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.

Tularosa: A Novel

Literature & Fiction

McGarrity, Michael

United States

W.W.Norton&Company

Keven Kerney, the onetime Santa Fe chief of detectives and the hero of Tularosa, returns in a case of poachers, murder, militias, and family secrets in the picturesque wilderness of southwestern New Mexico. Tour.

Mexican Hat

W.W. Norton & Co., Inc.

"Michael McGarrity is the real deal." ―Boston Globe
With his dazzling debut, Tularosa, Michael McGarrity was hailed "a born storyteller" (Denver Post)―and introduced readers to a memorable new hero, ex-Santa Fe chief of detectives Kevin Kerney. Now, featuring his vivid feel for the southwest, McGarrity's second gripping novel hurls Kerney onto the toughest case of his life.
Taking a job as a seasonal forest ranger in New Mexico's Gila Wilderness, Kevin Kerney is looking forward to a quiet summer high in the mountains. But the murder of a Mexican tourist, and the discovery of a disoriented old man in the wild, thrust Kerney into an investigation that will carry him back in time to a sixty-year-old feud between two land-rich brothers, Edgar and Eugene Cox.
Enlisting young state game and fish officer Jim Stiles to help solve the crimes, Kerney slowly uncovers evidence connecting the ruthless Cox feud with another suspicious death―and the radical actions of New Mexico's present-day county militia. But new assistant district attorney Karen Cox―Edgar's alluring daughter―is torn between hiding her father's long-buried secret and helping Kerney find the truth. Now someone wants Kerney dead―and the deeper he investigates, the more he may be digging his own grave...

Mexican Hat: A Kevin Kerney Novel

"Mystery fans shouldn't miss Tularosa. Michael McGarrity's first entry in the field moves like lightning. An ex-cop, he knows what he's writing about―and how to write it." ―Tony Hillerman
It's been two years since an on-the-job shooting forced ex-Santa Fe chief of detectives Kevin Kerney to retire. He is drawn back into action when Terry Yazzi, his former partner and the man responsible for his wounds, pleads for Kerney's help. Yazzi's son, a soldier, has disappeared in the barren desert surrounding the White Sands Missile Range.
Kerney's investigation resurrects the long-forgotten thrill of the hunt―and other emotions surface after meeting the tough-but-beautiful Capt. Sara Brannon, the Army's investigating officer. Together, they uncover a crime far greater than an AWOL soldier: a conspiracy of death that snakes from the secretive world of military operations, to the cutthroat alleys of a Mexican border town, leading them to a final, shocking revelation that may cost them both their lives.
Tularosa is the first book in McGarrity's "Kevin Kerney" crime series.

Tularosa: A Kevin Kerney Novel

Review\n"Michael McGarrity does for New Mexico what James Lee Burke does for Louisiana. The land is in his blood. So is crime writing." 
― David Morrell\n"[McGarrity’s] portrait of [New Mexico] is a strong one, built on meticulously detailed intelligence gathered, sifted and analyzed for unspoken secrets and lies by the author’s own deeply cunning mind." 
― Marilyn Stasio, New York Times\n"With each succeeding mystery, McGarrity is ever more sure of his central character, Kerney. Richly textured in setting and character, this series gets better with each outing." 
― Dallas Times Herald\n"An ex-cop, McGarrity knows what he’s writing about―and how to write it." 
― Tony Hillerman\n“Complex, entirely original, and whip-smart.” ―John Lescroart 
A long-unsolved missing person’s case becomes a homicide investigation when the bones of the girlfriend of now retired Santa Fe Police Chief Kevin Kerney are unearthed forty-five years after her disappearance. And he is now the main suspect.

Residue: A Kevin Kerney Novel

Genre Fiction

The Long Ago: A Novel

Growing up in Montana, siblings Raymond and Barbara Lansdale held their chaotic world together through their shared childhood fantasy of The Long Ago: a distant place where happiness and tranquility reigned, far from the dysfunction at home. But imagination only goes so far. To escape his painful past, Ray joins the army and finds a career that gives him a sense of purpose and the promise of adventure. Recent news of his kid sister's disappearance brings Ray home on leave before beginning a stateside assignment almost certain to send him back into the jungles of Vietnam. Determined to find Barbara despite a police investigation that has led nowhere, Ray embarks on a relentless search that takes him from the majestic Montana ranchlands and glitter of Hollywood to the mean streets of L.A. and beyond. As time dwindles, he must confront his worst nightmare. What if Barbara's search for The Long Ago ended in a shallow, unmarked grave, not in the carefree life she'd once so longed for and imagined? A spin-off from McGarrity's nationally best-selling Kevin Kerney family saga, The Long Ago is a richly crafted and enthralling story of grit, determination, and the enduring, restorative strength of love.

Former police chief Kevin Kerney returns―this time as the prime suspect in a brutal cold-case murder investigation.
Against the backdrop of the harsh desert and high mountain country of southwestern New Mexico, a high-octane quest for the truth untangles a complex history of dark family secrets, cold-blooded murders, rogue cops, a devastating plane crash, and the possibility of one family’s reconciliation.
A long-unsolved missing person case becomes a homicide investigation when the bones of Kim Ward are unearthed in Las Cruces, New Mexico, forty-five years after her disappearance. Compelling forensic and anecdotal evidence quickly shifts suspicion to Ward’s old college boyfriend: former Santa Fe Police Chief Kevin Kerney.
With damning evidence against him compiled by his own son, New Mexico State Police Lieutenant Clayton Istee, Kerney is arrested. He has no alibi and not a single witness to speak for him. Under intense media scrutiny and 24/7 police surveillance, Kerney must rely solely on the help of his wife, Sara, and a renowned criminal defense lawyer to discover if there are any remaining clues that can exonerate him or lead to the killer.
As the trio begin to reconstruct the events leading to Ward’s murder, Istee reexamines his suspicions about Kerney’s guilt and decides to risk everything to help prove his father’s innocence. Working together to identify one person who can clear Kerney’s name and expose the killer, the four soon discover that Ward’s murder isn’t the only crime to be solved.

Head Wounds: A Kevin Kerney Novel

Review\n"McGarrity knows his territory, so his plots always feel regionally grounded, accounting for scenes like the Apache ceremony that guides the dead 'from the Shadow World of human beings to the Real World beyond, the Land of Ever Summer.' Sheer poetry." 
― Marilyn Stasio, New York Times Book Review\n"A shattering conclusion to a much-praised series. Starts with a shocker. Ends with a stunner. The strength of the characters matches the power of the action scenes." 
― David Morrell, New York Times best-selling author of First Blood\n"Michael McGarrity is a master, and his latest mind-blower does not disappoint. I always rush to his work, then wait anxiously for another." 
― Luis Alberto Urrea, author of The House of Broken Angels\n"Masterful. McGarrity hones a tale sharper than a villain’s scalping knife while bringing the Southwest setting to life with every stroke." 
― Dwight Holing, author of The Sorrow Hand\n"Superior prose, expert plotting, and believable characters make this a standout. Fans of gritty crime novels will be rewarded." 
― Publishers Weekly (starred review)\nClayton Istee, son of retired police chief Kevin Kerney, goes up against an elusive Mexican hitman in a mesmerizing story of murder, revenge, and redemption. 
Given a chance to salvage his law enforcement career, Dona Ana County Sheriff’s Detective Clayton Istee catches a bizarre late-night double homicide at a Las Cruces hotel. Both victims, a man and a woman, have been scalped with their throats cut. 
The murders show all the signs of a signature hit, but national and state crime databases reveal no similar profiles. Digging into the victims’ backgrounds, Clayton discovers that six months prior the couple had walked out of a nearby casino with $200,000 of a high-stakes gambler’s money. 
He also learns the crime had been hushed up by an undercover federal DEA agent, who resurfaces and recruits Clayton for a dangerous mission to seize the Mexican drug lord responsible for the killings. 
Thrust into the nightmare world of borderland drug wars and corrupt cops, Clayton duels with a cunning assassin poised to kill him and his family in a ferocious climax to the Kevin Kerney series that is sure to stun.

In a remote New Mexico campground, six people are killed in an apparently senseless murder spree. Deputy State Police Chief Kevin Kerney suspects the slaying wasn’t random at all—but rather a calculated plot to eliminate one high-profile victim, retired judge, Vernon Langsford. In piecing together the judge’s shocking past, Kerney discovers the victim’s predilection for sexual indiscretions, a history of family betrayal and greed, and a dark marriage that ended mysteriously and violently. But as Kerney gets closer to the heart of a terrible crime, it’s a woman from his own past who emerges with a stunning secret of her own.

The Judas Judge (Kevin Kerney)

Dutton

Santa Fe police chief Kevin Kerney is on the hunt for a deranged killer in this “taut and tidy thriller”(San Diego Union-Tribune) from the New York Times bestselling author of Residue. Living in London while his wife serves as a military attaché 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.

Dead or Alive: A Kevin Kerney Novel

Penguin Publishing Group

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by McGarrity, Michael. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by McGarrity, Michael

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by McGarrity, Michael. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Tularosa: A Novel

Mexican Hat

Mexican Hat: A Kevin Kerney Novel

Tularosa: A Kevin Kerney Novel

Residue: A Kevin Kerney Novel

The Long Ago: A Novel

Residue: A Kevin Kerney Novel

Head Wounds: A Kevin Kerney Novel

The Judas Judge (Kevin Kerney)

Dead or Alive: A Kevin Kerney Novel