But their dreams are abruptly shattered by a brutal Indian raid upon the Johnsons' settlement while Britt is away establishing a business. Returning to find his friends and neighbors slain or captured, his eldest son dead, his beloved and severely damaged Mary enslaved, and his remaining children absorbed into an alien society that will never relinquish its hold on them, the heartsick freedman vows not to rest until his family is whole again. A soaring work of the imagination based on oral histories of the post-Civil War years in North Texas, Paulette Jiles's The Color of Lightning is at once an intimate look into the hearts and hopes of tragically flawed human beings and a courageous reexamination of a dark American history.

    Here, too, are superb, action-packed entries from today's outstanding Western storytellers -- distinguished award winners as well as daring newcomers, including Peter Brandvold · Randy Lee Eickhoff · Marcus Galloway · Ed Gorman · Elmer Kelton · Rod Miller · Robert J. Randisi · James Reasoner · Dusty Richards · Troy D. Smith · L. J. Washburn Edited by renowned author and anthologist Robert J. Randisi, Lone Star Law spans the existence of this elite investigative law enforcement agency. From fending off hostile Comanche to tracking serial killers, from aiming Winchesters and Colt revolvers to firing up laptops and state-of-the-art forensics technology, from targeting rustlers and outlaw gangs to leading harrowing hostage negotiations, the men and women who don the badge and white hat of the Texas Ranger stand as steadfast deliverers of American justice -- the Lone Star way.

    A hot August night lies heavy over the Carolinas. The corpse -- legs sprawled, stomach down on the concrete pavement, arms above the head -- brings the patrol car to a halt. The local police pick up a black stranger named Virgil Tibbs, only to discover that their most likely suspect is a homicide detective from California -- and the racially tense community's single hope in solving a brutal murder that turns up no witnesses, no motives, no clues.

    But the real challenge is the cowboy who's guiding her to it.

    T.J. is the object of her affection, a jazz pianist who prefers to keep his romances casual--but who may be facing the real deal in Sandy. Bebe is Sandy's confidante, a bank supervisor who is struggling through her self-imposed "sex sabbatical". Speed is T.J.'s father and best friend, a man who isn't too old to learn a few things from his son. Together these four weave a funny, touching, and vivid tale of coping with the ups and downs of everyday life in Chicago that readers won't soon forget.

    But what if she weren't actually dead? What if she somehow secretly survived - but lost her sight, and her memory, and everything else she had - except her enemies? Jack has a second chance to save her.

    Hooper has been tried and found guilty, and is being returned to be hanged. But will his legacy end with his death? His parting words are "Beware the Avenging Angel." And what of Maddie and Tremain's relationship? Is there a future? A story of love and friendship, of a town and its citizens trying to put a dark past behind them, and one man's quest to bring law-and-order to the frontier. By the author of TREMAIN and The McCabe series.

    Cummings has hired Rab Sinclair to guide his party as far as Santa Fe.But Rab's easy way in the wilderness does not mix well with the family's Eastern values, and he soon finds himself at odds with some among them. When Amos Cummings' wife and daughter develop a fondness for Rab, the relationship is strained even farther.But when the family encounters the gang of bloodthirsty bandits, their moral code against violence will be tested.When these ruffians abduct one among the emigrants, Rab Sinclair may find that to save his charge he must travel A Trail Too Far.If you love classic Westerns under open skies and over rolling plains, A Trail Too Far promises to be an instant favorite.So check that you've got plenty of beans and jerky, and saddle up for an overland crossing on the Santa Fe Trail. Click the buy button to start reading now!

    They kidnapped his wife to force him to give them the map to the Iron Door Mine and the gold hidden there. She told the kidnappers that her husband would kill them. They laughed and made fun of him. Weeks later, on a fateful day in the Sonoran Desert, the young lawyer sat his horse and watched the kidnapper come toward him with a white flag on the barrel of his rifle. The kidnapper stopped and demanded he turn over the gold from the Iron Door Mine. The young lawyer told the kidnapper the only thing he would get was the bullet his wife had promised. The kidnapper made his play, and the young lawyer planted two bullets in the kidnapper's chest. The gold the Jesuits left in the Iron Door Mine has been sought for hundreds of years, but the truth is the young lawyer found it and took it away.

    When a freak early-winter storm finds Linc wounded and sheltered in the cabin of a recently widowed homesteader and her young son, all should be fine…if he wasn’t on the run from the law. Now, Bama, a black mule skinner; Twodogs, a Crow tracker; and Dolan, find themselves an unlikely gang. Damned by decent folk, hunted by the law, and pursued by Montana’s most deadly man-hunters, they all three are wronged and seek bloody revenge.

    Excerpt and one of them, Gavin, was reputed to be the strongest man in the neighborhood. The daughter, a long-limbed slip of a girl who rode like a cow-puncher, was about the boy's age. Though Godfrey French had a ranch it was worked scarcely at all. The boys did not like work, and apparently did not have to. Godfrey French was reputed to have money. His ranch was a hang-out for what were known as "remittance men," young Englishmen who received more or less regular allowances from home--or perhaps to keep away from home. There were rumors of gambling and hard drinking at French's ranch. "Well, I'll take you home," the boy said. "You can ride my pony. He's on a rope a mile from here. But I'll have to hang up this buck, or the coyotes will chew him." He found two small saplings close together, bent them down, trimmed them and lashed their tops. Over these he placed the tied legs of the buck. With a little search he found a long dry pole. With this he had a tripod. As he hoisted with the pole the spring

    Phillips followed with the acclaimed sequel, "The Walkaway," showing how a seeming windfall can wreak wicked havoc on the lives of its recipients. Now this award-winning author broadens his canvas, writing his most accomplished novel yet-one that is rich in suspense, drama, historical sweep, and Phillips's unique blend of unforgettable characters. In 1872, Cottonwood, Kansas, is a one-horse speck on the map; a community of run-down farms, dusty roads, and two-bit crooks. Self-educated saloon owner and photographer Bill Ogden looks on his adopted town with an eye to making a profit or getting out. His brains and ambition bring him to the attention of one Marc Leval, a wealthy Chicago developer with big plans for the small town. The advent of the railroad and rumors of a cattle trail turn Cottonwood into a wild and wooly boomtown-and with Leval as a partner, Ogden dreams of bringing civilization to the prairie. But civilizing the Great Plains was never that simple. While many in Cottonwood distrust Leval's motives, and mob violence threatens to derail the town’s dreams of greatness, Ogden finds himself dangerously obsessed with Leval's stunningly beautiful wife. Meanwhile, plying its sinister trade unnoticed, an apparently ordinary local farm family quietly butchers traveling salesmen, weary travelers, and other unsuspecting wanderers. In his own inimitable brand of narrative wizardry, Scott Phillips traces the metamorphosis of a frontier town that becomes a lightning rod for sin, corruption, and murder. He also brings to life actual crimes that befell Kansas in the 1870s and 1880s, carried out by a strange clan who popularly became known as The Bloody Benders. Brilliantly written, maliciously fun, and full of many surprises, "Cottonwood" is historical fiction at its finest. "From the Hardcover edition."

    He is assigned to K Company, on the western edge of the Kansas frontier. What he finds there is brutal discipline combined with bad food, monotonous drill, and make-work details. Even worse, he makes an enemy of Link Hayward, toughest soldier in the company, who’s been broken in rank more times than he can count. Link thinks Harry is a coward and urges him to desert. Taunted by Link, not accepted by K Company’s veterans, Harry begins to doubt himself.Then the company is ordered into the field, and in a battle with the Cheyenne, Harry learns what he’s really made of.

    But, when he ends up in a place where a range war is raging, he learns that it’s not easy to shed a reputation, especially when everyone wants him on their side—and the ones who don’t get him want him dead.

    He's good with his gun and his fists, but doesn't fight except when forced. Smart, loyal and tough, John captures your heart, and the heart of "Andy" Blaine the heroine. Andrea is a bit of a tom-boy, but a beautiful, strong and true western woman. John gets involved in the war for water rights on Silver Creek and neighboring ranches because his father seems to be involved on the wrong side of the law. He and his father haven't spoken for six years, but John feels it his duty to try to clear his father's name.