9 Captivating Native American Mystery Books

It’s been a year since Jane McKinnon, née Whitefield, was shot on the job while protecting innocent victims on the run. Quietly settling into the life of a suburban housewife in Amherst, New York, Jane is startled when sees all eight female leaders of the Tonawanda Seneca clan pull into her driveway. 

She soon learns that Jimmy, her childhood friend from the reservation, is being accused of murdering a local white man. Instead of turning himself in, Jimmy has gone into hiding and nobody can find him.

The clan mothers’ recruit Jane to retrace a walking trip she took with Jimmy when they were 14, in the hopes that he might’ve gone the same way.

The police become the least of Jimmy’s worries, and soon enough Jane and Jimmy are on the run together in this thrilling novel from Edgar Award-winning author Thomas Perry.

ISIS, the terrorist organization, is hunting down a deadly toxin that may be the ultimate key to mass destruction. This same toxin also holds the potential to eradicate cancer.

There is a frenzied race to see who can get to it first, all while Caitlin Strong begins piecing together the parts of a deadly puzzle. At the center of that puzzle lies an Indian reservation where a bitter tycoon is mining the toxin, camouflaging his effort as an oil digging operation.

Caitlin’s great-great grandfather, also a Texas Ranger, once waged a similar battle against John D. Rockefeller at this same reservation. 

Caitlin Strong goes up against a host of adversaries in this high-stakes adventure, including the beautiful comanche girl who the son of her ex-outlaw boyfriend has fallen in love with, as well as a mythic monster culled from Native American folklore that the tribe believes has risen to protect its land.

The fate of both the country and the state Caitlin cherishes is dangling on the precipice of a strong cold death.

Brady returns to investigate a deadly business deal in Maine.

Vern Wheeler may be a millionaire, but he has never forgotten that he is a son of Maine, the land of big sky, wide lakes, and fishing. To escape the boring boardroom, Vern purchases a rundown fishing lodge in the woods of Maine, and transforms it into a fashionable New England retreat.

After years of happy fishing, Vern and his brother have no interest in selling Raven Lodge. But a local Native American group won’t take no for an answer. 

The Native Americans claim that Raven Lodge is situated on protected land, threatening to sue for ownership of the property. Wheeler sends his attorney, fishing enthusiast Brady Coyne, to negotiate.

But when Brady arrives at Raven Lake, he’s met with danger in and out of the water. A fisherman has been scalped, and calm, serene Maine is on the brink of erupting into chaos.

Louisiana’s history is layered with American, French, and Spanish history resting atop the various tribes who have spent millennia on the Mississippi. As a contract archaeologist in Baton Rouge, Alan Graham knows how to break down these layers.

When Alan is hired by a wealthy landowner to search his property for a cache of long-lost Tunica Indian relics, he expects to dig up nothing but dirt. When the client is murdered for his curiosity, Alan realizes he is close to the discovery of a lifetime. 

To track down the artifacts and find the murderer, Alan must work with his competition: the overeducated Yankee, Pepper Courtney.

As the two delve into the dead man’s past, they soon learn it may be safer to leave some things buried.

Oakley Tyler prepares to finally begin his retirement now that he’s closed his private investigation firm and moved out to a small cabin in the woods of Vermont.

However, his tranquility is soon interrupted when Jeremiah Smith asks the ex-PI to help him stop unidentified men from killing his grandson, a local newspaper reporter.

Tyler hesitates to take on the case, but when Smith is killed in a hit-and-run, Tyler becomes convinced that someone has silenced the old man to protect a dangerous secret. 

As he takes on the mystery, Tyler finds himself digging into the world of genetic engineering and its potentially horrific consequences for the environment. After dodging multiple deadly threats, Tyler begins to wonder if he’ll survive long enough to expose the killer.

Quill has lived on the Red Pine reservation in Minnesota since she was born. She knows what happens to people like her.

When Jimmy Sky jumped off the railway bridge, Quill was only a little girl running for help, and she’s never stopped running.

While early morning training for the Boston Marathon out in the woods, she hears a scream. Upon investigating the scene, she finds tire tracks and a single, beaded earring. 

When she pieces together that another woman has been stolen, she becomes determined to do something—and her first stop is the group of men who work the pipeline construction just north of their homes.

As she closes in on the truth behind the missing woman, another person disappears. In her pursuit of justice for the women of the reservation, she is confronted with the dark truths of their home and those who claim to serve them.

When will she stop losing neighbors, family, friends?

As Quill puts everything she loves on the line to make a difference, the novel poses searing questions about bystander culture, the echoes of a single crime, and the enduring trauma of being invisible.

Virgil Wounded Horse is Rosebud Indian Reservation’s local enforcer, situated in South Dakota. When the American legal system and tribal council deny justice for the reservation, Virgil is hired to deliver his own retribution.

But when heroin finds its way into the reservation and makes its way to Virgil’s nephew, his defiance quickly becomes deeply personal. With the help of his ex-girlfriend, Virgil sets out to track down where the drugs are coming from, and how to stop it. 

Following a lead to Denver, they find that drug cartels are rapidly expanding and forming terrifying alliances.

Back on the reservation, a new tribal council initiative raises troubling questions about wealth and control.

Virgil begins piecing everything together, forcing him to face his own demons and confront the cost of being a Native American in the 21st century. 

On a Sunday in the spring of 1988, a woman living on a reservation in North Dakota is brutally attacked. The victim, Geraldine Coutts, is traumatized and reluctant to relive or reveal what happened to the police, her son, and even her husband, Bazil.

Geraldine's son, Joe, finds his life irrevocably transformed as a result of the attack, as he spends his days trying to heal his mother despite her retreat in solitude. His father, a tribal judge, struggles to make progress in the official investigation, leading Joe to grow frustrated.

With the help of his friends, Joe sets out to find answers of his own. This quest quickly leads Joe and his friends to the Round House, a sacred space and place of worship for the Ojibwe.

And this is only the beginning.

Bureau of Indian Affairs Special Agent Joe Ever is still mourning the death of his wife, and after a mishandled investigation, he faces a forced early retirement.

When Congressman Arlen Edgerton's bullet-ridden car turns up on the Navajo reservation—20 years after his disappearance during a corruption probe—Joe sets out to solve the mysterious cold case. 

Partnering with Navajo Tribal Officer Randall Bluehorse, Joe’s investigation antagonizes potential suspects, including a wealthy art collector, a former president of the Navajo Nation, a powerful US senator, and Edgerton’s widow, who is now the front runner in the race for governor of New Mexico.

Joe uncovers a murderous conspiracy that leads him down the trail of ancient Anasazi burial groups on the Navajo Nation to backroom deals in Washington D.C.

Delving into the dangerous world of black market trade in Native American artifacts, Joe becomes increasingly determined to unravel the mystery and bring the true criminal to justice.