"Michael McGarrity's early Kevin Kerney novels combined razor-sharp procedural detail with a gripping noirish edge," raves "Booklist. "Available for the first time in years is "Hermit's Peak, "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.
While visiting 6,400 acres of high-country land he unexpectedly inherited, Kevin Kerney finds the bones of a murder victim near rugged Hermit's Peak. Then a second body turns up--and following a twisting trail of blood to unearth the shattering truth may come at a price higher than the deputy chief ever imagined.

In this gripping story, the broken lives of siblings Raymond and Barbara Lansdale are tenuously held together by their childhood fantasy of The Long Ago: a distant place where happiness and tranquility reign, far removed from the fears and fights at home. To escape his painful memories, Raymond joined the army and found a career that gave him purpose and a sense of adventure. But news of his kid sister Barbara's sudden disappearance brings him back during a short leave before returning to active duty and another deployment to Vietnam. Embarking on a search that takes him from majestic Montana ranchlands and glittering Hollywood to the mean streets of LA, Ray is forced to confront his worst nightmare. What if Barbara's search for The Long Ago ended in a shallow, unmarked grave, not the carefree life she'd once imagined? Richly crafted, The Long Ago is a spin-off from McGarrity's Kevin Kerney family saga.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Seasoned on every page by his real-life experience as a Sante Fe deputy sheriff, Michael McGarrity's early Kevin Kerney novels shimmer with "precise realism" ("Booklist "), as they immerse readers in the "excitement, color, and character" ("The Denver Post ") of life on the job for one of crime fiction's most unforgettable Southwestern lawmen.
A small-town cop killing remains unsolved, and Kevin Kerney pursues the case's only lead: a homeless man's ramblings about an uncharted place called Serpent Gate. Then an art theft at the governor's offices and the murder of a sexy young blonde lure him back to Sante Fe, then to Mexico, where a face off with an old nemesis awaits--and where Kerney must choose between vengeance, loyalty, and justice.

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.

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.