Bad Country

Book excerpt: WINNER OF THE SPUR AWARD FOR BEST WESTERN CONTEMPORARY NOVEL EDGAR AWARD FINALIST FOR BEST FIRST NOVEL SHAMUS AWARD FINALIST FOR BEST FIRST NOVEL Rodeo Grace Garnet lives with his old dog in a remote corner of Arizona known to locals as El Hoyo. Retired from the rodeo circuit and scraping by on piecework as a bounty hunter, warrant server, and divorce snoop, he doesn’t have much choice but to say yes when hired to solve the murder of an Indian teenager, whose death is part of a mysterious rompecabeza—a classic crime puzzler—that includes multiple killings, cold-blooded betrayals, and low-down scheming, with Rodeo caught in the middle. Bad Country is a noir novel that is as deep and twisty as a desert arroyo. With confident, accomplished prose, CB McKenzie captures the rough-and-tumble outer reaches of the Southwest in a transfixingly original style that transcends the traditional crime novel.