Native American spirituality has fascinated me all my life. Watching the sweat lodge, hearing the drums and singing, smelling the wood smoke, burning sage, sweetgrass, and pine tar, I had to know more. I had to participate. When I was invited, I jumped at the chance. I've never had a “religious experience” in the church. The first time that flap shut on the lodge, and I found myself in the pitch dark, the water being poured and instantly vaporized into scalding steam, my skin on fire…that was a religious thing to be sure. When I began reading fictional murder/tribal mysteries, I knew what I wanted to write about. I let the sound of the drum guide me.
As a young police officer, I was looking for a book that incorporated things I loved: being a cop, Westerns, cowboys & Indians, and general dude stuff.
My dad recommended The Blessing Way, and I couldn’t put it down. Modern-day Native American Tribal Police investigating murders, I read them all!
I’ve been a fan of murder mysteries since I first read Edgar Allen Poe’s Murder at the Rue Morgue. Don’t get me started on Agatha Christie! Tony Hillerman was a true master of modern murder mysteries, creating memorable characters and plots.
Don’t miss the TV series, Dark Winds, based on the Leaphorn, Chee, & Manuelito novels, now on AMC and AMC+!
“Brilliant…as fascinating as it is original.”—St. Louis Post-Dispatch
From New York Times bestselling author Tony Hillerman, the first novel in his series featuring Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn & Officer Jim Chee who encounter a bizarre case that borders between the supernatural and murder
Homicide is always an abomination, but there is something exceptionally disturbing about the victim discovered in a high, lonely place—a corpse with a mouth full of sand—abandoned at a crime scene seemingly devoid of tracks or useful clues.…
I waited years for new tribal mysteries by him, and then he was gone. I searched and searched, and then Craig Johnson came out with his Longmire books (which he is still writing!), and I couldn’t be happier! More tribal murder mysteries, only this time, the main character is a white County Sheriff who has a Native American best friend.
This first book hooked me in a new way, from a different perspective. I read them all and watched the TV series as well. I think it was Hillerman and Johnson that were the catalyst for my own tribal murder mystery books….
Introducing Wyoming's Sheriff Walt Longmire in this riveting novel from the New York Times bestselling author, the first in the Longmire mystery series
Craig Johnson's new novel, LAND OF WOLVES, is forthcoming from Viking
Fans of Ace Atkins, Nevada Barr and Robert B. Parker will love this outstanding first novel, in which New York Times bestselling author Craig Johnson introduces Sheriff Walt Longmire of Wyoming's Absaroka County. Johnson draws on his deep attachment to the American West to produce a literary mystery of stunning authenticity, and full of memorable characters. After twenty-five years as sheriff of Absaroka County, Walt Longmire's…
Guns, Furs, and Gold offers a riveting narrative of the American West by exploring the interactions of the Arikaras, Crows, Cheyennes, and Arapahos with each other and with Euro-American traders, explorers, and settlers from 1804, when Meriwether Lewis and William Clark embarked on their voyage of discovery, to 1864, when…
Another strong series is the Joe Pickett books by C.J. Box.
I think you can tell I like to read in series and by author. There are 26 books in this series! I hope to write as many… This is mystery and murder at times, and although not in, on, or around American Indian lands, these books have almost the same feel, starting with this one.
Rather than a cop, he’s a game warden. Almost the same thing, but dealing with laws around fish & game. Now, Joe has some issues that I liked. Not his emotional drama, but the showing of them. It made him more human. Who doesn’t have issues? I know I do.
Winner of 2009's highly coveted Edgar Award for Best Novel Winner of the Anthony Award for Best First Novel Winner of the Gumshoe Award for Best First Novel Winner of the Barry Award for Best First Novel Winner of the Macavity Award for Best First Novel
There's nothing unusual about the sound of a gunshot in Twelve Sleep. Here in remotest Wyoming, where elk roam the pine forests and cougars prowl the mountains, everyone owns a gun. But when Joe Pickett hears two sharp cracks ring out months before hunting season, it's his job to investigate.
Carol Potenza and I actually went to high school together, though we didn’t know each other back then.
When I saw that a classmate was also writing a tribal murder mystery, I had to read it. Wow, it was dark too! I totally got into the main character: this time, a female Tribal Police Officer. It was a nice change.
I also liked this tribe. I grew up with the Lakota peoples, so reading other tribal books with Navajo, Cheyenne, and this book involving the Pueblo gave me a good education on the differences between tribes and regions.
When a young woman linked to a list of missing Fire-Sky tribal members commits suicide, Pueblo Police Sergeant Nicky Matthews is assigned to the case. As the investigation unfolds, she uncovers a threat that strikes at the very heart of what it means to be a Fire-Sky Native: victims chosen and murdered because of their genetic makeup. But these deaths are not just about a life taken. In a vengeful twist, the killer ensures the spirits of those targeted will wander forever, lost to their family, their People, and their ancestors. When those closest to Nicky are put in jeopardy,…
Detective Kate Bowen is out of time—and out of options.
A surveillance operation on the Irish border goes cock-eyed. Detective Kate Bowen is left red-faced when her target vanishes into the mists of the Irish Sea. She must work smart to figure out where he’s headed and what he’s plotting.…
I was ashamed to be a white man after reading this account of Native American thoughts and feelings on watching their land, their way of life, slip away.
Just the account of what happened at Wounded Knee, where unarmed Native American men, women, and children were gunned down in the snow, left me sick to my stomach.
This is a non-fiction book that I read on my spiritual journey. I researched several of the accounts in this book because I couldn’t believe they were true. They were.
The American West, 1860-1890: years of broken promises, disillusionment, war and massacre.
Beginning with the Long Walk of the Navajos and ending with the massacre of Sioux at Wounded Knee, this extraordinary book tells how the American Indians lost their land, lives and liberty to white settlers pushing westward. Woven into a an engrossing saga of cruelty, treachery and violence are the fascinating stories of such legendary figures as Sitting Bull, Cochise, Crazy Horse and Geronimo.
First published in 1970, Dee Brown's brutal and compelling narrative changed the way people thought about the original inhabitants of America, and focused attention…
Tired of life as a police officer in Southern California, Mike Taylor moves to rural South Dakota to become a County Sheriff’s Deputy. A white man who has practiced Native American spirituality since childhood, Mike quickly discovers that a new location doesn’t erase old prejudices.
When a murder rocks the community, Mike is drawn into tensions that have simmered for generations. As unlikely friendships form and loyalties are tested, a second murder deepens the mystery. Meanwhile, a mysterious spiritual leader invites Mike to build a lodge, forcing him to confront his own path. Can Mike and his new allies solve the murders before more lives are lost? And, of course, there’s a girl.
Nate Champion might be the most heroic figure of America’s Old West ... and yet one of popular history’s best-kept secrets. Now he finally gets his due in this historical novel duology. His humble beginnings in Texas prepare him for a life with horses and cattle. Though a well-known horse…
It’s 1929 and 25-year-old librarian Prudence Bates is bored with her conventional life. She escapes by heading west to qualify as a Courier for the Southwestern Indian Detours. On the train, she meets Navajo teacher Jerry Begay, headed for Gallup. In Las Vegas, she befriends Harvey Girls Martha and Anne…
