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Thriller writer Ivy Pochoda is the award-winning author of "Wonder Valley" and "These Women." "Sing Her Down," her latest, follows two female ex-cons who carve a bloody trail from Arizona to Los Angeles, and is now available in paperback.
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy (1985)
McCarthy's polarizing masterpiece is the seminal text if you want to dig into the poetry of violence, or if you're tired of the whitewashed heroics of traditional Westerns. Sure, it's overdone (and perhaps overripe) in places — but that's what it took to transform bloodlust into indelible art. Buy it here.
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