These Western and Indigenous books are on our must-read list this year.
We’re looking to a new year full of good reads, from Western dramas to Indigenous horror tales and riveting documentations of the Old West. Looking for a good book to get your 2025 started? Check out one of these upcoming or newly released reads.
Bandit Heaven by Tom Clavin
Everyone knows the iconic outlaws of the Old West — The Wild Bunch, Kid Curry, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid are just a few of the legendary troublemakers of the 1880s and ‘90s. Robbers Roost, Brown’s Hole, and Hole-in-the-Wall were are few of the remote locations in Wyoming and Utah that housed these outlaws between their heists, eventually gaining the term “Bandit Heaven.” Tom Clavin’s riveting nonfiction book Bandit Heaven takes a closer look at the history behind the legends, pulling back the curtain on the hiding places of those who rode the Outlaw Trail.
Release Date: October 22, 2024
Joy Machine by Jeffie Brewer
The West’s vast public art scene wouldn’t be what it is without East Texas artist Jeffie Brewer. In November of 2024, independent Dallas art book publishing house K. Co. Press released a whimsical retrospective written by the notorious sculptor, who details his life, art, dreams, and memories from his time on the road developing public art pieces across the West. A fun spin on the traditional coffee table book, this memoir includes stunning images of Brewer’s work, complemented by anecdotes from his work in Lubbock, Corpus Christi, Abilene, Santa Fe, Denver, and beyond.
Release Date: November 12, 2024
Tooth and Claw by Craig Johnson
The Longmire mystery continues with Craig Johnson’s latest book, Tooth and Claw, released this past November. The short novel sees a young Walt Longmire and Henry Standing Bear face off with formidable enemies against the unforgiving Alaskan tundra. Upon taking working at an oil company after returning from Vietnam, Longmire and Standing Bear have a violent encounter with a polar bear seemingly set on destroying them. However, upon turning to their co-workers for assistance, they realize that the real danger is not in the wildlife of the Alaskan tundra, but in the very people they work with who will stop at nothing to get what they want.
Release Date: November 19, 2024
The Crazies by Amy Gamerman
A Western drama with enough twists, clashes, and colorful characters to rival Yellowstone, The Crazies is a narrative nonfiction so juicy it’s hard to believe it’s real. When a fifth-generation rancher gets the attention of his billionaire neighbors by starting an ambitious wind farm in Big Timber, Montana, he realizes he’s not the only one who believes the land is rightfully his. What ensues is an epic showdown between an ever-widening cast of characters, including a Texas oil tycoon, an opportunistic wind prospector, a Crow activist, and an attorney looking for redemption. The Crazies is a well-reported real-life Western drama for an ever-modernizing world.
Release Date: January 7, 2025
The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones
Often hailed as the Indigenous Stephen King, famed horror writer Stephen Graham Jones is set to release The Buffalo Hunter Hunter this coming March. This chilling historical horror novel launches into a tailspin as a diary written in 1912 by a Lutheran pastor is discovered inside a wall. What unfolds is a story of murder, monsters, and revenge that begins when 217 Blackfeet are found dead in the snow. This novel, told through diary entries and transcribed interviews by a Blackfeet man named Good Stab, follows the life of a vampire who haunted the fields of the Blackfeet reservation looking for justice.
Expected Publish Date: March 18, 2025
This Book Will Bury Me by Ashley Winstead
While we can’t necessarily qualify this one as a Western novel, author and Houston-native Ashley Winstead’s upcoming thriller This Book Will Bury Me has a small-town mystery vibe that reminds us of some of our favorite Western shows like Longmire, Dark Winds, and even Yellowstone. The novel follows five amateur sleuths as they take on a slew of deaths in Delphine, Idaho. As the case becomes stranger than originally thought and the authorities become cagey, Jane Sharp and her friends race to get to the bottom of what would eventually come to be known as the “Delphine Massacres.”
Expected Release Date: March 25, 2025
Big Chief by Jon Hickey
Described by Goodreads as There There meets The Night Watchman, Jon Hickey’s upcoming literary debut is a tale of power struggle, family ties, and the feeling of loneliness that comes with living between worlds. Mitch Caddo, a local politician and outsider on his reservation, finds his authority threatened when nationally known activist Gloria Hawkins rides into town. When an accident claims the life of someone close to Mitch and the reservation launches into impending chaos, Mitch must lean on an unexpected ally to stop a peaceful protest from becoming an all-consuming riot.
Expected Release Date: April 8, 2025
Medicine River: A Story of Survival and the Legacy of Indian Boarding Schools by Mary Annette Pember
Ojibwe journalist Mary Pember confronts a source generational trauma that has affected thousands of Native American families, including her own, to bring the stories of the fallen to life in Medicine River. From the mid-19th century to the 1930s, thousands of Native children were abducted from their families and placed in boarding schools that were hellbent on destroying Indigenous culture and forcing these children to assimilate. Pember, whose own mother was subjected to the horrors of one of these boarding schools, merges personal revelations with investigatory reporting to paint a picture of this tragic point in history and the effects still felt to this day.
Expected Release Date: April 22, 2025
Old School Indian by Aaron John Curtis
You’ve likely read the coming-of-age story. Now get ready for a coming-of-middle-age story that is bound to restore your faith in healing and exacerbate your mid-life crisis just a tad. Aaron John Curtis’ literary debut introduces us to Abe Jacobs, a 43-year-old Ahkwesáhsne man who returns home to his reservation for the first time since leaving at 18. Abe is dying, and fast. After exhausting all of his options within the field of modern medicine, Abe has no choice but to return to his reservation to seek the help of his great uncle. What ensues is an irreverent story of healing, reconciliation, and family.
Expected Release Date: May 6, 2025
Legendary Frybread Drive-In, edited by Cynthia Leitich Smith
A short story collection featuring the voices of fresh and acclaimed Indigenous authors, Legendary Frybread Drive-In is an upcoming anthology of interconnected stories full of love, humor, Native joy, and frybread, all centered around Sandy June’s Legendary Frybread Drive-In. Edited by bestselling Muscogee author Cynthia Leitich Smith, the anthology features stories and poems by Kaua Mahoe Adams, Marcella Bell, Brian Young, and more.
Expected Release Date: August 26, 2025
PHOTOGRAPHY: Courtesy of publishing houses
