They are classified as Fiction/Literature with the subgenre Westerns.
Hard Country spans 1875–1918. Backlands covers the Roaring Twenties, the Dust Bowl years, the Great Depression, and the World War II era.
They follow the Kerney family, noting characters such as John Kerney and Matthew Kerney.
Reviewers praise the books' expansive, lyrical period‑Western storytelling and their authentic, detailed depiction of the American Southwest landscape and human stories.