BY: BOOKMANS

Pick a theme. Make a list. Share it with us. The author of Missing White Girl and western-horror comic series Desperadoes kicks off our newest feature with his rec list of essential Western fiction.

What is this HANDPICKED thing?

Jeff Mariotte is the author of "Missing White Girl," a new supernatural thriller set in Cochise County, Arizona, where he lives on a ranch with his wife, Maryelizabeth Hart, and two children. His body of work is so diverse and extensive, it's a wonder he finds the time to document his currents projects on his blog, Dispatches from the Flying M. In addition to writing novels, short stories, young adult fiction, novelizations, and comics, he is also the co-owner of Mysterious Galaxy, a bookstore specializing in mystery, horror, science fiction, and fantasy, based in San Diego. You can explore his work, biography, and keep up with special appearances at his website.

You can also check out our recent interview with Jeff, in which he discusses his new novel "Missing White Girl," the drawbacks to a diverse body of work, the importance of the independent bookstore, and his first Bookmans experience.

Jeff Mariotte's Handpicked
"Essential Western Fiction"

The Time It Never Rained
by Elmer Kelton
Elmer Kelton is the real deal. A Texan, the son of a working cowboy, he knows what he's talking about in this book, set during a drought in the 1950s. It's as far from a formula Western as can be. You'll taste the dust on your tongue as you read.

The Brave Cowboy
by Edward Abbey
The brilliant, curmudgeonly desert rat's novel about a cowboy who can't quite accept the boundaries of the modern world. Also look for the film version, "Lonely Are The Brave," with Kirk Douglas, and Abbey's classic nonfiction "Desert Solitaire."

 
From Where the Sun Now Stands
by Will Henry
The epic story of Nez Perce chief The Thunder Traveling to the Mountain, who most of us know as Chief Joseph. If you like action-packed formula Westerns, be sure to check out the books Henry wrote under the name Clay Fisher (my favorite is "War Bonnet").

 
No Country for Old Men
by Cormac McCarthy
Spare, searing, and unforgettable, this contemporary Texas novel is thriller, reflection, and revelation all at the same time. McCarthy is one of the great American writers.

 
Follow the Free Wind
by Leigh Brackett
Better known as a science fiction writer and a screenwriter ("The Big Sleep," "Rio Bravo," "The Empire Strikes Back") than a Western novelist, Brackett wrote one of the great mountain man novels, the story of real-life runaway slave James Beckwourth. As a woman writing in fields largely reserved, before her, to men, she must have known a little something about feeling like an outsider and persevering anyway.

 
Two for Texas
by James Lee Burke
(also published as Sabine Spring)
If you like the Billy Bob Holland novels by America's finest crime writer, you'll want to read the story of Sam Holland, who wound up at the Alamo at the worst possible time.

 
The Searchers
by Alan LeMay
Having brutally slaughtered the Edwards family, the Comanches have kidnapped ten-year-old Debbie.  The set-up sounds familiar... but this tale goes places that [my novel] "Missing White Girl" doesn't (and vice versa). You could skip this and just watch the great John Ford/John Wayne film. But why not read it too?

 
Mystery of the Haunted Mine
by Gordon D. Shirreffs
(also published as The Haunted Treasure of the Espectros)
Not a great novel, this was the book that, in my younger days, coalesced an interest in the West and an interest in scaring people, and is probably more responsible than any other for the kind of thing I write today - and for the fact that I live in Arizona. It's about a fictionalized version of the Lost Dutchman's Mine in the Superstitions, and the sinister forces keeping it hidden.

Check out Jeff Mariotte on the web:

Official Site
Official Blog
MySpace
ComicSpace

Interested in being featured in HANDPICKED? Got upcoming projects you'd like us to know about and a burning desire to share your favorite finds? Email Heather at heatherc(at)bookmans.com for details.