~Post by MysteryPeople Crime Fiction Coordinator Scott M.
The American West, as well as the western genre, has played a significant role in crime fiction. Dashiell Hammett’s first novel had his Continental Op cleaning up a mining town. James Crumley’s influential PIs put a lot of miles on their cars as they drove around the changing West of the nineteen seventies. Tony Hillerman truly put it on the map with his Navajo series, one of the first to use the genre to explore a culture. Western mysteries are now practically a sub genre with their own range and diversity. At the Texas Book Festival, I’ll be moderating a panel with three authors who are blazing new trails in this area.
Craig Johnson is a favorite of our customers. His Gary Cooperish Wyoming sheriff, Walt Longmire, embodies the traditional upstanding and incorruptible lawman, but he’s more flawed and funny. The series follows his relationship with his town and it’s colorful citizens. The quality and popularity of the books caught the attention of A&E, who will be premiering the series “Longmire” next year.
Craig discovered CM Wendelboe and brought him to the attention of his publishers. Death Along The Spirit Road introduces Manny Tanno, an FBI agent who has to return to his Lakota reservation to solve the murder of a developer. Wendelboe looks at the complicated politics on the reservation and avoids the stoic stereotype, showing the humor of his Lakota characters. Picture a slightly less politically correct Tony Hillerman.
Margaret Coel also uses a reservation, the Arapaho Wind River, as the setting for her series. She has two protagonists, Arapaho lawyer Vickey Holden and Father John O’Malley who runs a Jesuit mission on the reservation. Both try to protect a society that neither can fully belong to. The series is known for Coel’s strong plotting, realistic characters, looks at faith and at the Arapaho culture.
All three of authors are fantastic story tellers and I hope you get a chance to meet them at the panel or in the Penguin booth at the festival. Go west.
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