--- title: Winter Counts: The 100 Best Mystery and Thriller Books description: Find out why 'Winter Counts' by David Heska Wanbli Weiden made the list. canonical: https://time.com/collections/best-mystery-thriller-books/6309252/winter-counts/ article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2023-10-03T11:50:03.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-03T00:20:14.100Z og:title: Winter Counts: The 100 Best Mystery and Thriller Books og:description: Here’s why it made the list og:url: https://time.com/collections/best-mystery-thriller-books/6309252/winter-counts/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6fc3e861c93a4ceb/698a4075db2987a3db269590/WinterCounts.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Winter Counts: The 100 Best Mystery and Thriller Books og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Winter Counts: The 100 Best Mystery and Thriller Books twitter:description: Here’s why it made the list twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6fc3e861c93a4ceb/698a4075db2987a3db269590/WinterCounts.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Oct 03, 2023 # Winter Counts ## Video: How We Chose the 100 Best Mystery and Thriller Books of All Time [Watch (HLS stream): How We Chose the 100 Best Mystery and Thriller Books of All Time](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/bNzuDcsg.m3u8) (1:35)  _Published 2023-10-02. Here's how TIME created its 100 Best Mystery and Thriller Books list. There are books from 15 different countries, and no author appears on the list more than once._ by David Heska Wanbli Weiden by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff  Virgil Wounded Horse straddles two worlds. The vigilante-style hired muscle is half white and half Lakota, and he stopped believing in Native rituals and ceremonies when they failed to save his dad from cancer years ago. But now, as the threat of heroin creeps closer to the reservation and his loved ones, he finds himself reclaiming his identity. Virgil and an unlikely ally, his ex-girlfriend Marie Short Bear, set out to get to the bottom of the drug supply infiltrating their community. --- ### More from TIME --- David Heska Wanbli Weiden, an enrolled member of the Sicangu Lakota Nation, knows the setting of his 2020 novel: he spent summers on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in [South Dakota](https://time.com/6276127/wounded-knee-occupation-history/ "undefined") when he was growing up. _Winter Counts_ is crime fiction at its core, wrapped in tendrils of reservation politics, family relations, and personal reckoning with identity. It was a 2021 Edgar Award nominee for Best First Novel and won a 2021 Anthony Award. —_Laura Zornosa_ **Buy Now:** _Winter Counts_ on [Bookshop](https://bookshop.org/a/4973/9780062968951 "undefined") | [Amazon](https://amzn.to/3OVTHff "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/best-mystery-thriller-books/6309252/winter-counts/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/best-mystery-thriller-books/6309252/winter-counts/"},"headline":"Winter Counts","datePublished":"2023-10-03T11:50:03.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-03T00:20:14.100Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/best-mystery-thriller-books/6309252/winter-counts/","keywords":["Books"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6fc3e861c93a4ceb/698a4075db2987a3db269590/WinterCounts.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6fc3e861c93a4ceb/698a4075db2987a3db269590/WinterCounts.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/best-mystery-thriller-books/6309252/winter-counts/","name":"Winter Counts"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"How We Chose the 100 Best Mystery and Thriller Books of All Time","description":"Here's how TIME created its 100 Best Mystery and Thriller Books list. 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