Mitch Bushyhead Books in Order

Jean Hager's Mitch Bushyhead mysteries follow Mitchell Bushyhead, the police chief of Buckskin, Oklahoma. Mitch is half Cherokee and half white, and when the series opens he has spent much of his life treating that background as something he did not need to think about. His cases change that.

In The Grandfather Medicine, the murder of Cherokee artist Joe Pigeon forces Mitch to seek help from people who know the community and its traditions better than he does. His deputy, Virgil Rabbit, becomes an important guide as Mitch learns that solving a crime may require listening to history, belief, and relationships that are invisible to an outsider.

Buckskin is a small town, which means everyone has connections. Mitch deals with family tensions, local business interests, troubled schools, and the frictions between public reputations and private behavior. The mysteries are police procedurals, but the investigation is always tied to the particular lives of Cherokee Country in northeastern Oklahoma.

Mitch has no easy answers.

The later novels widen the scale of his work. Night Walker centers on the death of a hotel owner and rumors of Cherokee witchcraft. Ghostland brings him to a devastating case involving a child at a tribal boarding school. In The Fire Carrier he faces a murder shaped by domestic abuse, an escaped prisoner, and fear surrounding an old story. Masked Dancers links a dead game warden, an illegally killed eagle, and secrets surrounding ceremonial traditions.

Mitch's private life also runs through the books. He is a widowed father raising a daughter, and his efforts to build a more settled life give the series an emotional center without taking over the investigations. He is steady, practical, and willing to admit when he needs to learn more.

Expect thoughtful, regionally grounded mysteries rather than high-tech crime stories. The books balance police work with community knowledge and show Mitch slowly finding a fuller relationship to his Cherokee heritage. Start with The Grandfather Medicine for the strongest introduction to Mitch, Virgil, Buckskin, and the questions that shape the whole series.