Murder in Montana: 18 books of crime fiction
Dive into 18 gripping crime fiction books set in Montana, where murder and mystery unfold. Explore thrilling tales of suspense, detectives, and dark secrets in Big Sky Country.
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Bitterroot
by James Lee Burke
Following his acclaimed bestseller Purple Cane Road, James Lee Burke returns with a triumphant tour de force. Set in the Bitterroot Valley of Montana, home to celebrities seeking to escape the pressures of public life, as well as to xenophobes dedicated to establishing a bulkhead of patriotic paranoia, Burke's novel features Billy Bob Holland, former Texas Ranger and now a Texas-based lawyer, who has come to Big Sky Country for some fishing and ends up helping out an old friend in trouble. And big trouble it is, not just for his friend but for Billy Bob himself -- in the form of Wyatt Dixon, a recent prison parolee sworn to kill Billy Bob as revenge for both his imprisonment and his sister's death, both of which he blames on the former Texas lawman. As the mysteries multiply and the body count mounts, the reader is drawn deeper into the tortured mind of Billy Bob Holland, a complex hero tormented by the mistakes of his past and driven to make things -- all things -- right. But beneath the guise of justice for the weak and downtrodden lies a tendency for violence that at times becomes more terrifying than the danger he is trying to eradicate. As USA Today noted in discussing the parallels between Billy Bob Holland and Burke's other popular series hero, David Robicheaux, "Robicheaux and Holland are two of a kind, white-hat heroes whose essential goodness doesn't keep them from fighting back. The two series describe different landscapes, but one theme remains constant: the inner conflict when upright men are provoked into violence in defense of hearth, home, women, and children. There are plenty of parallels. Billy Bob is an ex-Texas Ranger; Dave is an ex-New Orleans cop. Dave battles alcoholism and the ghosts of Vietnam; Billy Bob actually sees ghosts, including the Ranger he accidentally gunned down....But most of all, both protagonists hold a vision of a pure and simple life." In Bitterroot, with its rugged and vivid setting, its intricate plot, and a set of remarkable, unforgettable characters, and crafted with the lyrical prose and the elegiac tone that have inspired many critics to compare him to William Faulkner, James Lee Burke has written a thriller destined to surpass the success of his previous novels.
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In the Moon of Red Ponies
by James Lee Burke
Billy Bob discovers that jail cells have revolving doors and that the government he had sworn to serve may have become his enemy.
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Coyote Wind and Specimen Song
by Peter Bowen
Featuring Montanan cattle-brand inspector and occasional sleuth Gabriel Du Pré, Peter Bowen's spare and lyrical mysteries have always received the critics' highest praise. Now, the first two mysteries in the series, Coyote Wind and Specimen Song, are brought together in one volume.
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Badlands
by Peter Bowen
From the critically acclaimed author of "Ash Child" comes the tenth installment in the popular series A Montana Mystery Featuring Gabriel Du Pr.
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The Edge Of The Crazies
by Jamie Harrison
Perched at the foot of Montana's Crazy Mountains, Blue Deer is a small town boasting an uneasy mix of longtime residents and hotshots from both coasts looking to possess their own piece of the Big Sky. Local sheriff Jules Clement manages the town's tensions fairly well...until someone blasts a hole in screenwriter George Blackwater's office window--and in George himself. As more of the town's prominent citizens start turning up dead, the pressure on Jules keeps rising. It starts to look like this rookie sheriff may not survive the next election...if he lives to see it.
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Going Local
by Jamie Harrison
Sheriff Jules Clement must catch the killer of a lawyer and his lover when the rodeo comes to Blue Deer, Montana.
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DreadfulWater Shows Up
by Hartley GoodWeather
Ex-California cop Thumps DreadfulWater, makes his living as a fine-arts photographer in a western town struggling for economic independence, but when a dead body turns up, Thumps can't help getting involved, especially when the prime suspect is the son of Thumps's onetime lover.
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The Wrong Case
by James Crumley
An extraordinary detective story from one of the great American crime fiction authors. Milo once had a thriving divorce-case business in the small town of in the Pacific Northwest, but because of liberal new divorce laws he has taken to drinking and staring out the window. He's up to his third drink of the morning when an attractive young woman walks into his office and asks him to find her brother. He takes on what seems a routine missing-person case in hopes of getting to know her better, but finds himself involved in what is most definitely the wrong case. Everyone is a victim, one way or another, of a crime that took place long before the novel begins.
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Iced
by Jenny Siler
From the author of the "New York Times" Notable Book "Easy Money" comes a riveting suspense novel about a headstrong repo woman in Montana. Only one year out of prison, romantically involved, and working the first legitimate job she's had, Meg finds herself implicated in a dangerous web of infidelity, greed, and murder.
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Deadman
by Jon A. Jackson
Deadman is another virtuoso performance from a master crime novelist. This time, Mulheisen is headed out of town, hot on the trail of Helen Sedlacek, who skipped out with a truckload of stolen cash after chopping down mob boss Carmine Busoni with a double-barreled twelve-gauge shotgun. A man fitting the description of Joe Service -- Helen's amour and Mulheisen's nemesis -- has turned up in a Butte hospital in a coma, having been shot in the face at close range. Mario Soper, a Mafia assassin with a contract on Joe, has turned up dead in a Montana irrigation ditch. But where is Helen -- and the money? Who killed Mario -- and who shot Joe? Deadman is a gritty, pulse-pounding wild-goose chase that confirms once again Jackson's place at the top tier of American mystery writers.
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Red Harvest
by Dashiell Hammett
From one of the great pioneers of detective stories, a classic novel reissued with a new introduction by S.A. Cosby The steadfast and sturdy Continental Op has been summoned to the town of Personville—known as Poisonville—a dusty mining community splintered by competing factions of gangsters and petty criminals. The Op has been hired by Donald Willsson, publisher of the local newspaper, who gave little indication about the reason for the visit. No sooner does the Op arrive, than the body count begins to climb . . . starting with his client. With this last honest citizen of Poisonville murdered, the Op decides to stay on and force a reckoning—even if that means taking on an entire town. Red Harvest is more than a superb crime novel: it is a classic exploration of corruption and violence in the American grain.
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Blood Lure
by Nevada Barr
In this mystery in Nevada Barr’s New York Times bestselling series, District Park Ranger Anna Pigeon is betrayed by nature itself, as a most unnatural evil stalks its prey in the pristine West… Straddling the border between Montana and Canada lies the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park—Anna’s home away from home when she is sent on a cross-training assignment to study grizzly bears. Along with bear researcher Joan Rand and a volatile, unpredictable teenage boy, Anna hikes the back country, seeking signs of bear. But the tables are turned on their second night out, when one of the beasts comes looking for them. Daybreak finds the boy missing, a camper mutilated, and Anna caught in a grip of fear, painfully aware that her lifelong bond with nature has inexplicably snapped...
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The Nature of Midnight
by Robert Rice
While investigating the murder of a postal worker and a customer, U.S. Postal Inspectors Gillian Loomis and Max Dombrowski discover a link between the contemporary deaths and the sinking of the Lusitania in 1915.
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Elemental Threat
by Richard Henry Opper
Robert Botkin pursues the people and motives behind a massive explosion on a Montana Indian Reservation.
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When Wallflowers Die
by Sandra West Prowell
Investigating the twenty-five-year-old murder of the wife of a gubernatorial candidate, Montana detective Phoebe Siegel finds her life threatened by what she learns and confronts dramatic changes in her personal life.
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Lone Creek
by Neil McMahon
In this edgy thriller set on his home turf of Montana, McMahon interweaves the story of family dynasties and an unsolved mystery, all against the backdrop of the beautiful, hard Western landscape.
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The Murdock's Law
by Loren D. Estleman
Special U.S. Deputy Page Murdock rides into Breen, Montana, on the trail of a menacing and elusive outlaw. But before he can scout the saloons for his man, he is made town marshal in a territory heating up for the ugliest range war this side of hell. The big ranchers want a gunslinger marshal, and the small ranchers have their own hired gun. But the badge on Murdock's chest means law, and he'll enforce it the best way he knows...with a gun.
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Once Late with a .38
by Peter Brandvold
Sheriff Ben Stillman has enough of a hard time keeping the peace in the town of Clantick without having to worry about the likes of Matt Parrish.