Michael McGarrity – författare

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.

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.

Given a chance to salvage his law enforcement career, Doña 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.

An expansive, epic tale like Philipp Meyer’s The Son, and in the wonderful storyteller vein of Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove, McGarrity’s Backlands showcases his keen eye for historical detail, awe-inspiring scenery, and the bitter harshness of life on the last vestiges of the twentieth-century frontier West. Michael McGarrity returns with the second installment of his sweeping, richly authentic New York Times bestselling American West trilogy set in the raw, untrammeled New Mexico backlands during the Roaring Twenties, the Great Depression, and World War II.Hard Country, the first novel in the Kerney family trilogy and the debut prequel to his national bestselling Kevin Kerney crime novels, was critically acclaimed for its authentic, gritty realism; its sprawling, engrossing story; and its compelling, engaging characters. An instant hit on several national bestseller lists, Hard Country continues to attract an overwhelmingly positive response from critics, booksellers, and readers.Backlands continues the story of Patrick Kerney; his ex-wife, Emma; and their young son, Matthew, shortly after the tragic battlefield death of their eldest son, CJ, at the end of World War I. Scarred by the loss of an older brother he idolized, estranged from a father he barely knows, and deeply troubled by the failing health of a mother he adores, eight-year-old Matthew is suddenly and irrevocably forced to set aside his childhood and take on responsibilities far beyond his years. When the world spirals into the Great Depression and drought settles like a plague over the nation, Matt must abandon his own dreams to salvage the Kerney ranch. Plunged into a deep trough of dark family secrets, hidden crimes, broken promises, and lies, Matt must struggle to survive on the unforgiving, sun-blasted Tularosa Basin.

The grand saga of an American ranching family continues in The Last Ranch, the final, mesmerizing book of New York Times bestseller Michael McGarrity’s gripping and richly authentic American West trilogy.When Matthew Kerney returns to his ranch in the beautiful San Andres Mountains after serving in Sicily during World War II, he must not only fight to recover physically and emotionally from a devastating war injury, but he must also battle attempts by the U.S. Army to seize control of his land for expanded weapons testing.   Forced off public grazing lands, banned from gathering his cattle on high mountain pastures, and confronted by military police guarding a high security army post on the northern reaches of the range, Matt finds himself at the center of a heavy-handed government land-grab. The reasons behind this surge of secrecy and control become clear when Matt witnesses the boiling, blinding explosion of the first atom bomb at Trinity Site.   As he struggles with an aging, stove-up father no longer able to carry a heavy load at the ranch, an ex-convict intent on killing him, and a failing relationship with a woman he dearly loves, Matt must draw upon all his mental and physical resources to keep his world—and the people in it—from collapsing.   Following the New York Times bestselling Hard Country and its sequel Backlands, The Last Ranch enthralls with the deeply rich, sometimes heartbreaking Kerney family saga as it steps brilliantly into the mid-twentieth-century world of the new American West.From the Hardcover edition.

Deputy State Police Chief Kevin Kerney is weeks away from trading in his badge for a rancher''s hat, when six murders are committed at a remote campground in 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, Vernon Langsford, a retired judge and wealthy businessman.Ruling out neither scenario, Kerney mounts a high-profile search for the possible spree killer and conducts a deep probe into the life of Vernon Langsford -- which quickly reveals a number of motives for Langsford''s murder. But Kerney has no clear suspect, nor does he know why Langsford''s son scornfully refers to his murdered father as "the Judas Judge."As Kerney pieces together a shocking history of family betrayal, he is harassed by a stalker, forced into a gunfight with a c rooked cop, and is shaken by new doubts about his plan to give up police work. 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.

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 the ranch owner, 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 tries to extricate himself from a situation that could ruin his career by finding the answers to a thirty-year-old mystery.

With "a cunning mind for crime fiction" (New York Times Book Review), Anthony Award-nominated Michael McGarrity ratchets up the stakes in his novel of a vengeful killer with an unspeakable agenda: offing people with ties to the criminal justice system. Next on the list: Santa Fe Police Chief Kevin Kerney, his wife, Lieutenant Colonel Sara Brannon, and their unborn son.

Santa Fe Police Chief Kevin Kerney is back in the tenth and most entertaining novel in Michael McGarrity''s acclaimed mystery series. 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 the 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 all ensure that nothing goes as planned. As separate investigations embroil them in circumstances that will forever change 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, to the most secret levels of the Pentagon, to 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.

Michael McGarrity''s acclaimed Santa Fe police chief, Kevin Kerney is back-with his estranged son. Two bodies have been found in a burned building. One is a missing person from Kerney''s cold case files. The other is a more recent homicide. Both will lead father and son into a vast network of crime...and the darkest places of the soul.

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.

Newly-installed Santa Fe police chief Kevin Kerney receives a deadly welcome when a U.S. ambassador''s ex-wife is brutally stabbed to death in her home. But before Kerney can begin to investigate, the FBI closes the case with trumped-up evidence. And the harder Kerney hunts for the truth, the more he knows that he may not survive the chase.

The bushwhack killing of a deputy sheriff in Lincoln County and the brutal murder of the deputy?s wife in Santa Fe County bring Police Chief Kevin Kerney and his Mescalero Apache son, Sergeant Clayton Istee, back together. The double homicide investigation is soon linked to a major drug trafficking scheme and the cold-blooded slaughter of two women in Albuquerque. Due to retire at the end of the month, Kerney calls upon Clayton to find the slain officer?s son, discover what triggered the killings, and give him the ammunition he needs to bring a murderer to justice.

A richly authentic epic adventure of rough-hewn men and courageous women, set in the hard country of the American Southwest frontier. Hard Country is a rare and extraordinary story of one family’s struggle to settle and endure in the vast, untamed territory of New Mexico.In the wake of the death of his wife as she gives birth to his son, and the killing of his brother on the West Texas plains, John Kerney is forced to give up his ranch, leave his son behind, and strike out in search of the murderous outlaws and a place where he can start over. He drifts south until he meets a man who offers him work trailing cattle to the New Mexico Territory and forever changes his life.Spanning the years of 1875 to 1918, Hard Country is the Western reinvented and enlarged into a saga that above all celebrates the people and the land of the great Southwest.

Sam Monroe thought his steamy love affair with Manhattan socialite Laura Nielson was dead and buried, but when she didn’t show up after unexpectedly calling him late at night and asking to meet, he decides to investigate. He finds her naked on her penthouse balcony, strangled, his dog tags wrapped around her neck. With a bull’s-eye on his back as the prime suspect, Sam begins a search for the killer that reveals Laura’s involvement with several men, some with ties to a well-known crime family.As circumstantial evidence mounts against him, the cops close in, especially a heavy-handed rogue patrolman carrying a grudge against Sam and looking for serious payback. Forced to operate in the shadows, he relies on the unofficial help of several coworkers in the DA’s office and Debora Jean Ryan, a private investigator who offers to assist but has an agenda that she refuses to disclose. As they probe Laura’s past looking for clues, they must also figure out Laura’s mysterious trip out west, the death of a young man in New Jersey during her childhood, and who is making attempts on his life.From the crime-ridden precincts of Lower Manhattan, the mean streets of Spanish Harlem, and the lofty mansions along Millionaires’ Row, Night in the City is classic crime noir fiction at its best that wonderfully evokes the vibrant world of 1950s New York. Michael McGarrity again proves himself to be one of the most accomplished writers of mysteries working today.

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.

Sam Monroe thought his steamy love affair with Manhattan socialite Laura Nielson was dead and buried, but when she didn’t show up after unexpectedly calling him late at night and asking to meet, he decides to investigate. He finds her naked on her penthouse balcony, strangled, his dog tags wrapped around her neck. With a bull’s-eye on his back as the prime suspect, Sam begins a search for the killer that reveals Laura’s involvement with several men, some with ties to a well-known crime family.As circumstantial evidence mounts against him, the cops close in, especially a heavy-handed rogue patrolman carrying a grudge against Sam and looking for serious payback. Forced to operate in the shadows, he relies on the unofficial help of several coworkers in the DA’s office and Debora Jean Ryan, a private investigator who offers to assist but has an agenda that she refuses to disclose. As they probe Laura’s past looking for clues, they must also figure out Laura’s mysterious trip out west, the death of a young man in New Jersey during her childhood, and who is making attempts on his life.From the crime-ridden precincts of Lower Manhattan, the mean streets of Spanish Harlem, and the lofty mansions along Millionaires’ Row, Night in the City is classic crime noir fiction at its best that wonderfully evokes the vibrant world of 1950s New York. Michael McGarrity again proves himself to be one of the most accomplished writers of mysteries working today.

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 is a seminal novel in the crime fiction series that places New Mexico lawman Kevin Kerney in the pantheon with Tony Hillerman’s heroes—while carving out territory that is distinctly his own across the American Southwest.When Kevin Kerney, deputy chief of the New Mexico State Police, inherits an unexpected windfall of 6,400 acres of high-county land, the last thing he wants to think about is work. But while visiting his new property, he comes across an ailing stray dog that leads him to the butchered bones of a murder victim near the rugged mountain of Hermit''s Peak. After assigning the case to his subordinates, Kerney returns to Santa Fe to spend time with a woman he cares about, Sara Brannon, a career army officer who is visiting him on holiday. But his time with Sara must wait, as he is called back to Hermit''s Peak when another body is found at a remote cabin. Now, Kerney must unearth the shattering truth about his new land and follow a twisting trail of blood through the majestic landscape of the American Southwest.