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Crooked Trails and Straight by William MacLeod Raine


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Ride the Man Down


Luke Short - 1942
    Phil Evarts is dead, and the Hatchet Range is up for grabs. That’s 70,000 acres of prime turf just waiting for the man rich enough to buy it . . . or the gunman crazy enough to kill for it. Every schemer in town has his eyes on Hatchet, and Bide Mariner leads the charge. An unscrupulous rancher who’ll stop at nothing for cash, Mariner has the money and the guns to take whatever he wants. Only Will Ballard stands in his way—and that means Ballard is marked for death.   The foreman at Hatchet Range, Ballard is an honest man who’ll do anything to keep the ranch from falling into Mariner’s hands. In a town so rotten with greed that even the sheriff is against him, Ballard must stand alone to save this little piece of the American West.   Voted one of the top twenty-five westerns of all time by the Western Writers of America and made into a 1952 Republic film starring Rod Cameron, Ride the Man Down showcases award-winning author Luke Short at the height of his writing powers.

RETURN OF WILDCAT: Sixty-Second in the Series of Jess Williams Westerns (A Jess Williams Western Book 62)


Robert J. Thomas - 2017
    The temporary governor of Texas has seen fit to appoint three hired guns as his county sheriff and deputies. Jess knows the three men and knows they shouldn’t be wearing badges. He hangs around Calico long enough to sort things out, but then he gets an urgent message from United States Marshal Frank Reedy. It seems his good friend, the female bounty hunter only known as Wildcat, has murdered a man in New Mexico Territory and now has a price on her head. Jess, knowing that she would never kill without good reason, enlists the help of both Reedy and Bodine to safely escort her to Stratton, but a lot of angry and hungry bounty hunters have other plans to kill Wildcat for the bounty, and put her out of the business; but the only way that will happen, is over Jess’s dead body. Lead flies and men die. Who will be left standing in the end?

No Man's Land (Jack Ballard Book 1)


Linell Jeppsen - 2018
    Sometimes he's able to stop it from hurting innocent people—and sometimes he causes it. It can’t be helped, though. He is a good man with a fast gun, and in West Texas in the late 1800’s, trouble lies around every bend. Only he and his filed-down .44-40 Colt can stop it.

The Stalking Moon


T.V. Olsen - 1965
    Original.

The Scout


Harry Combs - 1995
    a towering tale of dreams unfettered, of mustangs running free, and of young men riding hell-bent-for-leather into Indian country for no other reason than they were young, brave and wild.By 1900 the Old West was vanishing, but the man many called its fastest gun was still alive.  By then Car Brules had shut himself and his secrets away in a cabin on Colorado's Lone Cone Peak.  Only one person knew his real story, a boy of eleven who became his friend and heard his extraordinary tales in 1909.  The Scout is that unforgettable story, just as young Steven Cartwright heard it, just as Brules told it: hard and gritty, wry with a cowboy's humor, and true to the spirits of all those who loved the west--and died for it--from Custer to Crazy Horse.Many hard, hurting things had driven Cat Brules to become the man he was.  The death of his beloved Shoshone bride, Wild Rose, was one of them.  Months after Brules lost her--brutally and far too soon--Wild Rose still came to him in his dreams.  With a void in his heart and a reckless spirit, Brules signed on as a Scout for General George Crook, whose cavalry was headed into the Badlands. Then, the U.S. Army still didn't know that there were fifteen thousand Sioux and Cheyenne in those Wyoming foothills, and under chiefs Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, every one of them was willing to fight to the death to live free.Brules's account of the violence that ensued, told with eyewitness immediacy and chilling authenticity, is one of courage and shame as he rides the trail toward the Little Big Horn and the battles that followed.  Seeing for himself the dying of a way of life, Brules tells a searing truth about America's history: the betrayal of Custer to the Sioux, the hunting of Geronimo, and the U.S. Army's cruel pursuit of Chief Joseph and his Nez Perce.  And here too are the women who loved Brules: White Antelope, the gentle Indian maiden who wanted what Brules felt he could never give again--and Melisande, the saucy Mormon girl who might be too much for even Cat Brules to handle.Debunking the myths of the Old West and the romanticism of movies, renowned Western writer Harry Combs creates a vision at once more complex, magnificent and genuine--from the make of the rifle to the caliber of the bullet that cut Custer down.  A novel unmatched in excitement and adventure, The Scout lets you smell the cordite, feel a man's hard need for a woman, and discover that the real flesh and blood inhabitants of those legendary days were tougher, bolder and more fascinating than we ever dared to imagine.

Sundog Comanche


Ash Lingam - 2017
    His father, Maxwell Creek provided him with his namesake of the town, Ridge. At thirteen taken on to work in the general store of a retired western gunfighter and lawman, Ridge Creek learned the tricks of his future trade. At sixteen he rides off on the trail to Austin to join the Texas Rangers. The rest is history. The whole story of Captain Ridge Creek. The year was 1848, and the young Ranger was posted in Laredo, Texas. This is the story of his battles with Iron Jacket and Lopez the Outlaw among other tales of this man the Comanche call 'With Dead Eyes'. Captain Creek’s first five years in the Texas Rangers. This is the dawn of his younger years.

Hunt-U.S. Marshal


W.L. Cox - 2013
    Hunt is the Sheriff in a small Tennessee town run and controlled by a ruthless Mayor that virtually owns the town. Hunt turns bounty hunter after he is fired for punching the Mayor in the nose and arresting the Mayor's son. Hunt tracks a man across the plains to the Missouri River and returns with a criminal that is on the run from the law. Hunt meets a U.S. Deputy Marshal during his journey and is recruited into the U.S. Marshal Service.

Bowdrie Rides a Coyote Trail (Louis L'Amour)


Louis L'Amour - 2004
    With the dead man's horse in tow, Bowdrie ambles into the middle of a dispute between the H&H ranch and the Darcy spread. Seems some H&H hired guns are giving Jack Darcy a hard time . . . and leading the troublemakers is ranch owner Rack Herman, strangely in the middle of many a run-in. But with the help of some friendly locals, Bowdrie pieces together a puzzle of murder, corruption, and the shady dealings of a power hungry rancher. Will Bowdrie travel far to track down Dyson . . . or is this killer closer than he thinks?

Coyote Courage


Scott Harris - 2018
    In the first two books of the series, “Coyote Courage” and “Coyote Creek," readers are introduced to Brock Clemons and the small town of Dry Springs, where Brock meets a young boy named Huck, falls for a beautiful young woman named Sophie and faces a band of hardened outlaws. Brock decides to stay beyond the one night he had planned, and readers follow his adventures in town and journey in the aftermath of his visit to Dry Springs. Brock Clemons rides into the small town of Dry Springs simply looking for a place to grab a cigar and a good night’s sleep. Instead, he finds a town being strangled by a band of hardened outlaws, a young boy named Huck who is bravely facing challenges far beyond his years, and Sophie, a woman of captivating strength and beauty. Brock decides to stay beyond the one night he had planned, but will his intelligence, courage and unmatched skill with a gun be enough to save the town, help Huck and win Sophie’s heart?

The Confederate


Scott Thompson - 2018
    The girl he was to marry was now promised to another, and his former mentor had cheated him. Disillusioned he left his home in River Falls, Georgia for something different: The Colorado Territory of the American West. Ambrose soon learned that the West was wild and untamed, and despite his effort to find peace and to create a normal and stable world, something continued to pull him toward death and ruin. While the former Confederate soldier made his way through the treacherous territory of Colorado the girl he thought had been lost to him chose to follow him to the West while facing hazards of her own. While they fight to survive and to find meaning in a dangerous and new place they both learn about themselves while always thinking of the other. But will they find each other in an unfamiliar world that is as inhospitable to love as it is to law and order?

The Return


C. Wayne Winkle - 2019
    Wayne Winkle! Following the Civil War, Ten St. John comes home to find his mother dead and his father gone West. He goes after his pa to let him know it’s just the two of them now. Along the way, he begins hearing about someone other than his father who may be traveling with him. He also begins finding out a lot of new things about his pa. The question is: Will he find his pa, and will he be who Ten thinks he is?

Kiss of the Texas Maverick


Charlotte Dearing - 2021
    

Bullets Always Kill (The Texas Riders Western) (A Western Frontier Fiction)


Joseph Powell - 2019
     Sheriff Rowan Keller is the new sheriff of Blackgate. There’s just one problem. The old sheriff doesn’t want to leave. He’s spent years taking bribes from criminals so they could pass through unscathed, and he’s not eager to give things up. But Rowan’s about to put an end to all that. Blackgate’s got a poker tournament coming up, and it’s drawing all the wrong kinds of people. But no one beats Wade Sharp. Evil, corrupt, and soulless, Wade has a gang of men who will kill anyone who gets in their way. Even women and children. When Rowan puts up a fight, Wade decides him and the entire town must pay. Especially Tillie. She’s pretty and kind, and Wade’s taking her with him when he leaves. But if he thinks Rowan is just going to let her go, he’s mistaken. Rowan’s ready to go into battle, even if he has to do it alone. Can Rowan save Tillie and the entire town, or are they already good as dead?

Preston Lewis Western Collection 2


Preston Lewis - 2020
    Tough times require tough choices, no matter if it’s in a Colorado winter or a race across New Mexico.In Blood Saga, Virgil Child returns his mother’s coffin to White Oaks, New Mexico Territory, to bury her beside his dead father. Child can’t find his father’s grave and as he investigates, he discovers how his birthright was stolen by Ed Keller and his allies. He sets out to right a wrong and get what’s his against all odds.The Preston Lewis Western Collection, Volume 2 includes: Escape from Silverton, Blood Saga, Vigilante Justice, New Mexico Showdown and Hard Texas Winter.

Angel Jacobs: Deputy U.S. Marshal (Book 2)


William H. Joiner Jr. - 2019
    Joiner, Jr. This is action, adventure and gunplay as only Joiner can write it! Ride with the author who gave you “The Legend of Jake Jackson” and “Morgan Porter.” You won’t regret it! When she was 7 years old, Angel saw her father brutally murder her mother. She was adopted by U.S. Marshal Caleb Jacobs and his wife Bonnie. Angel didn’t want to be a schoolteacher like her new Ma. Angel wanted to be a lawman like her new Pa. Outlaws and renegades didn’t believe Deputy U.S. Marshal Angel Jacobs was for real. They learned the truth the hard way at the end of her smoking Colt.