Lately I’ve been hooked on the CJ Box series set in Wyoming, which reads like a modern western. I’m up to the fourth book, trophy hunting, and I still enjoy not only the mystery as it unfolds, but also Box’s ability to describe the West as it really is with rapidly changing weather patterns, creeks, canyons, and animals. He does it through his main character, Joe Pickett, who is a ranger in a state with more antelope than people. Joe is a family man with children, something you don’t see very often in mystery novels. Some of the murders are shocking, but they remind us that man is also an animal. The series began in 2001 with open season.
Nevada Barr is another author that I consider a Western writer. The main character in it, Anna Pigeon, works as a kind of police officer for the National Park Service. She travels from park to park from the Guadalupe Mountains in Texas to Mesa Verde in Colorado and Glacier National Park in Montana. She includes other parks east of the Mississippi River and her latest book, Limit, actually takes place in the great city of New Orleans. She at most is a loner, she lost a husband at a young age and remarries later in the series. Her mysteries involve the landscapes of the parks, where she is assigned, and often give her insight into the world of the National Parks system. Her first book in the series is cat track published in 1993.
If you enjoy a more relaxed perspective on city life in the West, I highly recommend William Bernhardt with his legal thrillers set in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Bernhardt expresses his concern about the legal issues by introducing Ben Kincaid, a lost cause attorney. He seems like a bungler, but he overcomes many legal hurdles and wins his cases, which involve everything from capital punishment to hate crimes and from child abuse to environmental concerns. There are many books in the series, which he started in 1991 with primal justice.
Diane Mott Davidson places her amateur detective Goldy Schulz in a small mountain town near Denver, Colorado, beginning with serving no one (1990). Goldy is starting a new catering business after divorcing an abusive husband. She has a weird but charming son, eleven-year-old Arch, who often steals the show. She doesn’t hurt to investigate her who later marries the local sheriff. Although I’m not a huge fan of cozies, these are better than most and include the catering recipes. Time passes slowly in this series. Arch needs eight books to be four years old.
For those who like psychological mysteries, you might want to try Stephen White’s series set in Boulder, Colorado. Boulder is a college town near Denver, and White’s character, Alan Gregory, has a practice there. My husband likes this series (more than me), because Gregory is a fallible man, steadfast and loyal to those close to him. He is a soft hero who arrives at answers rather clumsily through his people skills and his training as a clinical psychologist. This series also starts in 1991 with privileged information.
There are numerous mystery series set in California, and JA Jance has two series set in Arizona, both of which ask for more information in future articles. But these five should keep you busy for a while.