Beeler

5 total works

The Judas Judge

by Michael McGarrity

Published 1 July 2000

In a remote New Mexico campground, six people are killed in an apparently senseless murder spree. Deputy State Police Chief Kevin Kerney suspects the slaying wasn’t random at all—but rather a calculated plot to eliminate one high-profile victim, retired judge, Vernon Langsford. In piecing together the judge’s shocking past, Kerney discovers the victim’s predilection for sexual indiscretions, a history of family betrayal and greed, and a dark marriage that ended mysteriously and violently. But as Kerney gets closer to the heart of a terrible crime, it’s a woman from his own past who emerges with a stunning secret of her own.

Hermit's Peak

by Michael McGarrity

Published 1 June 1999

As he investigates a murder in New Mexico, chief deputy Kevin Kerney finds himself facing a choice most policemen hope they will never have to make--do right by the law or by the heart.

Mexican Hat

by Michael McGarrity

Published 17 May 1997

Kevin Kerney, ex-Santa Fe chief of detectives and ex-rancher is working as a seasonal forest ranger in the Gila Wilderness and banking his pay toward the down payment on a small ranch. Despite the county militia's planting pipe bombs on hiking trails, Kerney looks forward to a quiet summer in the high mountains. But the poaching of wildlife, the murder of a Mexican tourist, and the discovery of a disoriented old man in the wilderness thrust Kerney into an investigation that accelerates dangerously to a heart-stopping final confrontation. Frustrated by the ineptness of the local sheriff and bureaucratic roadblocks within the Forest Service, Kerney teams up with Jim Stiles, a young, energetic state game and fish officer. Together Kerney and Stiles begin an investigation that takes them back in time to a sixty-year-old feud between two land-rich brothers, Edgar and Eugene Cox, and its possible connection with the death of an Hispanic rancher, and into the present-day intrigue of the paramilitary militia movement sweeping the country. The investigation leads Kerney to question the motives of new assistant district attorney Karen Cox, Edgar's daughter, who may be more interested in shielding her father than in solving the crimes. As the pieces of the puzzle begin to fall into place, someone keeps trying to kill Kerney. And soon Karen must choose between protecting her father's long-buried secret or joining Kerney in a battle for their lives and the truth.

Serpent Gate

by Michael McGarrity

Published 1 June 1998

Mountainair, New Mexico. The very name conjures up the clean air, the foothills, the gorgeous mountains of the Southwest. Some would say this is God's country. It is also Kevin Kearney's, especially when crimes like rape and cop murder intrude on the outwardly idyllic natural setting.

It was opening night of the annual town rodeo six months ago when Patrolman Paul Gillespie left the calf-roping finals, headed toward the police station, and was killed by person or persons unknown. Nobody much is talking, at least not to Kerney, but Kerney suspects that one man, Robert Cordova, a schizophrenic, saw something that memorable night.

Murder and its aftermath, which are reflected on a small scale in Mountainair, play themselves out against a much glitzier backdrop in Santa Fe; to take on an old nemesis.

Serpent Gate brilliantly confirms the literary power of one of the most talked-about new voices in the crime writing arena. Both spellbinding entertainment and a deeply moving portrait of the American Southwest, the novel is sure to win author Michael McGarrity many new fans.

Under the Color of Law

by Michael McGarrity

Published 1 July 2001

Newly-installed Santa Fe police chief Kevin Kerney receives a deadly welcome when a U.S. ambassador's ex-wife is brutally stabbed to death in her home. But before Kerney can begin to investigate, the FBI closes the case with trumped-up evidence. And the harder Kerney hunts for the truth, the more he knows that he may not survive the chase.