Michael McGarrity has 16 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 6 narrators, with an average listener rating of 4.6★ across 12 ratings. The most-rated is Hard Country.
Hard Country
Summary
National best-selling author and New Mexico native Michael McGarrity takes listeners to the wild territory of the late 19th-century American Southwest for this epic tale. After the deaths of his wife and brother, John Kerney gives up his West Texas ranch and heads south in search of a new home. Soon Kerney is offered work trailing cattle to the New Mexico Territory - a job that will forever change his life.
©2012 Michael McGarrity (P)2012 Recorded Books, LLC
Mexican Hat
Summary
Critically acclaimed author Michael McGarrity’s powerful tale is packed with constant surprises and nonstop action. When retired Santa Fe detective Kevin Kerney discovers a mysterious body, his quiet summer in the Gila Wilderness is interrupted. Narrator George Guidall holds you spellbound as Kerney tangles with a modern paramilitary group and a vicious 60-year-old feud.
©1997 Michael McGarrity (P)1998 Recorded Books
Backlands
Summary
Michael McGarrity returns with the second installment of his sweeping, richly authentic New York Times best-selling American West trilogy set in the raw, untrammeled New Mexico backlands during the Roaring '20s, the Great Depression, and World War II. Hard Country, the first novel in the Kerney family trilogy and the debut prequel to his national best-selling 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 best seller lists, Hard Country continues to attract an overwhelmingly positive response from critics, booksellers, and audiences. Backlands advances 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, drought-stricken Tularosa Basin. 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 20th-century frontier West.
©2014 Michael McGarrity (P)2014 Recorded Books
Head Wounds
Summary
Given a chance to salvage his law enforcement career, Dona 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.
©2020 Michael McGarrity (P)2020 Dreamscape Media, LLC
Tularosa
Summary
Acclaimed as a born storyteller by critics, Michael McGarrity packs his powerful mystery with Southwestern lore and breathtaking action. In a wicked conspiracy reaching across the Mexican border, Tularosa pits a jaded ex-cop against tight-lipped Army personnel, hired thugs, and smooth-talking outlaws. Forced into retirement by a crippling gunshot wound, Santa Fe policeman Kevin Kerney seeks solitude on a small New Mexico ranch far from the nearest neighbor. But when his godson disappears without a trace into the harsh, high-security desert of the White Sands Missile Range, Kerney emerges to search for the young soldier. His probing questions lead him on a perilous journey across the stark, sun-beaten wilderness deep into the shadowy, cutthroat alleys of a lawless border town. With the winning combination of complex, believable characters and a brilliantly crafted plot, it’s easy to see why Publishers Weekly named Tularosa Best Book of the Year. With George Guidall’s dramatic narration, the rugged Southwestern backdrop and each of the colorful inhabitants burst vividly from the page.
©1996 Michael McGarrity (P)1997 Recorded Books
Serpent Gate
Summary
In this complex tale of greed and revenge, best-selling author Michael McGarrity shrewdly blends riveting action with magnificent southwestern scenery. Serpent Gate portrays former Santa Fe policeman Kevin Kerney in a perilous struggle against corrupt officers, New Mexico politicians, and a deadly enemy from the past. Recruited for the State police by the new chief, Kerney searches the mountainous countryside for a patrolman’s killer. Quickly solving the months-old murder, he takes on a more challenging assignment: recover the priceless art collection stolen from the governor’s office. As Kerney pursues the mastermind behind the theft, he finds himself returning to the violent roots of his first case. Michael McGarrity, a former police officer for Santa Fe County, draws on his own experience to create plots packed with nonstop excitement and believable predicaments. Narrator George Guidall’s stellar performance will hold you spellbound from the intriguing opening to the surprise ending. For more gripping Kevin Kerney mysteries, don’t miss: Tularosa and Mexican Hat.
©1998 Michael McGarrity (P)1998 Recorded Books
Hermit's Peak
Summary
When an old family friend leaves Kevin Kerney 6400 acres of high country land outside Las Vegas, New Mexico, the last thing Kerney wants to think about is police work, taking a rare weekend off from his job as deputy chief of the New Mexico State Police, Kerney sets out to explore the land, a rugged mesa in the shadow of Hermit's Peak. Before Kenny can get very far, he comes upon an ailing stray dog with a woman's running shoe in his mouth. The dog leads him to the butchered bones of a murder victim, and Kerney finds he's inherited a homicide along with the ranch. Determined not to see his weekend ruined, Kerney turns the investigation over to the state police district office and continues his survey of his windfall inheritance, only to find that the timber thieves have clear-cut a great swath of woodland in a remote canyon. Unsure of whether he can pay the inheritance taxes, hold on to his land, and realize his dream to ranch again, Kerney returns to Santa Fe. There, he finds that Sara Brannon - a woman he cares deeply about - has arrived to visit him. As Kerney and Sara begin trying to sort out a relationship that means more to both of them than either is willing to admit, Kerney is called back to Hermit's Peak. Another murder victim has been found at a remote cabin next to Kerney's property, and he is soon engaged in a race against time to solve two murders and avert another.
©1999 Michael McGarrity (P)1999 Simon & Schuster Inc., AUDIOWORKS Is an Imprint of Simon & Schuster Audio Division, Simon & Schuster, Inc.
Under the Color of Law
Summary
He's returned to Santa Fe, newly installed as police chief, when a U.S. ambassador's estranged wife is found murdered in her multimillion-dollar home. Before he can mount a proper investigation, an FBI anti-terrorism team arrives, takes control of the inquiry, and forces Kerney to watch from the sidelines as the crime scene is sanitized, potential witnesses disappear, and the case is cleared with trumped-up evidence. Warned off, put under surveillance, and threatened with reprisals under the rubric of national security, Kerney balks at accepting the whitewash and begins a soft probe that points to a covert intelligence cover-up with tendrils stretching from every known government spy shop and running deep into the South American jungles. Convinced that unscrupulous government agents are acting outside the law, Kerney begins his own clandestine hunt for a hard target that will lead him to the truth about the Terrell homicide, knowing full well he might not survive the chase. Under the Color of Law delivers another one-two, knock-out punch that firmly establishes Michael McGarrity's place in contemporary investigative fiction.
©2002 Michael McGarrity (P)2001 Simon & Schuster
Death Song
Summary
Best-selling author and former lawman Michael McGarrity's 11th Kevin Kerney novel further showcases this Anthony Award-nominated writer's talent for crafting stunning police stories. In Lincoln County, New Mexico, the slaying of a deputy sheriff and his wife reunites Police Chief Kerney and his son, Sergeant Clayton Istee, on the bloody trail of drug-running killers.
©2008 Michael McGarrity (P)2008 Recorded Books
Everyone Dies
Summary
Santa Fe Police Chief Kevin Kerney and his wife, Lieutenant Colonel Sara Brannon, are on leave and eagerly awaiting the birth of their son when a prominent gay attorney is gunned down outside his office by an unknown assailant. Called to the crime scene and faced with scanty evidence and no apparent motive, Kerney directs his chief of detectives to delve into the victim's personal and professional life, a decision that ultimately leads to a SWAT team screw-up and the death of two innocent people. But the killer has just begun. Kerney's horse, a mustang he'd gentled and trained, is vicously and senselessly destroyed; a dead rabbit is left on his doorstep; and a second victim with ties to the criminal justice system is found in her bed with her throat cut along with the warning: Everyone Dies. As a time of joy turns into a nightmare, Kerney and Sara search desperately for a seemingly unstoppable chameleonlike killer who promises to murder them and their unborn son.
©2004 Michael McGarrity (P)2004 Brilliance Audio, Inc.
Dead or Alive
Summary
Lawman turned best-selling author Michael McGarrity presents this thrilling Kevin Kerney novel—packed with gritty action—that “series fans will relish” (Publishers Weekly). Called out of retirement, Kerney must take up the hunt for a psychotic killer who’s been blazing a path of carnage from Texas to Colorado. Fortunately he’ll have help from his half-Indian son, Sgt. Clayton Istee.
©2009 Michael McGarrity (P)2009 Recorded Books, LLC
The Last Ranch
Summary
The grand saga of an American ranching family continues in The Last Ranch, the final, mesmerizing book of New York Times best seller 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 US 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 best-selling 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-20th-century world of the new American West.
©2016 Michael McGarrity (P)2016 Recorded Books
The Big Gamble
Summary
When a fire in an abandoned fruit stand in rural Lincoln County reveals the murdered body of a woman gone missing from Sante Fe years ago, Police Chief Kevin Kerney finds himself cooperating with his estranged son, a man he hardly knows, Deputy Sheriff Clayton Istee. While Kerney digs into the woman's past, hoping to find clues that will lead to a credible suspect, Clayton must unravel two more homicides that seem on the surface totally unrelated. As Kerney chases down clues that raise questions about the legitimacy of a highly regarded modeling and talent agency, Clayton works to discover the identity of a murder suspect alleged to have ties to prostitution and illegal gambling. Set against the backdrop of the high mountains of southern New Mexico, where gambling is big business and private sexual encounters for VIPs can be discreetly arranged, Kerney and Clayton must go up against the rich and politically powerful opponents who are willing to protect their reputations at all costs.
©2004 Michael McGarrity (P)2004 Brilliance Audio, Inc.
Residue
Summary
A long-unsolved mystery gets a grim new break when the bones of Kim Ward are unearthed in Las Cruces, New Mexico, 45 years after her disappearance. Suspicion swiftly falls on her old college boyfriend: none other than retired police chief Kevin Kerney. The chief's hopes of clearing his name look bleak in the face of damning evidence compiled against him by State Police Lieutenant Clayton Istee - Kerney's own son. Left grasping for clues, with no alibi and not a single witness to speak for him, Kerney and his wife must race to reconstruct long-past events to identify the one person who can clear his name and expose the killer before it's too late. As their investigation unfolds, they'll discover that Kim Ward's murder isn't the only crime they'll have to solve before they can put danger behind them.
©2018 Michael McGarrity (P)2018 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books
Slow Kill
Summary
Things are more complicated than they seam as the suspense builds in this wry and enjoyable police procedural. When Santa Fe police chief Kevin Kerney finds the dead body of hotel magnate Clifford Spalding at a mountain ranch, he has a pretty good idea about who to talk to; the list of suspects isn't long. Spalding had a devious wife who was cheating on him with a known thug, and an embittered ex-wife with mental problems. But when the pieces of the puzzle fall into place a little too easily, Kearney's suspicions are aroused. Nationally best-selling author Michael McGarrity's Slow Kill is a stunning addition to an Anthony Award-nominated series the New York Times hails as "robust".
©2004 Michael McGarrity (P)2005 Recorded Books
Nothing but Trouble
Summary
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 a 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 ensure that nothing goes as planned. As separate investigations embroil Kerney and Sara in circumstances that will forever changes 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. It travels an accelerating arc from Santa Fe and the desert grasslands and mountains of the Bootheel to the most secret levels of the Pentagon and a resort town on the coast of Ireland, then back to an adrenaline-charged climax on a desolate landing strip a few miles north of the Mexican border.
©2005 Michael McGarrity (P)2006 Recorded Books