Reavis Z Wortham Books in Order
Browse Reavis Z. Wortham books in order, with quick summaries, guides to his Texas mystery and thriller series, and simple advice on where to start.
Last updated: July 10, 2026
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Publication Order
19 books
Doreen's 24 Hr Eat Gas Now Cafe
by Reavis Z Wortham
1999
This early collection gathers funny, down-home stories about hunting, fishing, coffee-shop talk, and the regulars around Doreen's cafe. It is less a novel than a visit with a lively East Texas crowd.
The Rock Hole
by Reavis Z Wortham
2011
In 1964 Center Springs, farmer-constable Ned Parker investigates animal torture that turns to murder. When the killer targets his family and grandchildren Top and Pepper, a quiet community becomes a place of fear and reckoning.
Burrows
by Reavis Z Wortham
2012
Retired Ned Parker is pulled back in when a body in the Red River leads nephew Cody into a multistate killing spree. A booby-trapped warehouse and the children's lingering trauma make the case even darker.
The Right Side of Wrong
by Reavis Z Wortham
2013
After Cody Parker is nearly killed, Ned tries to connect a string of murders in Center Springs during the uneasy summer of 1966. The return of old fears and the arrival of mysterious Tom Bell deepen the danger.
Vengeance is Mine
by Reavis Z Wortham
2014
A Las Vegas gangster hides out in Center Springs, bringing trouble with him in 1967. As young Top's unsettling dreams point to violence ahead, the Parkers brace for a showdown that could turn their town into a battlefield.
Dark Places
by Reavis Z Wortham
2015
Pepper Parker runs toward California and the counterculture, while back home murders, a hit-and-run, and relentless rain keep Ned Parker chasing answers. The case sprawls across highways and flooded Texas roads as family worries mount.
Hawke's Prey
by Reavis Z Wortham
2017
Terrorists seize a West Texas courthouse during a historic blizzard and take dozens hostage. Unfortunately for them, Texas Ranger Sonny Hawke is trapped inside, and he has no intention of surrendering the building or the people in it.
Gold Dust
by Reavis Z Wortham
2018
Two shady government men bring a secret CIA operation to Center Springs just as Pepper sparks a local gold rush. When Top falls gravely ill, Ned Parker carries the fight far beyond Texas.
Hawke's War
by Reavis Z Wortham
2018
A sniper massacre in Big Bend draws Sonny Hawke into harsh desert country and the path of a violent cartel. Wounded, isolated, and hunted, he has to survive the land before he can stop the people using it.
Unraveled
by Reavis Z Wortham
2018
In 1968, a fatal crash and a renewed feud between the Clays and Mayfields throw Center Springs back into chaos. Top Parker watches old hatreds, hidden relationships, and a prowling stranger pull the community apart.
Hawke's Target
by Reavis Z Wortham
2019
A vigilante is hunting criminals who slipped past the justice system, leaving bodies across Texas. Sonny Hawke is determined to stop him, especially once innocents are caught in the crossfire and the trail turns truly savage.
Hawke's Fury
by Reavis Z Wortham
2020
Border Patrol agents and a film crew become targets in the violent Big Bend corridor. Sonny Hawke steps into cartel country to hit back, knowing the line between justice and all-out war is getting thinner by the minute.
Laying Bones
by Reavis Z Wortham
2021
When Ned Parker's nephew R.B. dies in what looks like a simple wreck, the details do not sit right. His search leads to a Red River honky-tonk, buried corruption, and murders meant to keep the truth hidden.
The Texas Job
by Reavis Z Wortham
2022
In 1931 Kilgore, Texas Ranger Tom Bell follows a fugitive into the chaos of the oil boom and uncovers a lethal land-grab scheme. When corrupt men strike too close to home, Bell answers with relentless force.
Hard Country
by Reavis Z Wortham
2023
After a drugged driver kills Tucker Snow's wife and toddler, the former undercover agent moves with his daughter to rural Texas to grieve. Peace does not last, and a vicious new meth trade drags him back into the fight.
The Broken Truth
by Reavis Z Wortham
2024
Tucker Snow suspects cattle theft is only the surface problem when a rancher dies and his land is quietly sold. Working with his brother Harley, he uncovers organized crime that threatens the people he still has left.
The Journey South
by Reavis Z Wortham
2024
Cowboy Cap Whitlatch agrees to escort his jailed friend Gil Vanderburg from Indian Territory to South Texas for trial. Cherokee brothers, hungry outlaws, and a hard-driving U.S. marshal turn the trip into a deadly test of loyalty.
The Only Saloon in Town
by Reavis Z Wortham
2024
Cap Whitlatch and Gil ride into Angel Fire hoping for a drink and find a town on the brink of chaos. A bank full of gold, scalp hunters, and a useless marshal leave the cleanup to them.
Comancheria
by Reavis Z Wortham
2025
Cursed Texas Ranger Buck Dallas rises each dawn, half alive and half something else, and rides with Lane Newsome across a haunted frontier. Their search for a missing girl and a hidden spring turns into a grim supernatural quest.
Where should I start?
If you want the core Red River mysteries: The Rock Hole → Burrows → The Right Side of Wrong
If you like modern Texas Ranger action: Hawke's Prey → Hawke's War → Hawke's Target → Hawke's Fury
If you want a newer neo-western crime series: Hard Country → The Broken Truth
If you prefer old-school frontier adventure: The Journey South → The Only Saloon in Town
If you want something darker and stranger: Comancheria
Author bio
Reavis Z. Wortham was born in Paris, Texas, and grew up in Dallas, but the country along the Red River never really let go of him. Family roots in that part of northeast Texas, plus long stretches spent hunting and fishing there, gave him the landscape that would later become Center Springs and the world of the Red River books.
He wanted to write early. As a boy he was a steady library kid, and after high school he even shelved books at Dallas's Casa View Library, reading whenever he could steal a few extra minutes. That habit never left.
He studied at what is now East Texas A&M University, earning degrees there, but writing was not yet the day job. For 35 years he worked in public education in Garland, first teaching, then moving into communications. He retired as Garland ISD's director of communications and crisis manager.
Writing took the scenic route.
A big turning point came in August 1988, when a coworker bet she could write a newspaper column and get it published first. Wortham took the bet, wrote his own column instead, and got it accepted by The Paris News. That small dare turned into decades of steady work. He has since written more than 2,000 newspaper and magazine pieces, including a long-running outdoor column, and those years helped shape the easy voice and dry humor readers know from his fiction.
When he finally broke into novels, he did it with The Rock Hole, the first Red River mystery. The book draws loosely on his grandfather, a Lamar County constable, and on the people and places Wortham knew around the river bottoms. Readers came for the murder plot, but many stayed for the family texture, the sharp talk, and the sense of place. Burrows, The Right Side of Wrong, and Laying Bones kept building that world.
He arrived in crime fiction later than most, and that turned out to be an advantage.
By the time his first novel appeared, Wortham had already spent years listening to how people actually talk, how small communities remember things, and how trouble moves through a family. The Red River books mix mystery, coming-of-age tension, country humor, and sudden violence. The Sonny Hawke novels, starting with Hawke's Prey, push into faster Texas Ranger action, while Hard Country and The Broken Truth introduce Tucker Snow, another lawman working cases where grief, land, cattle, drugs, and money all collide.
He has also written straight westerns and stranger frontier stories, including the Cap Whitlatch books and Comancheria. Across the different series, the through line is clear: weathered lawmen, stubborn families, rough country, and people trying to do right when doing right can get you hurt. Along the way, he has picked up Spur Awards for the Sonny Hawke novels and multiple Will Rogers Medallions for his Texas-set fiction.
These days Wortham lives in north Texas with his wife, Shana, and still sounds like a man happiest outdoors. He camps, hunts, fishes, travels, and keeps writing. It took him a while to get to fiction, but once he got there, he brought a full lifetime with him.
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