodies - and poker chips - turn up.