Book picks similar to
Hanging Judge by Elmer Kelton
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Long Ride Home
W. Michael Gear - 1988
In the fierce and lawless Western frontier of 1874 these traits were what was needed to stay alive. Haunted by the ghosts of the men he's killed, there is one man he has set out to destroy... Louis Gasceaux, the man who murdered his parents while a younger Theo watched. But the trail Theo's following is long and bloody... and Louis always seems to stay a few steps ahead.This is how it was—from gritty buffalo and gold camps to brawling, building towns like Denver, Cheyenne, and Dodge City, populated with ambitious dreamers, deluded fools, and pragmatic women.W. Michael Gear brings the past alive in Long Ride Home—a gripping western tale.
The Orchardist
Amanda Coplin - 2012
A gentle, solitary man, he finds solace and purpose in the sweetness of the apples, apricots, and plums he grows, and in the quiet, beating heart of the land--the valley of yellow grass bordering a deep canyon that has been his home since he was nine years old. Everything he is and has known is tied to this patch of earth. It is where his widowed mother is buried, taken by illness when he was just thirteen, and where his only companion, his beloved teenaged sister Elsbeth, mysteriously disappeared. It is where the horse wranglers--native men, mostly Nez Perce--pass through each spring with their wild herds, setting up camp in the flowering meadows between the trees.One day, while in town to sell his fruit at the market, two girls, barefoot and dirty, steal some apples. Later, they appear on his homestead, cautious yet curious about the man who gave them no chase. Feral, scared, and very pregnant, Jane and her sister Della take up on Talmadage's land and indulge in his deep reservoir of compassion. Yet just as the girls begin to trust him, brutal men with guns arrive in the orchard, and the shattering tragedy that follows sets Talmadge on an irrevocable course not only to save and protect them, putting himself between the girls and the world, but to reconcile the ghosts of his own troubled past.Writing with breathtaking precision and empathy, Amanda Coplin has crafted an astonishing debut novel about a man who disrupts the lonely harmony of an ordered life when he opens his heart and lets the world in. Transcribing America as it once was before railways and roads connected its corners, she weaves a tapestry of solitary souls who come together in the wake of unspeakable cruelty and misfortune, bound by their search to discover the place they belong. At once intimate and epic, evocative and atmospheric, filled with haunting characters both vivid and true to life, and told in a distinctive narrative voice, The Orchardist marks the beginning of a stellar literary career.The National Book Foundation selected Amanda Coplin as one of the authors being honored as "5 Under 35" in 2013.
Flight to Eden
Douglas Hirt - 2004
Satan has caused the fall of man and now wants complete control of earth. His chief problem is the annoying line of humans descended from Seth. They insist on honoring the Creator.His other problem is the prophecy spoken in the Garden of Eden. There's a Redeemer coming who has the power to "crush his head" and ultimately defeat him. Satan is determined to stop this from happening. Knowing the Redeemer must be born of a human to be truly both human and God,Satan initiates a grand scheme to pollute the human bloodline and prevent the prophesy from coming to pass! Based on Genesis 6, this story will inspire readers as it transports them to an ancient time in the development of Christ's lineage!Download the Readers' Guide.
The Changing Wind
Don Coldsmith - 1990
He was called White Buffalo, and he would be the greatest medicine man the People had ever known. The spirit of the ancient gods beat in him like a savage drum--a mystical power as old as the land, as primeval as primitive man himself. But even as he fought to lead his people out of the darkness of the Stone Age, his world trembled on the brink of a great and terrible transformation. It would be a century swept by the inevitable winds of change; a time when ignorant, evil men like the warrior Gray Wolf of the Head-Splitters would seek bloody vengeance, and when once man would fight against all odds to save his tribe and his heritage from brutal destruction.
Brings the Lightning
Peter Grant - 2016
Walt Ames, a former cavalryman with the First Virginia, is headed West with little more than a rifle, a revolver, and a pocket full of looted Yankee gold. But in his way stand bushwhackers, bluecoats, con men, and the ever-restless Indians. And perhaps most dangerous of all, even more dangerous than the cruel and unforgiving land, is the temptation of the woman whose face he can't forget. When you can’t go home again – go West!
So Brave, Young, and Handsome
Leif Enger - 2008
His only success long behind him, Monte lives simply with his wife and son. But when he befriends outlaw Glendon Hale, a new world of opportunity and experience presents itself. Glendon has spent years in obscurity, but the guilt he harbors for abandoning his wife, Blue, over two decades ago, has lured him from hiding. As the modern age marches swiftly forward, Glendon aims to travel back to his past--heading to California to seek Blue's forgiveness. Beguiled and inspired, Monte soon finds himself leaving behind his own family to embark for the unruly West with his fugitive guide. As they desperately flee from the relentless Charles Siringo, an ex-Pinkerton who's been hunting Glendon for years, Monte falls ever further from his family and the law, to be tempered by a fiery adventure from which he may never get home.
The Big Sky
A.B. Guthrie Jr. - 1947
B. Guthrie Jr.'s epic adventure novels set in the American West. Here he introduces Boone Caudill, Jim Deakins, and Dick Summers: traveling the Missouri River from St. Louis to the Rockies, these frontiersmen live as trappers, traders, guides, and explorers. The story centers on Caudill, a young Kentuckian driven by a raging hunger for life and a longing for the blue sky and brown earth of big, wild places. Caught up in the freedom and savagery of the wilderness, Caudill becomes an untamed mountain man, whom only the beautiful daughter of a Blackfoot chief dares to love.
Death Rattle
Sean Lynch - 2019
. . THE LEGEND BEGINS In 1863, a teenaged boy fled his home in Atherton, Missouri, to escape the power-hungry men who murdered his father and stole his family's land. He joined the Confederacy under an assumed name and led guerilla raids in the Civil War. Then came a decade as a Texas Ranger. Now, after ten blood-soaked years, he is finally coming home. Finally using his real name. And finally getting revenge against the cold-hearted devils who destroyed his family and his life . . .This is the story of Samuel Pritchard. Now a small town sheriff with a long history of violence, a deep sense of honor, and wild streak of justice as dangerous as the guns that made him famous . . ."A riveting thriller that bristles with hard-boiled authenticity." --bestselling author Mark Greaney on Thy Partner's Wife "Sean Lynch spins a tale that is fast, fun and realistic." --Bestselling author James O. Born on Like Hell
The Gates of the Alamo
Stephen Harrigan - 2000
The story unfolds with vivid immediacy and describes the pivotal battle from the perspective of the Mexican attackers as well as the American defenders. Filled with dramatic scenes, and abounding in fictional and historical personalities--among them James Bowie, David Crockett, William Travis, and General Santa Anna--The Gates of the Alamo enfolds us in history and, through its remarkable and passionate storytelling, allows us to participate at last in an American legend.
Boat of Longing
O.E. Rølvaag - 1974
E. Rölvaag lyrically chronicles the experiences of Nils Vaag, a young Norwegian immigrant. Abandoning the life of a fisherman in Nordland, a region poor but full of mystical beauty, Nils emigrates to the New World in 1912. There he sweeps saloons, lives in a boardinghouse called "Babel" for the many languages used by its residents, and begins to find his way among the people of the city.The Boat of Longing was Rölvaag's favorite of all his books and the only one set in urban America. When it was first published in English in 1933, it received wide praise from American critics. This edition includes an introduction by Einar Haugen, professor emeritus of Scandinavian and Linguistics at Harvard University and author of a critical study of Rölvaag.
Ezekiel's Journey
Johnny Gunn - 2017
A lesser man might just give it up; but Ezekiel Hawthorne isn’t a quitter. While thousands head to the California gold fields in wagons, Ezekiel loads his mule and embarks on an amazing venture across the continent alone, bound for the good soils and abundant waters of Oregon. Savages, tornadoes, and a lack of knowledge don’t slow the man down a bit. It’s a beautiful half-Shoshone woman who has the biggest impact on Ezekiel’s new life.
Yavapai Gold
R.O. Lane - 2018
The two men are former Texas Rangers. Along with Sutton's daughter, the former Rangers ride into the Bradshaws with outlaws on their trail, who know that Sutton has a map to buried gold. Sutton's brother years before had buried the gold before being killed by Yavapai Indians, who considered the Bradshaws sacred territory. Kilcannon marries Sutton's daughter, who is then kidnapped by the outlaws, who kill her father. Kilcannon rescues his wife and the two of them find ways to get the gold back to Prescott, the capital of Arizona Territory. Outlaws kidnap Kilcannon's wife again, but she's armed and dangerous. She kills Buster Oldham, leader of the gang of outlaws, with her pocket pistol, and Kilcannon rescues her and kills the last of the outlaws. It's another classic western with a bit of romance by R. O. Lane.
The Third Western Megapack: 22 Classic Tales of the Old West
S. Omar Barker - 2014
Bonham THE SECRET CACHE, by E. C. BrillBOOTHILL BOUND, by J. R. JacksonHELL-PATH FOR PILGRIMS, by William HeumanHANDY MAN TO HAVE AROUND, by Donald Bayne HobartTHE JAIL-PROOF OUTLAW, by T. W. FordSIXGUN AND PENCIL LEAD, by Ben FrankMEN WHO MADE THE WEST, by Earle WilsonTHE LAST MILE, by Frank Richardson PierceTHE WAGON WARRIOR, by Les Savage, Jr.TONY'S BANJO, by Carl Elmo FreemanFINGERS ON THE TRIGGER, by S. Omar BarkerCROOKED, by James H. HullCALICO CAPEN'S CACHE, by J.e. GrinsteadFLAPJACK MEEHAN'S FOURTH ACE, by Frank Richardson PierceBULLION AND BULLETS, by J. Thompson KescelAnd if you enjoy this volume, don't forget to search your favorite ebook store for "Wildside Press Megapack" to see more entries in this great series, covering science fiction, fantasy, horror, mysteries, westerns, classics -- and much, much more!
Power in the Blood
Greg Matthews - 1993
In 1869, the Dugan siblings board an orphan train in upstate New York. Adopted by different families at separate stops along the train’s westward journey, Clay, Zoe, and Drew vow to find one another as soon as they can, but tragic circumstances conspire against them. Clay avenges the brutal murder of his foster parents and becomes one of the most feared bounty hunters in the West. Raped by her new father, Zoe gives birth to a daughter whose vivid blue birthmark portends the gift of second sight. And Drew, abandoned in the desert by a religious fanatic, is rescued by renegade Apache brothers and falls in with a crowd of murderers, prostitutes, and bank robbers. When fate finally reunites the siblings, Zoe enlists Clay and Drew in a plot against a ruthless Colorado gold magnate bent on stealing her fortune. Decades spent practicing the art of survival have taught the Dugans that the odds are always stacked against them—but if they stopped to consider the odds, they would have been dead long ago. Hailed by the Chicago Tribune as a “great page-turning, stay-up-late-into-the-night-saga” and ideal for fans of Larry McMurtry and Cormac McCarthy, Power in the Blood takes readers on an epic journey into the dark heart of the American frontier.