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Wayne D Dundee Books in Order

Browse Wayne D Dundee books in order, with quick summaries, series guides, reading order help, and tips on where to start with his westerns and mysteries.

Last updated: July 5, 2026

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41 books

Body Count

by Wayne D Dundee

1986

This Joe Hannibal collection opens the detective's case files across decades of work. From runaway wives to deadly obsession and badlands terror, the stories show how trouble follows him almost anywhere.

The Burning Season

by Wayne D Dundee

1988

Joe Hannibal tracks down a bail skip in southern Illinois and gets talked into one more job. The man's mother died in a suspicious fire, and Joe soon finds that the official story may be the least believable part of the case.

The Skintight Shroud

by Wayne D Dundee

1989

Joe Hannibal is drawn into a case involving two young adult-film actors, a painting that may be too good to be true, and the greed circling around it. What starts oddly soon turns dangerous.

The Brutal Ballet

by Wayne D Dundee

1991

Joe Hannibal takes a dubious job and lands in the bruised world of professional wrestling. Watching "Terrible" Tommy McGurk is only the start of a case shaped by grief, suspicion, and the damage people do when pain curdles.

The Raffle

by Wayne D Dundee

1994

A drenched young couple walks into a backcountry bar looking broke and harmless. Their money-making scam seems easy enough, until Dundee turns the setup inside out and the tables start to turn.

And Flesh and Blood So Cheap

by Wayne D Dundee

2001

Joe Hannibal heads into a Wisconsin summer resort town and finds more than postcard charm. Beneath the tacky bars and tourist gloss lies a murderous mystery, and the women around it have their own reasons for steering him away.

The Fight in the Dog

by Wayne D Dundee

2005

When reporter Jan Mosby finds a bloody dog nailed to her door, Joe Hannibal starts digging. The trail leads through bikers, animal cruelty, and uglier crimes waiting beneath the surface.

The Day After Yesterday

by Wayne D Dundee

2007

Joe Hannibal comes to Nebraska after two close friends die in a one-car crash. Rumors about what really happened do not add up, and Joe stays to chase the truth through grief, gossip, and danger.

Hard Trail to Socorro

by Wayne D Dundee

2011

Bounty hunter Bodie Kendrick has his prisoner, but collecting the reward turns into the hard part. Ranch hands, a stalker, renegade Apaches, and Veronica Fairburn all make the road to Socorro far deadlier than expected.

Counterpunch

by Wayne D Dundee

2012

After war and a hard climb through the regional boxing ranks, heavyweight Danny Dugronski refuses to throw fights for the mob. The refusal turns a sports story into a bruising battle for survival.

Manhunter's Mountain

by Wayne D Dundee

2012

Cash Laramie comes down a mountain with a prisoner and two prostitutes hoping to start over somewhere new. An early winter storm and the angry men chasing them make the trip a deadly one.

Night Spoor

by Wayne D Dundee

2012

A tough hit man thinks he understands evil until he crosses paths with Lenore, a beautiful predator who is not fully human. Dundee mixes hardboiled crime with vampire horror in a grim race to survive.

Reckoning at Rainrock

by Wayne D Dundee

2012

Lone McGantry takes a bounty job that sounds simple on paper: bring a fugitive young woman back to Rainrock for a retrial. On the trail, motives blur and justice starts to look a lot less straightforward.

Rio Matanza

by Wayne D Dundee

2012

Bodie Kendrick joins fellow bounty hunter Doc Turpin to track a murderous gang after a bank robbery. When Turpin disappears into a dangerous border town, Kendrick rides into a violent mess of rebels, corrupt officials, and outlaw power.

The Guns of Vedauwoo

by Wayne D Dundee

2012

Cash Laramie heads into Wyoming's Vedauwoo country looking for a hidden cache of rifles and the killer who may use them to spark wider violence. Outlaws, innocents, and old history crowd the trail.

Blade of the Tiger

by Wayne D Dundee

2013

Joe Hannibal is pulled into a murder mystery tied to a legendary weapon, Jim Bowie's own knife. When a woman is killed for carrying it, Joe goes after the truth and the people willing to kill for history.

Mean Christmas Night

by Wayne D Dundee

2013

On Christmas night, Father Maynard's faith is tested when three vicious punks invade his poor parish. It becomes a dark holiday tale about cruelty, endurance, and the kind of salvation nobody expects.

Starless Midnight

by Wayne D Dundee

2014

A lean, dark Dundee novella in which one long night brings fear, violence, and hard choices. The pressure keeps building until somebody has to break.

The Empty Badge

by Wayne D Dundee

2014

Cash Laramie has gone missing, and reports say a badge-wearing accomplice helping a bank-robbing gang is claiming to be him. Finding the truth means following twisting trails where rumor can kill as quickly as bullets.

The Naked and The Undead

by Wayne D Dundee

2014

A hardboiled investigation turns into something far bloodier when the target may not be alive at all. Dundee blends noir pressure and vampire horror into a fast, dangerous chase.

Wide Spot in the Road

by Wayne D Dundee

2014

Vagabond P.I. Jack Laramie stops at a lonely diner for chili and stumbles into trouble. A frightened young couple, a dead phone line, and a motorcycle gang turn one roadside meal into a fast, tense showdown.

Blaze! Bitter Valley

by Wayne D Dundee

2015

Kate and J.D. Blaze ride into Bitter Valley on what should be a working job and find themselves in a frontier powder keg. Dundee brings quick action, hard choices, and plenty of gun smoke.

Blaze! Ride Hard, Shoot Fast

by Wayne D Dundee

2015

Kate and J.D. Blaze are hired to watch over a grueling western endurance race. Before long, cheating, old hatreds, and sudden death make sure murder is running right alongside the horses.

Dismal River

by Wayne D Dundee

2015

Former army scout Lone McGantry rides into Nebraska sandhills country and finds himself in a dangerous tangle of secrets, violence, and hard choices. The land is wide open, but trouble closes in fast.

Stay of Execution

by Wayne D Dundee

2015

Once a respected frontier lawyer, J.D. Miller becomes something far deadlier after his family is slaughtered and his home burned. Now he rides the West as The Lawyer, hunting the men responsible.

The Retributioners

by Wayne D Dundee

2015

The Lawyer keeps chasing the gang tied to his family's murder and lands in Emmett, Texas. A dead marshal, a vicious outfit, and an uneasy alliance with deputy Ernest Tell push the revenge trail into open war.

Treasure of Ice and Fire

by Wayne D Dundee

2016

Rogue priest Nindocai hears the call of a mythical hammer and leads a ragged band across frozen country to find it. Tyrants, monsters, and the lure of godlike power make every step more perilous.

Dangerous Trails

by Wayne D Dundee

2020

This western collection ranges from gunfights to quieter reckonings, always with people under pressure in hard country. Dundee's stories keep returning to courage, regret, and the difficult shape of justice.

The Coldest Trail

by Wayne D Dundee

2021

Months after five ruthless men killed his partner and stole their horses, Lone McGantry is still hunting. The trail is long, bitter, and dangerous, but Lone has no intention of letting the matter rest.

The Forever Mountain

by Wayne D Dundee

2021

A dying request from an old friend sends Lone McGantry onto a hard western trail. Revenge, betrayal, and unforgiving country all stand between him and the justice he promised to deliver.

West Of Whitechapel

by Wayne D Dundee

2021

When Jack the Ripper-style murders start appearing in Colorado mining camps, a determined female journalist and a frontier detective follow the bloody trail. The question is as chilling as the killings: did Whitechapel's monster cross the ocean?

The Gun Wolves

by Wayne D Dundee

2022

Lone McGantry sets out after dangerous men on a punishing western trail. The country is unforgiving, the hunt keeps turning more lethal, and every mile pushes him closer to a violent reckoning.

Devil's Tower

by Wayne D Dundee

2023

Lone McGantry rides toward the shadow of Devil's Tower and into a knot of mystery, violence, and frontier grudges. The country is striking, but what waits there is anything but peaceful.

Rainrock Reckoning

by Wayne D Dundee

2023

Lone McGantry agrees to bring a young fugitive back to Rainrock for a fair retrial. The closer he gets, the clearer it becomes that the job is tangled in fear, pressure, and competing ideas of justice.

Rio Fuego

by Wayne D Dundee

2023

A mission for justice takes Lone McGantry toward Rio Fuego and straight into hard country, ruthless enemies, and loyalties that will not hold. Every mile makes the danger sharper.

Manhunter's Moon

by Wayne D Dundee

2024

A stormy night starts Lone McGantry's final hard ride, sending him into one more chase for justice. The trail is dangerous, personal, and costly in all the ways that matter.

Massacre Canyon

by Wayne D Dundee

2024

After a train robbery, Lone McGantry joins old friend Jeth Howard in pursuit of the Dar Pierce gang and a stolen jeweled brooch. Their chase runs across three states and toward a final showdown in Massacre Canyon.

Ride to the Bullet

by Wayne D Dundee

2024

Eight months into rebuilding his life, Lone McGantry is forced back onto a deadly trail when a new threat points straight at the source. To survive, he has to strike before the enemy does.

Ruthless Valley

by Wayne D Dundee

2024

Lone McGantry enters another brutal stretch of frontier country where desperate people, old wrongs, and armed men make mercy as dangerous as gunfire. The valley earns its name.

Braska

by Wayne D Dundee

2025

After six years in prison for a crime he did not commit, Virgil "Braska" Smith comes home to betrayal and disappearance. To save what is left of his family, he has to ride out for answers.

Diablo Gold

by Wayne D Dundee

2025

Fresh clues to a lost outlaw treasure pull Braska into a deadly hunt across brutal frontier country. What starts as a favor to an old friend quickly becomes a fight against greed, betrayal, and killers.

Where should I start?

If you want hardboiled private-eye cases: The Burning SeasonThe Skintight ShroudThe Brutal Ballet
If you want classic frontier justice: Dismal RiverReckoning at RainrockThe Forever Mountain
If you want bounty-hunter action on the border: Hard Trail to SocorroRio Matanza
If you want shared-world western adventures: Manhunter's MountainThe Guns of VedauwooThe Empty Badge
If you want a newer Dundee hero: BraskaDiablo Gold

Author bio

Wayne D Dundee grew up moving around the Midwest, mostly in southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois, and a lot of his early picture of the West came secondhand, through old television westerns, movies, and paperback adventures. He has written about being hooked young on shows like Cheyenne, Wagon Train, and Have Gun Will Travel, then later graduating to tougher western fiction from drugstore racks. That early mix of wide-open myth and pulpy action stayed with him.

Long before he ever lived in the West, he was writing his way toward it.

Dundee first made his name in crime fiction. His 1988 debut novel, The Burning Season, introduced private eye Joe Hannibal, a blue-collar investigator whose cases move through Illinois, Wisconsin, and beyond with plenty of fistfights, moral knots, and working-class grit. Readers who like hardboiled detectives with an actual conscience often end up staying for books like The Skintight Shroud, The Brutal Ballet, and later Joe Hannibal stories that keep the action rough but the emotional core steady.

He also founded and originally edited Hardboiled Magazine, which tells you a lot about where his instincts live on the page. The Joe Hannibal books were translated into other languages and picked up major mystery award nominations, including Edgar, Anthony, and multiple Shamus nods. Dundee never wrote slick, drawing-room puzzles. His work tends to be closer to the ground than that.

In 1998, he moved to Ogallala, Nebraska, for a management job with Arnold. That relocation mattered.

Living in western Nebraska gave him the landscape he had imagined for years, but it also gave him something better than imagination alone: firsthand experience of the high plains, small ranch towns, long roads, and the history still hanging around places like the Oregon Trail country. After that move, he turned more of his energy toward western fiction. Books like Dismal River, Hard Trail to Socorro, Manhunter's Mountain, and West of Whitechapel show what readers often like most about his westerns: strong forward motion, people under pressure, and a clear sense that the country itself can shape the story.

His heroes are rarely fancy. They are bounty hunters, drifters, lawmen, ex-scouts, or private eyes trying to do one decent thing in a bad situation.

After his wife's death in 2008, Dundee retired from Arnold in 2009 and began writing full time. He has continued to work across westerns, mysteries, horror, and fantasy, while keeping the same plainspoken, action-minded approach. He still lives in Ogallala, and that long connection to the Nebraska panhandle feels important. Even when he shifts genres, his stories usually come back to the same pressure points: loyalty, justice, violence, endurance, and what a person does when the easy choice is the wrong one.

Edited by

Richard Reis

Software engineer whose passion for tracking book recommendations from podcasts inspired the creation of MRB.

Anurag Ramdasan

Lead investor at 3one4 Capital whose startup expertise and love for books helped shaped MRB and its growth.

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