LibGuides: Spur Awards: Western Contemporary Novel (2014- )

SPUR Awards

Best Western Contemporary Novel
2014 - Present

2020s

WINNER

On Swift Horses: a Novel by Shannon Pufahl

On Swift Horses by Shannon Pufahl
Call Number: FIC PUFAH SHA ON (Adult fiction)
ISBN: 9780525538110
Publication Date: 2019-11-05
Muriel is newly married and restless, transplanted from her rural Kansas hometown to life in a dusty bungalow in San Diego. The air is rich with the tang of salt and citrus, but the limits of her new life seem to be closing in: She misses her freethinking mother, dead before Muriel's nineteenth birthday, and her sly, itinerant brother-in-law, Julius, who made the world feel bigger than she had imagined. And so she begins slipping off to the Del Mar racetrack to bet and eavesdrop, learning the language of horses and risk. Meanwhile, Julius is testing his fate in Las Vegas, working at a local casino where tourists watch atomic tests from the roof, and falling in love with Henry, a young card cheat. When Henry is eventually discovered and run out of town, Julius takes off to search for him in the plazas and dives of Tijuana, trading one city of dangerous illusions and indiscretions for another.

FINALISTS:

This Side of Night by J. Todd Scott
Sweep Out the Ashes by Mary Clearman Blew

WINNER

Winter Counts by David Heska & Wanbli Weiden

Winter Counts [E-Book] : a novel by David Heska Wanbli Weiden
Call Number: FIC WEIDE DAVH WI Ebook (OverDrive)
ISBN: 9780062968968
Publication Date: 2020-08-25
Virgil Wounded Horse is the local enforcer on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota. When justice is denied by the American legal system or the tribal council, Virgil is hired to deliver his own punishment, the kind that's hard to forget. But when heroin makes its way into the reservation and finds Virgil's nephew, his vigilantism suddenly becomes personal. He enlists the help of his ex-girlfriend and sets out to learn where the drugs are coming from, and how to make them stop. They follow a lead to Denver and find that drug cartels are rapidly expanding and forming new and terrifying alliances. And back on the reservation, a new tribal council initiative raises uncomfortable questions about money and power. As Virgil starts to link the pieces together, he must face his own demons and reclaim his Native identity. He realizes that being a Native American in the twenty-first century comes at an incredible cost.

FINALISTS

King of Taos by Max Evans
The Resurrection of Fulgencio Ramirez by Rudy Ruiz

WINNER

Dark Sky: a Joe Picket Novel by C. J. Box

Dark Sky (Joe Pickett #21) by C. J. Box
Call Number: FIC BOX CJ P21 (Adult fiction)
ISBN: 9780525538271
Publication Date: 2021-03-02
Dark Sky [E-Book] (Joe Pickett #21) by C. J. Box
Call Number: FIC BOX CJ P21 Ebook (OverDrive)
ISBN: 9780525538288
Publication Date: 2021-03-02
Dark Sky [streaming audiobook] (Joe Pickett #21) by C. J. Box; David Chandler (Narrated by)
Call Number: FIC BOX CJ P21 Audiobk (OverDrive)
ISBN: 9781980021780
Publication Date: 2021-03-02

FINALISTS:

A Particular Madness by Sheldon Russell
Dissolution: the Wyoming Chronicles #1 by W. Michael Gear

WINNER: Beasts of the Earth by James Wade

Beasts of the Earth by James Wade
Call Number: FIC WADE JAM BE (Adult fiction)
ISBN: 9781665024082
Publication Date: 2022-10-11
The story of Harlen LeBlanc, who leads a quiet life until it is overthrown by an act of violence, and of Michael Fischer, who, twenty years earlier, goes on the run from evil until he is rescued by a dying poet and his lover. They extract his promise to be a good man, no matter the cost.

FINALISTS:

Blind Eye by Martha Burns
River Woman, River Demon by Jennifer Givhan

Blind Eye by Martha Burns
Call Number: FIC BURNS MAR BL (Adult fiction)
ISBN: 9781639883660
Publication Date: 2022-05-20
At the Bounty Canyon Ranch in Southeastern New Mexico, the bodies of Luke and Deona Pruitt are buried in a manure pit and their fourteen year old son Leeland Pruitt is missing. Deputy Sheriff Greenwood is called out to investigate the missing Pruitt family and discovers the grim scene. Leeland's brutal upbringing was an open secret overlooked by neighbors and teachers for years. The community turned a blind eye as Leeland was moved by his cruel father from one remote ranch to another. And so, Deputy Greenwood begins a twenty-four hour hunt to find and save the boy suspected of murdering his parents. Blind Eye is both a tragedy and a dilemma of moral conscience. In this tale of cultural complicity, the community, at best, looked the other way and, at worst, enabled abuse, leaving us all to ask, "What is too much to ask of a boy?"
River Woman, River Demon by Jennifer Givhan
Call Number: FIC GIVHA JEN RI (Adult fiction)
ISBN: 9781665057509
Publication Date: 2022-10-04
Eva Santos Moon is a burgeoning Chicana artist who practices the ancient, spiritual ways of brujería and curanderisma, but she's at one of her lowest points--suffering from disorienting blackouts, creative stagnation, and a feeling of disconnect from her magickal roots. When her husband, a beloved university professor and the glue that holds their family together, is taken into custody for the shocking murder of their friend, Eva doesn't know whom to trust--least of all, herself. She soon falls under suspicion as a potential suspect, and her past rises to the surface, dredging up the truth about an eerily similar death from her childhood. Struggling with fragmented memories and self-doubt, an increasingly terrified Eva fears that she might have been involved in both murders. But why doesn't she remember? Only the dead women know for sure, and they're coming for her with a haunting vengeance. As she fights to keep her family out of danger, Eva realizes she must use her magick as a bruja to protect herself and her loved ones, while confronting her own dark history.

WINNER: The Longmire Defense by Craig Johnson

The Longmire Defense (Longmire #19) by Craig Johnson
Call Number: FIC JOHNS CRA L19 (Adult fiction)
ISBN: 9780593297315
Publication Date: 2023-09-05
Walt Longmire faces one of his most challenging crime scenes as he tries to reckon with the revelations of his last case where he confronted the ghosts of his past and questioned the very nature of justice and mercy in the hard country of the West. Deep in the heart of the Wyoming countryside, Sheriff of Absaroka County, Walt Longmire, is called to a crime scene like few others that he has seen. This crime brings up issues that go back to Walt's grandfather's time in Wyoming, as the revelations he learns about his grandfather come back to offer clues and motives for Walt's investigation.

FINALISTS:

Calico by Lee Goldberg
Standing Dead : a Timber Creek K-9 Mystery by Margaret Mizushima

Calico by Lee Goldberg
Call Number: FIC GOLDB LEE CA
ISBN: 9781448310135
Publication Date: 2023-11-07
There's a saying in Barstow, California, a decaying city in the scorching Mojave desert . . .The Interstate here only goes in one direction: Away. But it's the only place where ex-LAPD detective Beth McDade, after a staggering fall from grace, could get another badge . . . and a shot at redemption. Over a century ago, and just a few miles further into the bleak landscape, a desperate stranger ended up in Calico, a struggling mining town, also hoping for a second chance. His fate, all those years ago, and hers today are linked when Beth investigates an old skeleton dug up in a shallow, sandy grave . . . and also tries to identify a vagrant run-over by a distracted motorhome driver during a lightning storm. Every disturbing clue she finds, every shocking discovery she makes, force Beth to confront her own troubled past . . . and a past that's not her own . . . until it all smashes together in a revelation that could change the world.
Standing Dead (Timber Creek K-9 mystery #8) by Margaret Mizushima
Call Number: FIC MIZUS MAR T8
ISBN: 9781639102440
Publication Date: 2023-03-07
Deputy Mattie Cobb and her sister, Julia, travel to Mexico to visit their mother, but when they arrive, they discover that she and her husband have vanished without a trace. Back in Timber Creek, Mattie finds a chilling note on her front door telling her to look for 'him' among the standing dead up in the high country. The sheriff's department springs into action and sends a team to the mountains, where Mattie's K-9 partner, Robo, makes a grisly discovery of a body tied to a dead pine tree. Mattie is shocked when she realizes she knows the dead man. And then another note arrives, warning that Mattie's mother is in desperate straits. In a last-ditch gambit, Mattie must go deep undercover into a killer's lair to save her mother--or die trying.

2010s

WINNER

Light of the World: a Dave Robicheaux novel by James Lee Burke

Light of the World (Dave Robicheaux #20) by James Lee Burke
Call Number: FIC BURKE JAML R20 (Adult fiction)
ISBN: 9781476710761
Publication Date: 2013-07-23
In Light of the World, sadist and serial killer Asa Surrette narrowly escaped the death penalty for the string of heinous murders he committed while capital punishment was outlawed in Kansas. But following a series of damning articles written by Dave Robicheaux’s daughter Alafair about possible other crimes committed by Surette, the killer escapes from a prison transport van and heads to Montana - where an unsuspecting Dave happens to have gone to take in the sweet summer air, accompanied by Alafair, his wife Molly, faithful partner Clete, and Clete’s newfound daughter, Gretchen Horowitz, whom listeners met in Burke’s most recent best seller Creole Belle. 9781476710761
Light of the World [CD] (Dave Robicheaux #20) by James Lee Burke; Will Patton (Read by)
Call Number: CD Fiction BU R20 (Adult CD audiobooks)
ISBN: 9781442361478
Publication Date: 2013-07-23

FINALISTS:

Kind of Kin by Rilla Askew
The Old Man's Love Story by Rudolfo Anaya

WINNER

Bad Country by C. B. McKenzie

FINALISTS:

Any Other Name by Craig Johnson
The Red Bird All-Indian Traveling Band by Frances Washburn

Any Other Name (Longmire #10) by Craig Johnson
Call Number: FIC JOHNS CRA L10 (Adult fiction)
ISBN: 9780670026463
Publication Date: 2014-05-13
Sheriff Walt Longmire had already rounded up a sizable posse of devoted readers when the A&E television series Longmire sent the Wyoming lawman's popularity skyrocketing. Now, with three consecutive New York Times bestsellers to his name and the second season of Longmire reaching an average of 5.4 million viewers per episode, Craig Johnson is reaching a fan base that is both fiercely loyal and ever growing. In Any Other Name, Walt is sinking into high-plains winter discontent when his former boss, Lucian Conally, asks him to take on a mercy case in an adjacent county. Detective Gerald Holman is dead and Lucian wants to know what drove his old friend to take his own life. With the clock ticking on the birth of his first grandchild, Walt learns that the by-the-book detective might have suppressed evidence concerning three missing women. Digging deeper, Walt uncovers an incriminating secret so dark that it threatens to claim other lives even before the sheriff can serve justice--Wyoming style.

WINNER

Crazy Mountain Kiss: a Sean Stranahan mystery by Keith McCafferty

FINALISTS:

The Canyon: a novel by Stanley Crawford
The Darkness Rolling by Win Blevins & Meredith Blevin

WINNER

Off the Grid: a Joe Pickett novel by C. J. Box

Off the Grid (Joe Pickett #16) by C. J. Box
Call Number: FIC BOX CJ P16 (Adult fiction)
ISBN: 9780399176609
Publication Date: 2016-03-08
Joe Pickett's old friend Nate Romanowski is off the grid, recuperating from wounds and lying low while the FBI search for him. But they are not the only ones looking for him and Nate finds himself confronting an elite team of special forces soldiers. They're not there to take him in - they say - but to make a deal. They need his help destroying a domestic terror cell in Wyoming's Red Desert, and in return they'll make Nate's criminal record disappear. But Joe's not sure they can be trusted. And they can't. They have a very different plan in mind, and it just may be something that takes them all down--Nate and Joe included.
Off the Grid [E-Book] (Joe Pickett #16) by C. J. Box
Call Number: FIC BOX CJ P16 Ebook (OverDrive)
ISBN: 9780698410053
Publication Date: 2016
Off the Grid [streaming audiobook] (Joe Pickett #16) by C. J. Box; David Chandler (Narrated by)
Call Number: FIC BOX CJ P16 Audiobk (OverDrive)
ISBN: 9781501905575
Publication Date: 2016-03-08

FINALISTS:

Jasper Spring by James T. Hughes
Hidden Star by Corinne Joy Brown

WINNER

Double Wide by Leo W. Banks

FINALISTS:

Murder on the Red River by Marcie R. Rendon
The Stone Place by Randy Lee Eickhoff

WINNER

The Flicker of Old Dreams by Susan Henderson

The Flicker of Old Dreams by Susan Henderson
ISBN: 9780062834072
Publication Date: 2018-03-13
Finding fulfillment in her job as an embalmer in her father's small town mortuary, outsider Mary bonds with a villainized local who was blamed for a fatal accident twenty years earlier, a friendship that compels her to consider what might happen if she were to leave their fading community.

FINALISTS:

Deep Fire Rise by Jon Gosch
Broken Field: a novel by Jeff Hull

Broken Field by Jeff Hull
Call Number: FIC HULL JEF BR (Adult fiction)
ISBN: 9781628729788
Publication Date: 2018-10-16
Told from the perspective of a high school girl and a football coach, Broken Field reveals the tensions that tear at the fabric of a small town when a high school hazing incident escalates and threatens a championship season. Set on the high prairies of Montana, in small towns scattered across vast landscapes, the distances in Broken Field are both insurmountable and deeply internalized. Life is dusty and hard, and men are judged by their labor. Women have to be tougher yet. That's what sixteen-year-old Josie Frehse learns as she struggles to meet the expectations of her community while fumbling with her own desires. Tom Warner coaches the Dumont Wolfpack, an eight-man football team, typical for such small towns. Warner is stumbling through life, numbed by the death of his own young son and the dissolution of his marriage. But he's jolted into taking sides when his star players are accused of a hazing incident that happened right under his nose. The scandal divides and ignites the town and in Broken Field, Jeff Hull brilliantly gives breadth and depth to both sides of this fractured community, where the roots of bullying reach deep, secrets are buried, and, in a school obsessed with winning, everyone loses.

Spur Awards

2020s

WINNER

On Swift Horses: a Novel by Shannon Pufahl

FINALISTS:

This Side of Night by J. Todd Scott

Sweep Out the Ashes by Mary Clearman Blew

WINNER

Winter Counts by David Heska & Wanbli Weiden

FINALISTS

King of Taos by Max Evans

The Resurrection of Fulgencio Ramirez by Rudy Ruiz

WINNER

Dark Sky: a Joe Picket Novel by C. J. Box

FINALISTS:

A Particular Madness by Sheldon Russell

Dissolution: the Wyoming Chronicles #1 by W. Michael Gear

WINNER: Beasts of the Earth by James Wade

FINALISTS:

Blind Eye by Martha Burns

River Woman, River Demon by Jennifer Givhan

WINNER: The Longmire Defense by Craig Johnson

FINALISTS:

Calico by Lee Goldberg

Standing Dead : a Timber Creek K-9 Mystery by Margaret Mizushima

2010s

WINNER

Light of the World: a Dave Robicheaux novel by James Lee Burke

FINALISTS:

Kind of Kin by Rilla Askew

The Old Man's Love Story by Rudolfo Anaya

WINNER

Bad Country by C. B. McKenzie

FINALISTS:

Any Other Name by Craig Johnson

The Red Bird All-Indian Traveling Band by Frances Washburn

WINNER

Crazy Mountain Kiss: a Sean Stranahan mystery by Keith McCafferty

FINALISTS:

The Canyon: a novel by Stanley Crawford

The Darkness Rolling by Win Blevins & Meredith Blevin

WINNER

Off the Grid: a Joe Pickett novel by C. J. Box

FINALISTS:

Jasper Spring by James T. Hughes

Hidden Star by Corinne Joy Brown

WINNER

Double Wide by Leo W. Banks

FINALISTS:

Murder on the Red River by Marcie R. Rendon

The Stone Place by Randy Lee Eickhoff

WINNER

The Flicker of Old Dreams by Susan Henderson

FINALISTS:

Deep Fire Rise by Jon Gosch

Broken Field: a novel by Jeff Hull