need recommendations for books like pickett/longmire

[Javasapien]

Hi all,

My husband enjoys reading books that are somewhat contemporary (mysteries, usually) but where the setting is in the Western US and the book has the feel of that western setting with a lot of the outdoors/nature being part of the book. So something along the lines of the Hillerman Leaphorn/Chee series or the Johnson Walt Longmire series or the CJ Box Joe Pickett series. Can anyone recommend any similar to these that are available with good narrators? Thanks in advance.

Lynn

[Carrie]

Hi Lynn,

I recently finished In the Moon of Red Ponies, which has the feel of Hillerman (I've just started my first Hillerman, Skeleton Man). The narrator for the Burke book is Tom Stechshulte and he is great. I laughed so hard at times the way he managed to get the accent/dialect down for the character of Wyatt Dixon. This is the series with Billy Bob Holland. Burke also has the Dave Robicheaux series, but I haven't listened/read any of those. There are others here in this group who have spoken quite highly of the Robicheaux series. I don't know who narrators that series, however. Despite that, I think that your husband won't go wrong with a James Lee Burke book, in my opinion :)

[Heidi]

James Lee Burke is a wonderful writer - I love his Dave R. novels.

[[deleted user]]

Nevada Barr's Anna Pigeon books are great, the versions narrated by Barbara Rosenblat. Pigeon is a national parks ranger and each book she is sent off to a different national park in the US to work at so you get lots of variety - and I guess you can pick the ones that are in the western US (my US geography is not that great as I'm an Aussie but there have been ones set in Texas, Arizona... Colorado I think too -there are 15 or 16 books so far ) - I really enjoy the outdoor stuff that goes on in the books - a couple take place in areas I have actually visited and she gets those right so I assume she gets all the others (that I haven't been to yet) right too

[Carrie]

I'll second that on the Nevada Barr series. Barbara Rosenblat is an excellent narrator, too. One of my favorite books involved the Garden Key in Dry Tortugas National Park down in Florida--Flashback. They still make sense read out of order, as I had started with the most recent one out at the time, High Country--and I actually read the paperback version and didn't listen to the audio. The series still made sense, despite it having been the 12th book. I haven't read any of it in order. I only have been to Yosemite (part of the reason I picked up High Country to read) and I found the descriptions to be very accurate. Here is a link to her website that lists the books and the settings for them (though I think it's a little behind in updating): http://mindharp.tripod.com/nbarr.html...

[Carol/Bonadie]

I read Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry and enjoyed it so much that I was curious about who reads it. It's former actor Lee Horsley. I would give it a shot if you haven't ready it; the story is that good.

[Javasapien]

Thanks for the recommendations. Actually, my husband had tried Barr's Blood Lure and didn't like it enough to finish. But I'd read where the later ones got a little darker or more gory than the earlier ones. He's since listened to and enjoyed a lot of the earlier ones. He's also enjoying some Michael McGarrity's Kevin Kearney series, and Dana Stabenow's Kate Shugak series. I do have Lonesome Dove and plan to listen to it myself (though I already saw the miniseries a while back.) Don't know if I'll talk him into it though since it's so long and he shies away from longer ones.

BTW, we just learned they are making a TV series out of the Walt Longmire series starting this summer on A&E.