Wildlands Books in Order

The Wildlands series is Laura Bickle's strange, dusty take on modern Western fantasy. It begins with geologist Petra Dee arriving in Wyoming to look into her father's long-ago disappearance. She expects difficult terrain and buried family history. Instead, she finds Temperance, a struggling town where old alchemical forces, undead residents, dangerous bargains, and monsters are woven into the landscape.

Petra is a scientist by training, practical and observant even when the facts stop behaving. She is also the daughter of an alchemist, which leaves her tied to mysteries she would rather understand than inherit. Her companion Sig, a coyote with plenty of attitude, helps make the series feel both uncanny and close to the ground. Petra's partner, Gabriel, becomes another key part of the ongoing story.

The Wyoming setting is not a backdrop. Temperance sits near Yellowstone, where isolated roads, ranches, mountains, caves, wildlife, and brutal weather give every magical problem a physical shape. The series mixes folklore and alchemy with the pressures of a fading town, including poverty, addiction, land disputes, and people determined to control whatever power lies beneath the soil.

Start with Dark Alchemy. Petra comes to Temperance seeking answers about her father, then finds unexplained bodies and a covert struggle over the town's oldest secrets. The book introduces the central place, Petra's skeptical point of view, and the dangerous magic that will keep pulling her back.

Mercury Retrograde sends Petra after reports of a huge snake in Yellowstone's backcountry. The hunt for a basilisk brings monster hunters and a snake-worshipping biker gang to town, while the Tree of Life that sustains Temperance's undead begins to fail. The series gets bigger, stranger, and more morally complicated.

Nine of Stars moves fully into the Wildlands phase, with Petra facing a creature killing wolves and a haunted new sheriff whose investigation points toward Gabriel. In Witch Creek, Petra searches for her missing husband beneath a ranch while facing a threat that could reach Yellowstone. Phoenix Falling brings old history and wildfires to the surface as Petra confronts the shadow left by Temperance's founding alchemist.

Expect a weird Western with real stakes, offbeat creatures, and a heroine who keeps asking sensible questions in a place built on impossible answers.