The Buffalo Hunter Hunter

By: Stephen Graham Jones

Narrated by: Shane Ghostkeeper, Marin Ireland, Owen Teale

A 2026 Audie Award Winner for Horror

Selected as One of The New York Times’s 100 Notable Books of the Year
A Barack Obama Summer Read
Bram Stoker Award Winner for Superior Achievement in a Novel
Nebula Award Winner for Best Novel
Locus Award Winner for Horror
Libby Award Winner for Best Horror

Kirkus Reviews Best Historical Fiction
Los Angeles Times Book Prize Award Finalist
A Time, The Washington Post, NPR, Shelf Awareness, The Toronto Star, and Publishers Weekly Best of the Year

The New York Times bestseller and “horror masterpiece” (NPR) from Stephen Graham Jones—the master of modern horror—is a chilling historical horror novel tracing the life of a vampire who haunts the fields of the Blackfeet reservation looking for justice.

“Jones has written his Interview with the Indigenous Vampire. A landmark of horror and historical fiction alike, perhaps the closest thing we have to horror’s Moby-Dick.” —Vulture

“Inventive and spine-tingling…a master class in voice. Queasy, uneasy, The Buffalo Hunter Hunter plays with the interplay between religion and historical guilt, identity and appetite.” —The Washington Post

A diary, written in 1912 by a Lutheran pastor is discovered within a wall. What it unveils is a slow massacre, a chain of events that go back to 217 Blackfeet dead in the snow. Told in transcribed interviews by a Blackfeet named Good Stab, who shares the narrative of his peculiar life over a series of confessional visits. This is an American Indian revenge story written by one of the new masters of horror, Stephen Graham Jones.

Critic reviews

"Listeners don’t just experience a fascinating historical drama—they also become steeped in a bloody gothic Western. Stellar performances are the center of this compelling listening experience. Narrator Marin Ireland fully embodies the beleaguered humanities professor who, while deep diving into the campus archive, discovers the story of her ancestors. At the same time, she is struggling with her tenure committee. In a deft transition back to 1912, Owen Teale’s performance of a Lutheran pastor exhibits gravitas as he slowly unwinds the secrets of his relationship with Good Stab, a Blackfeet Indian who mysteriously appears in his congregation. Shane Ghostkeeper provides Good Stab with a subtle yet ferocious performance as the two face each other’s buried truths. Complete with creative production touches, the result is a dark, satisfying listen."

Historical Fiction At Its Best

A few disclaimers and descriptors on The Buffalo Hunter Hunter before I get to just how this made me feel: this book is pretty violent and the imagery it garners is about as grisly as it can get. The way Graham Jones is able to conjure up the gritty, claustrophobic, nasty reality of, say, having to escape from inside a buffalo carcass you've been bound in is impressive to say the least. He doesn't mince words or shy away from describing exactly how such a scene might look and play. If you can stomach that, (and not let that give you any pause either), then you can handle the book. I also want to point out that I didn't ever feel like these gory details were unnecessary at any point either. Every bloody detail he's written down are in service to telling the story and painting the picture. The way he recounts emotions and feelings are equally as evocative. I felt the pain and sadness with Good Stab at his lowest lows and never once did I feel that he didn't believe what he was recounting. It was written so truthfully that this all felt like a legitimate found journal(s?), despite all its fiction. The historical recounting of Good Stab is also questioned by our journal keeper so it gives the whole thing an added touch of legitimacy that this is a journal and not just some stenographers recording of what was told to them. Things like that made the whole story feel alive and real. I could probably go on but I'll only add a few more things, things I feel compelled to say after listening...

In the current political climate I feel like stories like this need to be held higher, spread farther, yelled about louder. It's an exceptional story that truly makes you feel the awful cost of "forging" this country. Whether it was worth it or not doesn't matter now- the deed is done. What does matter is that we don't forget all those that lost, and lost everything. The days of colonizing might be over, but the failures and sins of our past are always with us. Stories like this one force us to remember that sin- the cost- the debt we owe. And we do. I don't care how nonchalantly your baby boomer Dad hand wags away that cost, the debt is still there. How we repay that I don't know, but I think the least we can do is remember how awful it was. Stop trying to justify what was done with (disgusting, and unfortunately common) platitudes like, "it was just how things were done back then; it was a different time." Like genocide was ever ok... I'm not saying you have to walk around hating yourself just for living, which is what I think gets the old folks all flustered about- they think that's what is being asked of them when they're reminded of it. What we must do though is acknowledge the wrong. Stop it from continuing. Stop it from happening again. IT DOESN"T HAVE TO BE THAT WAY. I know this is "just" a piece of fiction but I felt it all to my core. Maybe this is all just...more hollow white man's guilt bullsht but it's all I know to do right now and feel compelled to do after listening to the Buffalo Hunter Hunter.

Besides the story, the performances of the actors and the handful of sound effects here and there, are all done so masterfully that it truly brought out the characters and setting better than any inner monologue could have, Maybe that's just my poor imagination speaking, but honestly I think it was done that well. .

I could not stop listening to this book once I started and until the previous book it had been a while since anything had done that for me on here. 2 for 2 this past month! Hopefully the next will be equally as great a listen as this was, but somehow I doubt it.

Book lasted longer than the story

I loved the book in the beginning, liked it a lot as it went and I've been looking at the last hour and a half of the book for months. I generally don't give up on a book if I've made it this far through. In fact, I don't believe I ever had stopped reading any book I got this far into, but the end was just such a plod. Things seemed so incredibly drawn out and some of the events were just asking for too much suspension of disbelief on the part of the listener. I loved the unique subject, the characters involved, the historical elements, and the story - it wasn't a book that made me wonder where the time had gone to, but it also wasn't hard to listen to either. The voice actors were superb. It just lost me entirely when it moved into the present. When I found myself losing track of what was happening in the story because I was hung up wondering why a character had decided to do this or that, I decided to pursue one of the other audio books I own. Still, there's an hour and a half I keep looking at. I wonder if the author managed to get the story going again and I just needed to give it a little more time, but I'm old and there are so many wonderful things left to read. I definitely think that if I had was a fan of this author I'd have loved it up to the end, but as it was, I loved it maybe 33% of the time, enjoyed it most of the rest of the time, but for me the ending should have happened earlier. I will definitely check out other books by the author, however.

Couldn’t put it down

Incredible performances, and Stephen’s vampires are such a special kind of dark and grotesque. This story broke my heart, disgusted me, excited me, and I found myself late to meetings just to listen to it for a little bit longer. Definitely my new favorite among his works.

Another outstanding book by Stephen Graham Jones!

Can’t say enough good things about this listen. Story and narrators were excellent. Can’t wait to see what’s next from SGJ!

Authenticity

I loved this in its entirety. The characters, the development of the story line as well as the feeling that I was there.