Hard Country

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 familys 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.

“McGarrity gets better and better. How good it is to follow a detective created by a man who has been there and done that.”—Tony Hillerman

“If you have never read Michael McGarrity, then do yourself a favor.”— Harlan Coben

“McGarrity obviously loves his native land, and his descriptions bring its natural beauty, vastness, and solitude vividly to life. Add to that an action-packed tale of good vs. evil, and you have the makings of a page-turner.”—Military.com on Dead or Alive

“McGarrity knows the ropes."—The Dallas Morning News

“As anyone familiar with his excellent crime novels knows, Michael McGarrity really gets—and loves—the Southwest: Its colors, its rhythms, its blessings, its cussedness. Here McGarrity moves back in time to explore New Mexico's frontier past and in the process gives us something most unusual these days: An expansive, lyrical, period Western in the tradition of A.B. Guthrie, Jr. and Larry McMurtry. Savor this one—they don't make cowboy epics like this anymore.”—Hampton Sides, bestselling author of Ghost Soldiers and Blood and Thunder

“Hard Country is aptly titled, and the reader will take a spectacular journey with real people settling the West. There is inescapable action of the gun, the earth, the sky, and the heart. This is a western that women will love.”—Max Evans, author of The Rounders, The High Lo Country, Madam Millie, and others.

“Hard Country by Michael McGarrity is a ‘western’ in the sense that Lonesome Dove was a western. It transcends the genre, a great and true American novel of the West with immense power, beauty, and sweep. It is an unforgettable book. I loved it.”—Douglas Preston, author of Cities of Gold and The Monster of Florence

“A compelling and richly imagined epic told by a master storyteller.  Michael McGarrity has his finger on the pulse of the Old West and a knack for drawing the reader in. He also has a marvelous way of illuminating the human heart in characters tough and determined enough to stake a claim on a wild and hard country. I didn’t want the story to end. It is just that good.”—Margaret Coel, author of Buffalo Bill’s Dead Now

"Michael McGarrity's epic western Hard Country is awesome in its scope. There hasn't been anything like it in quite a while. I was taken back to sagas such as A.B. Guthrie Jr's The Big Sky and The Way West  as well as Vardis Fisher's Mountain Man and Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove. This is a big story with big characters in a big land."—David Morrell, New York Times bestselling author of The Brotherhood of the Rose

“Hard Country is the evocation of real people in a real land. McGarrity is an accomplished storyteller, and he writes with clarity, perception, and authenticity. Those who read this novel will find it engaging, and they will come away with a deeper understanding and appreciation of the Old West and of the part it played in forging the American imagination.” — N. Scott Momaday, Pulitzer Prize winning author of House Made of Dawn, The Way to Rainy Mountain, In the Bear’s House, and others.

"McGarrity tells a sweeping western family saga with the same straight-ahead prose and eye for detail that makes his Kevin Kerney novels so compulsively readable. The characters breathe authenticity as they step in and out of the pages of Tularosa Basin legend. Raw, exciting and always surprising, Hard Country is historical drama at its best. --  Kirk Ellis, Writer/Co-Executive Producer, "John Adams"

Hard Country is a stunning saga of the old west - a tale rich in both heartbreak and the uplifting spirit of the brave men and women who settled the territory against all odds.  It's the great storytelling of Michael McGarrity, one of my favorite writers, that brings the past alive with such superb authenticity.  Saddle up with McGarrity and let him take you back - I loved going to the wild New Mexico territory with him. -- Linda Fairstein, New York Times bestselling author of Silent Mercy, Hell Gate, and others.

“A ‘Western in the sense that Lonesome Dove was a Western. It transcends the genre, a great and true American novel.”—Douglas Preston, Coauthor of Gideons Corpse

“A compelling and richly imagined epic.” —Margaret Coel, Author of Buffalo Bills Dead Now

“An expansive, lyrical period Western in the tradition of A. B. Guthrie, Jr. and Larry McMurtry. Savor this one—they dont make cowboy epics like this anymore.” —Hampton Sides, Bestselling Author of Hellhound on His Trail

“Hard Country is aptly titled, and the reader will take a spectacular journey with real people settling the West. There is inescapable action of the gun, the earth, the sky, and the heart.”—Max Evans, Author of The One Eyed Sky

“McGarrity is an accomplished storyteller, and he writes with clarity, perception, and authenticity.” —N. Scott Momaday, Pulitzer Prize-winning Author of House Made of Dawn

“This is a western that women will love.”—Max Evans, author of The Rounders, The High Lo Country, Madam Millie, and others.

Michael McGarrity is the author of the Anthony Award-Nominated Tularosa and twelve additional bestselling novels including Mexican Hat, Serpent Gate, Hermits Peak, The Judas Judge, Under the Color of Law, Nothing But Trouble, and Death Song. A former Santa Fe County deputy sheriff, he served as an instructor at the New Mexico Law Enforcement Academy and as an investigator for the New Mexico Public Defenders Office before turning to writing full-time. In 2004, he received the New Mexico Governors Award for Excellence in the Arts – Literature.