6 Mystery, Thriller, Horror Books to Read During (And Beyond) Native American Heritage Month
By Mary Kay McBrayer
There’s a real reason why November isn’t just about the Thanksgiving holiday anymore. If you’re looking to celebrate Native American Heritage Month by reading work by some indigenous authors, you’re in the right spot. Here are six books of mystery, horror, and thrills to get you started.
If you’re looking for crime fiction, look no further. When heroin surfaces in the Rosebud Indian Reservation of South Dakota, delivering justice isn’t important enough for the American legal system, so the responsibility falls to the local enforcer, Virgil Wounded Horse. It should be all business, but the pursuit becomes personal when the drugs affect his nephew. Virgil traces a lead on the cartel trafficking into the Reservation to Denver, and he enlists the help of his ex-girlfriend to bring it down.
Format
Trade Paperback
This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around July 6, 2021. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.
Red-headed twin girls Arcade and Daffodil love their grandmother’s stories. They don’t realize that the ghost stories aren’t just stories: they’re memories. Arcade recovers some of them from her early life when a local woman drowns in the river of their rural Ohio town… and she’s not the only one. This novel draws on the true stories of the multiple murders in Chillicothe, so if you’re interested in true crime as well, this one might be a good fit.
Format
Hardcover
This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around February 14, 2023. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.
Shane Hawk (Editor); Theodore C. Van Alst (Editor)
Whistling at night is a bad idea according to many different Indigenous groups, from Hawaii to Mexico—but that’s not the only folkloric belief this collection addresses. This anthology blends the real with the unreal in short stories by so many excellent Native American authors. Here’s the gold list: Shane Hawk, Theodore C. Van Alst Jr., Norris Black, Amber Blaeser-Wardzala, Phoenix Boudreau, Cherie Dimaline, Carson Faust, Kelli Jo Ford, Kate Hart, Brandon Hobson, Darcie Little Badger, Conley Lyons, Nick Medina, Tiffany Morris, Tommy Orange, Mona Susan Power, Marcie R. Rendon, Waubgeshig Rice, Rebecca Roanhorse, Andrea L. Rogers, Morgan Talty, D.H. Trujillo, Richard Van Camp, David Heska Wanbli Weiden, Royce K. Young Wolf, Mathilda Zeller, and of course, Stephen Graham Jones. If you’re interested in learning about the genesis of this collection, check out this interview with editors Shane Hawk and Theodore C. Van Alst Jr.
Format
Trade Paperback
This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around September 19, 2023. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.
When it comes to indigenous horror, no name free associates faster than Stephen Graham Jones. This novel is set in the small west Texas town of Lamesa, where Tolly Driver writes his memoir… and Tolly Driver is the killer. Just seventeen years old, Tolly is cursed to kill out of revenge. It helps that he loves slasher movies, and it’ll surprise you that readers want to fight his corner.
Format
Trade Cloth; Trade Cloth
This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around July 16, 2024. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.
If you want a work of Young Adult Fiction, check out this novel by Mohawk author Cheryl Isaacs. Avery’s Kanien’kéha:ka family have always warned her about the monsters in Crook’s Falls, but she’s chalked them up to boogeyman tales until one morning run leads her to a strange pond in the forest. When people she loves start to go missing, she realizes she has to heed the warnings of her Elders… and accept that she might be to blame for the disappearances.
Format
Hardcover
This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around September 3, 2024. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.
Alice is struggling, even though her life looks perfect. Her newborn baby, Dawn, is in beautiful health, her husband, Steve, is a supportive academic, and she lives in a posh Toronto neighborhood. But it doesn’t feel like her. Alice is not only the only Mohawk resident among her nosy neighbors, but she feels like they’re watching her. When she tries to reconnect with her identity by writing a modern retelling of the Haudenosaunee creation story, strange, supernatural things occur… and the lost bits of time and disembodied voices make finishing the story seem more important than it can possibly be.
Format
Hardcover
This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around September 26, 2023. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.
