Michael McGarrity Books

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Michael McGarrity is a former law enforcement officer-turned-author. He was born in 1940 in New Mexico. Michael attended the New Mexico University for three years and later graduated from San Jose University with a B A in English and Psychology. He holds a master’s in Clinical Social Work from Iowa University. He further graduated from the New Mexico Law Enforcement Academy. He has also been involved in investigative casework for the New Mexico Community Defense Office.

Michael has worked on the restoration of prisons programs after the state prison riots, which occurred in 1980. Michael has offered training programs at universities, colleges and also at the Law Enforcement Academy in New Mexico. He has also published professional articles as a social worker on a broad range of topics, from child therapy programs, to program evaluation and assessment as well as drug handling interventions. He lives in Santa Fe-New Mexico with his wife, Emily Beth.

McGarrity’s began his writing career in 1996 with his version of the Tularosa Basin in New Mexico. The gunplay, novel as depicted in the Kerney Series as a tradition of the western cowboys realistically presented in a cultural shift as Americans invade Mexico and settle there. The Kevin Kerney series goes back in time to American origins of the Kevin Kerney’s family.

Hard Country; the second book in the series tells about Kerney’s Irish immigrant descendant and Civil War old hand John Kerney in 1874.The second book in the trilogy is Backlands; it is a continuation of experiences of the Kerney’s in Hard County. The saga of an American ranching family persists in the third book; The Last Ranch, the final, book of Michael McGarrity’s fascinating and richly reliable American West trilogy.

Michael McGarity Awards

Bestselling author Michael McGarrity received an award from the New Mexico Governor for Excellence in the Arts-Literature In 2004. He also received the 2015Frank Waters Exemplary Literary Achievement Award, and also the Santa Fe Mayor’s Excellence in Arts – Literature Award.

Michael McGarity Books

The Kerney Family Trilogy is a bestselling novel series that tells a gripping long tale of an Irish immigrant man John, together with his wife as they begin life after a long war in Southern America. John’s tragedy begins with the birth of his first child, a son, the death of his wife and the tragic murder of his nephew and his brother. A man can only handle so much adversity… McGarrity crisply tells the story and takes us back in time from 1875 to the early years of the 18th century.

Hard County: This book talks of Kevin’s ancestors in the Old West County. The historical events of the spinning in the rugged southwest are a sad tale of people struggling to endure life in an unforgiving yet beautiful countryside. McGarrity weaves the history of Mexico, the politics of cattle ranching and rail expansion. It gets better when Michael incorporates real-life politicians into the story. There are also side shows by legendary figures like Billy the Kid and Pat Garrett, who temporarily appear in the storyline and quickly disappear into oblivion.

Backlands: This book continues the story of Patrick Kerney; his wife Emma; and their son Matthew, shortly after the disastrous battleground death of their eldest son, CJ, towards the end of the First World War. Scarred by the loss of a brother he dearly loved, separated from a distant father, and profoundly distressed by his mother’s dire ailing condition, eight-year-old Matthew is suddenly forced to urgently become a man and toss aside his childhood to carry on with responsibilities way beyond his feeble years. When the world succumbs into a severe long drought coupled with the Great Depression a plague over the people, Matt is tasked with salvaging the Kerney ranch.

Thrust into the dark family secrets, covert crimes, wrecked promises, and devious lies, Matt must survive on the merciless, sun-scotched Tularosa Basin. In the Last Ranch, Matt is at the focal point of an oppressive government land-grab. The reason behind the rushed mystery and control develop into certain clarity when Matt observers the boiling explosion of the initial atomic bomb near his home. Matt gradually struggles with his father’s aging, no longer able to bear heavy loads at the ranch, a cruel ex-con planning to kill him, and fading love with a woman he greatly loves. Matt must muscle up all his physical and mental strength to prevent his world from looming collapse.

When Does The Next Michael McGarrity book come out?

Michael McGarrity doesn't seem to have an upcoming book. Their newest book is The Long Ago and was released on July, 4th 2023.

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