Tony Hillerman is probably the best-known writer of detective stories set in the Southwest. His mystery novels take place in Navajo country, in the Four Corners area where Arizona and New Mexico meet Utah and Colorado. Two Navajo police officers are the detectives in his best-selling 17-book series. The novels vividly evoke a sense of place and show the author's love of the region. Hillerman has won all the major awards for mystery writing. He passed away in 2008.
J.A. Jance has written two mystery series set in Arizona. Each series revolves around a different female detective. In one, Ali Reynolds is an ex-television journalist. In the other, Joanna Brady is a sheriff in southeastern Arizona, the same region where the author herself grew up. Jance also wrote a series of mystery thrillers, the Walker series, set on Arizona reservations. The author used her own experiences teaching on a reservation near Tucson for inspiration.
Elizabeth Gunn started her writing career with police procedurals set in Minnesota, where she grew up. In 2010 she started a new series set in Arizona, where she has lived for more than a decade. The series features Sarah Burke, a police detective in Tucson. Gunn has said that Tucson is a great setting for a mystery series. Tucson's climate attracts people from elsewhere, and its location near the border means there will be plenty of smuggling to write about. As of early 2011, there were three books in the series.
Jon Talton, currently a newspaper columnist in Seattle, grew up in Phoenix. He uses his hometown as the setting for his mystery series that features police officer and history professor David Mapstone. Creating a sense of place is important to Talton. He said he was inspired by the legendary mystery writer Raymond Chandler, who wrote about Los Angeles as if it was a character. Talton tries to give Tucson similar importance in his own books. Talton's family has lived in Arizona for generations. He sometimes draws on their stories for his plots.
Garrison Allen's "Big Mike" mystery series stars a mystery-bookstore owner and her cat, who team up to solve crimes in a small desert town. ("Big Mike" is the name of the cat.) Deb Baker's "Doll to Die For" books feature crime-solving Phoenix doll collectors. Sarah Atwell's "Glassblowing" series has a Tucson glassblower as its detective. Keith Miles' "Merlin Richard" series features an architect in Phoenix in the 1920s.