
Rifle Season
A Thriller
Pat Kelly(Author)
Atria Books (Publisher)
Published on 27. January 2026
Book
Hardback
272 pages
978-1-6680-9820-2 (ISBN)
Description
A game hunter is in a race against time to save his family from the most dangerous predator on earth—other people—in this high-stakes thriller in the vein of Jack Carr and Peter Heller.
Mason “Mace” Winters, with his acclaimed reputation as one of the best big game hunters in Colorado, lives for the thrill of the hunt. His lucrative career guiding the wealthy on intense hunts through the Colorado mountains is suddenly brought to a stop when an accident hangs an involuntary manslaughter conviction around his neck. Now he’s relegated to a life of trash pickup in the very wilderness where his prowess as a tracker and killer was the stuff of legends.
At rock bottom, Mace descends into a haze of Tito’s and sativa when two strangers seek him out. They wave enough cash under his nose to convince him to help them up into the mountains he knows so well on the opening day of Colorado’s rifle season. An innocent enough request, and the perfect cover for the trip’s true purpose: to assassinate an infamous warlord. All at once, Mace goes from unwitting to unwilling accomplice and it will take all his now dusty skills to outfox his patrons in their deadly game.
Mason “Mace” Winters, with his acclaimed reputation as one of the best big game hunters in Colorado, lives for the thrill of the hunt. His lucrative career guiding the wealthy on intense hunts through the Colorado mountains is suddenly brought to a stop when an accident hangs an involuntary manslaughter conviction around his neck. Now he’s relegated to a life of trash pickup in the very wilderness where his prowess as a tracker and killer was the stuff of legends.
At rock bottom, Mace descends into a haze of Tito’s and sativa when two strangers seek him out. They wave enough cash under his nose to convince him to help them up into the mountains he knows so well on the opening day of Colorado’s rifle season. An innocent enough request, and the perfect cover for the trip’s true purpose: to assassinate an infamous warlord. All at once, Mace goes from unwitting to unwilling accomplice and it will take all his now dusty skills to outfox his patrons in their deadly game.
More details
Series
Language
English
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 160 mm
Thickness: 30 mm
Weight
431 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-6680-9820-2 (9781668098202)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
01/2026
Atria/Emily Bestler Books
€14.83
Available for download
Person
Pat Kelly, born in Galveston, Texas, and raised in Denver, attended CU Boulder. After working as a writer in New York City, he pursued screenwriting in Los Angeles, and his credits include A Perfect Murder and Don’t Say a Word. Rifle Season is his debut novel. He currently lives in San Miguel County, Colorado, and Malibu.