Michael McGarrity Books In Order

Kevin Kerney Books In Publication Order

  1. Tularosa (1996)
  2. Mexican Hat (1997)
  3. Serpent Gate (1998)
  4. Hermit’s Peak (1999)
  5. The Judas Judge (2000)
  6. Under the Color of Law (2001)
  7. The Big Gamble (2002)
  8. Everyone Dies (2003)
  9. Slow Kill (2004)
  10. Nothing But Trouble (2005)
  11. Death Song (2007)
  12. Dead or Alive (2008)
  13. Residue (2018)
  14. Head Wounds (2020)

American West Trilogy Books In Publication Order

  1. Hard Country (2012)
  2. Backlands (2014)
  3. The Last Ranch (2016)

Kevin Kerney Book Covers

American West Trilogy Book Covers

Michael McGarrity Books Overview

Tularosa

A novel whose nonstop plot, compelling characters, and vivid evocation of the Southwest will set readers’ pulses racing and launch a mainstream Western writer for the ’90s and beyond. Tularosa ‘the place of reddish willows’ in Spanish holds the key to Kevin Kerney’s past and his future. Ex chief of detectives in the Santa Fe Police Department, shoved into early retirement by a shot up leg, Kerney is fresher in body and mind than he realizes when Navajo Indian Terry Yazzi, his ex partner and the man responsible for his injuries, asks him to locate his son, reported AWOL from the high security White Sands Missile Range in southern New Mexico. To find Sammy Yazzi, Kerney must track clues that lead deep into the histories of the region Native American, Hispanic, and Anglo and, compellingly, into his own family’s ranching past. And he must deal with the complicated feelings triggered by the officer in charge of the army’s own investigation, Captain Sara Brannon, a fiery young officer as formidable as she is attractive. As Sammy’s trail spirals into a web of murder, treason, and the smuggling of priceless artifacts, Kerney and Brannon travel an accelerating arc across the New Mexico scene from the boutique ridden plaza of Santa Fe, through the sharp edged beauty of the high desert, to bordertown gambling dens to a final confrontation in which, both wounded and at risk, they must fight for their lives and for each other against opponents who hold all the cards. Tularosa begins a series featuring Kevin Kerney. In each book Kerney investigates a mystery in today’s New Mexico with roots in the rich history of this fascinating region.

Mexican Hat

Kevin Kerney, ex Santa Fe chief of detectives and ex rancher is working as a seasonal forest ranger in the Gila Wilderness and banking his pay toward the down payment on a small ranch. Despite the county militia’s planting pipe bombs on hiking trails, Kerney looks forward to a quiet summer in the high mountains. But the poaching of wildlife, the murder of a Mexican tourist, and the discovery of a disoriented old man in the wilderness thrust Kerney into an investigation that accelerates dangerously to a heart stopping final confrontation. Frustrated by the ineptness of the local sheriff and bureaucratic roadblocks within the Forest Service, Kerney teams up with Jim Stiles, a young, energetic state game and fish officer. Together Kerney and Stiles begin an investigation that takes them back in time to a sixty year old feud between two land rich brothers, Edgar and Eugene Cox, and its possible connection with the death of an Hispanic rancher, and into the present day intrigue of the paramilitary militia movement sweeping the country. The investigation leads Kerney to question the motives of new assistant district attorney Karen Cox, Edgar’s daughter, who may be more interested in shielding her father than in solving the crimes. As the pieces of the puzzle begin to fall into place, someone keeps trying to kill Kerney. And soon Karen must choose between protecting her father’s long buried secret or joining Kerney in a battle for their lives and the truth.

Serpent Gate

After receiving a call from the newly appointed chief of the New Mexico State Police, ex Santa Fe chief of detectives Kevin Kerney is thrown into an investigation of a small town cop killing no one has been able to solve. His only lead: a homeless schizophrenic’s ramblings about rape and an uncharted place called Serpent Gate. Meanwhile, back in Santa Fe, priceless art is stolen from the governor’s offices and a beautiful young blonde is murdered in a millionaire’s mansion. Kerney follows a trail of clues to Mexico, where he faces off against an old nemesis with powerful government connections. Unwilling to back down, Kerney must use all of his tenacity, raw courage, and knowledge of the criminal mind in a bloody showdown that may cost him his life.

Hermit’s Peak

The riveting new Kevin Kerney novel from the bestselling author of Serpent Gate When an old family friend unexpectedly leaves Kevin Kerney 6400 acres of high country land outside Las Vegas, New Mexico, the thing Kerney wants to think about is police work. Taking a rare weekend off from his job as deputy chief of the New Mexico State Police, Kerney sets out to explore the land, a rugged mesa in the shadow of Hermit’s Peak. Before Kerney can get very far, he comes upon an ailing stray dog with a woman’s running shoe in its mouth. The dog leads him to the butchered bones of a murder victim, and Kerney finds he’s inherited a homicide along with a ranch. Determined not to see his weekend ruined, Kerney turns the investigation over to the state police district office and continues his survey of his windfall inheritance, only to find that timber thieves have clear cut a great swath of woodland in a remote canyon. Unsure of whether he can pay the inheritance taxes, hold on to the land, and realize his dream to ranch again, Kerney returns to Santa Fe. There, he finds that Sara Brannon a woman he cares deeply about has arrived to visit him. As Kerney and Sara begin trying to sort out a relationship that means more to both of them than either is willing to admit, Kerney is called back to Hermit’s Peak. Another murder victim has been found at a remote cabin next to Kerney’s property, and he is soon engaged in a race against time to solve two murders and avert another. Filled with breakneck action and authentic detail, Hermit’s Peak is Michael McGarrity’s most involving novel yet.

The Judas Judge

Deputy state police chief Kevin Kerney is weeks away from trading in his badge for a rancher’s hat, when six murders are committed late one night at remote campgrounds in south central New Mexico. Most of the evidence points to the work of a spree killer, but peculiarities at one crime scene suggest another grisly possibility, that five random people have been shot to death to cover the premeditated murder of the sixth victim, Vernon Langsford, a retired judge and wealthy businessman. Ruling out neither scenario, Kerney uses all the available resources of the New Mexico State Police to mount a high profile search for the possible spree killer and conduct a deep probe into the life of Vernon Langsford. Under pressure to make an arrest, Kerney pieces together a shocking history of family betrayal, is harassed by a stalker with an unknown agenda, forced into a gunfight with a crooked cop that may taint his entire career, and shaken by new doubts about his plan to give up police work. Most troubling of all, he is reacquainted with a proud Apache woman from his past, who discloses a secret of her own which could easily disrupt his recent marriage to a wife he rarely sees, career army officer Sara Brannon. Challenged by the most sensational case of his career, Kerney must use all his skill to track down and bring to justice a brilliant and ruthless killer. ‘Michael McGarrity gets better and better. How good it is to follow a detective created by a man who has been there and done that.’ Tony Hillerman ‘Michael McGarrity does for New Mexico what James Lee Burke does for Louisiana. The land is in his blood. So is crime writing. He’s a natural born storyteller with a hard earned personal knowledge of how cops work.’ David Morrell, bestselling author of First Blood and Double Image

Under the Color of Law

He’s returned to Santa Fe, newly installed as police chief, when a U.S. ambassador’s estranged wife is found murdered in her multimillion dollar home. Before he can mount a proper investigation, an FBI anti terrorism team arrives, takes control of the inquiry, and forces Kerney to watch from the sidelines as the crime scene is sanitized, potential witnesses disappear, and the case is cleared with trumped up evidence. Warned off, put under surveillance, and threatened with reprisals under the rubric of national security, Kerney balks at accepting the whitewash and begins a soft probe that points to a covert intelligence cover up with tendrils stretching from every known government spy shop and running deep into the South American jungles. Convinced that unscrupulous government agents are acting outside the law, Kerney begins his own clandestine hunt for a hard target that will lead him to the truth about the Terrell homicide, knowing full well he might not survive the chase. Under the Color of Law delivers another one two, know out punch that firmly establishes Michael McGarrity’s place in contemporary investigative fiction.

The Big Gamble

When a fire in an abandoned fruit stand in rural Lincoln County reveals the murdered body of a woman gone missing from Santa Fe years ago, Police Chief Kevin Kerney finds himself cooperating with his estranged son, a man he hardly knows, Deputy Sheriff Clayton Istee. While Kerney digs into the woman’s past, hoping to find clues that will lead to a credible suspect, Clayton must unravel two more homicides that seem on the surface totally unrelated. As Kerney chases down clues that raise questions about the legitimacy of a highly regarded modeling and talent agency, Clayton works to discover the identity of a murder suspect alleged to have ties to prostitution and illegal gambling. Set against the backdrop of the high mountains of southern New Mexico, where gambling is big business and private sexual encounters for VIPs can discreetly be arranged, Kerney and Clayton must go up against rich and politically powerful opponents who are willing to protect their reputations at all costs. The Big Gamble is a multilayered, adrenaline pumped novel of crime and punishment set against the beauty and pristine majesty of one of our country’s most magnificent landscapes and a solid addition to a series that continues to gain legions of devoted readers. ‘McGarrity has a cunning mind for crime fiction.’ The New York Times Book Review

Everyone Dies

The Anthony Award nominated author with ‘a cunning mind for crime fiction’ The New York Times Book Review ratchets up the stakes in a novel of electrifying action and unstoppable suspense, where a vengeful killer with an unspeakable agenda won’t stop until…
Everyone Dies. Santa Fe Police Chief Kevin Kerney and his wife, Lieutenant Colonel Sara Brannon, are on leave and eagerly awaiting the birth of their son when a prominent gay attorney is gunned down outside his office by an unknown assailant. Called to the crime scene and faced with scanty evidence and no apparent motive, Kerney directs his chief of detectives to delve into the victim’s personal and professional life, a decision that ultimately leads to a SWAT team screw up and the death of two innocent people. But the killer has just begun. Kerney’s horse, a mustang he’d gentled and trained, is viciously and senselessly destroyed; a dead rat is left on his doorstep; and a second victim with ties to the criminal justice system is found in bed with her throat cut along with a warning: Everyone Dies. As a time of joy turns into a nightmare, Kerney and Sara search desperately for a seemingly unstoppable chameleonlike killer who promises to murder them and their unborn son.

Slow Kill

Santa Fe Police Chief Kevin Kerney travels to a California ranch looking to buy some prime quarter horse breeding stock. Instead, he finds himself the prime suspect in a possible homicide when a guest at the ranch, Clifford Spalding, is found dead. Confronted by a determined cop unwilling to let him off the hook, Kerney decides to conduct his own investigation. As he digs into the victim’s background, he learns that Spalding s ex wife refuses to believe that her son, a soldier killed in Vietnam some thirty years ago, is dead. Kerney digs deeper and soon finds himself sharing the woman s doubts: Did Spalding s current wife, a much younger woman, orchestrate his murder with the help of a lover? Did a California cop collude with Spalding to keep his ex wife from learning the truth about her son? Slow Kill races from West Coast to East Coast as Kerney attempts to find the answers to a thirty year old mystery and extricate himself from a situation that could ruin his career.

Nothing But Trouble

After years away on the pro rodeo circuit, Johnny Jordan struts into Santa Fe to ask his boyhood friend, Santa Fe Police Chief Kevin Kerney, to serve as a technical advisor on a contemporary Western movie to be filmed along the Mexican border. Kerney agrees and plans a working vacation on location in a remote area of the state known as the Bootheel with his wife, Lt. Colonel Sara Brannon, and their three year old son, Patrick. But a dead man on a road near an isolated border crossing, a federal undercover investigation into immigrant smuggling, the search for a fugitive from military justice hiding somewhere in Europe, and Johnny Jordan’s troublesome behavior ensure that nothing goes as planned.

As separate investigations embroil Kerney and Sara in circumstances that will forever changes their lives, Kerney must care for Patrick while Sara plays a dangerous game of Pentagon politics. Packed with family secrets, international intrigue, and memorable characters, this is McGarrity’s most ambitious and involving novel to date, traveling an accelerating arc from Santa Fe to the desert grasslands and mountains of the Bootheel, the most secret levels of the Pentagon, a resort town on the coast of Ireland, and back to an adrenaline charged climax on a desolate landing strip a few miles north of the Mexican border.

Death Song

Michael McGarrity’s eleventh novel in the acclaimed Kevin Kerney series achieves a new depth of masterful storytelling and a plot that will captivate readers. With McGarrity s rich, personal knowledge of police work displayed on every page, and his stunning visual sense of place in the vast New Mexico landscape, Death Song firmly proves that he deserves his place among the great mystery writers today.

The bushwhack killing of a deputy sheriff in Lincoln County and the brutal murder of the deputy s wife in Santa Fe bring Police Chief Kevin Kerney and his Mescalero Apache son, Sergeant Clayton Istee, back together in a double homicide investigation an investigation that is soon linked to a major drug trafficking scheme and the cold blooded slaughter of two women in Albuquerque. With few clues, no known motives, and no suspects, the investigation turns into a search for the son of the slain officer, eighteen year old Brian Riley, who left Santa Fe under suspicious circumstances before his father s death.

Due to retire at the end of the month, Kevin Kerney isn t about to let the murder of a police officer s wife go unsolved on his watch, especially since the dead woman was the sister of a dear friend; and crime scene facts strongly suggest that the killer may have also ambushed the deputy sheriff. Kerney assumes command of the combined investigation and calls upon Clayton to find Brian Riley, discover what triggered the murders, and give him the ammunition he needs to bring a multiple murderer to justice. Death Song is McGarrity in full stride and at his best.

Dead or Alive

‘A taut and tidy thriller’San Diego Union Tribune focusing on a manhunt for a deranged killer from the nationally bestselling author who ‘gets better and better.’Tony Hillerman

Living in London while his wife serves as a military attach at the American Embassy, recently retired Santa Fe police chief Kevin Kerney gets an early morning phone call that changes everything and sends him hurrying home to his New Mexico ranch. Riley Burke, his partner in a horse training enterprise, has been mowed down on Kerney’s doorstep by an escaped prisoner cutting a murderous swath through New Mexico.

As the killings mount, Kerney teams up with his half Apache son, Lieutenant Clayton Istee of the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Department, to hunt for a psychotic murderer with a growing appetite for blood who has no intention of being taken alive.

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