Sam Watchman Books in Order

Sam Watchman only appears in two novels, Relentless and The Threepersons Hunt, but he is one of Garfield's most interesting protagonists. Sam is a Navajo state trooper working in Arizona, and the books use that position well. He belongs to the country he patrols, understands it in practical detail, and still has to move through conflicts shaped by law, race, reservation politics, and the long memory of local history.

In Relentless, a violent bank robbery in the mining town of San Miguel sends Sam after a gang that is as reckless as it is dangerous. The plot runs like a chase thriller, but the setting matters all the way through. This is not an abstract manhunt. Garfield keeps the desert, the roads, and the rhythms of an isolated town in view, which makes the hunt feel physical and lived in.

The second book shifts the pressure instead of repeating it.

In The Threepersons Hunt, Sam tracks an Apache fugitive across reservation land, and Garfield leans harder into the question of what it means for a Navajo officer to pursue a killer in country where community loyalties do not automatically run with the state. The case gets bigger and nastier as it unfolds, but the book never loses sight of the cultural and territorial tension built into the chase from the start.

What links the two books is Sam himself. He is not a flashy action hero. He is patient, observant, stubborn, and very good at his job. Garfield lets competence do the work, and that gives these novels a procedural edge that sits nicely beside the western landscape. The result is a hybrid of crime novel, manhunt story, and modern frontier tale.

If you like suspense rooted in place, Sam Watchman is worth your time. These books move quickly, but they also pay attention to the human ground under the action, who knows the land, who does not, and what happens when official law enters spaces where history has already written its own rules.