Book picks similar to
Leaving Kansas by Frank Roderus


westerns
000src-sp-30-3-2-k
fiction-western
l2

Hard Trail to Socorro


Wayne D. Dundee - 2011
    Claiming the reward, however, turns out to be considerably more difficult. First there is Veronica Fairburn, the beautiful woman who has her own business in Socorro and insists on sticking with Kendrick when he sets out to return there with his prisoner … Then there's the gang of tough ranch hands dead set on relieving him of the prisoner in order to dish out their own brand of personal revenge … Plus the Mexican desperado stalking the woman … Not to mention the band of renegade Apaches raiding throughout the region … It all makes for Kendrick having his work cut out for him. Complicating matters even more are the feelings developing between Kendrick and Veronica. But the greatest challenge of all may come from the daring passage they must attempt over the Jornada del Muerto—the Journey of the Dead, awaiting them in the merciless White Sands desert. Peacemaker Award-winning author Wayne D. Dundee is at the top of his form in this gritty, action-packed tale of desperate, determined people fighting each other and the elements in order not only to achieve their goals but also to simply survive.

The Silver Trail (An O'Brien Western Book 1)


Ben Bridges - 2013
    He’s been everything from lawman to bounty hawk and he’s as tough as they come. Right now he’s riding shotgun for an expedition led by an ex-Army buddy. Their goal: to find a lost canyon of silver down in Mexico. But the way is blocked by gunmen working for a greedy Mexican businessman, and a ghost from O’Brien’s past. To survive, O’Brien must kill or be killed...

Storm Warrior (Traveling To America)


W.L. Cox - 2013
    Raised in China by Buddhist Monks, he is educated and trained in martial arts. At age 21 he signs on as a laborer aboard a cargo ship in exchange for a one way trip to America. At sea he and the other Chinese are forced into slavery and robbed of their personal possessions. After arriving in Boston he escapes after killing the cruel co-captain and travels west on foot as he encounters numerous hazards. He is tracked by a tough ex-sheriff turned bounty hunter. He escapes capture after crossing the Missouri River but is soon captured by a roving war party of Sioux. The Sioux give him the name "Storm Warrior" after observing him praying and soon after a tornado wipes out a rival war party traveling at night to get ahead of them to lay a trap. Later he is accepted into the Sioux Nation and becomes blood brother to an important chief. The story is laced with battles, adventure, love, mystery, and the building of many lifelong friendships, including the bounty hunter that had tracked him to the Missouri River.This is the first book of a series where Storm Warrior learns his true name, parental lineage, and the fortune his father has waiting for him.

Bryn's War: Book Two of the Evans Family Saga


C.J. Petit - 2019
    Now, he stood in the pump room and watched the two thrumming pumps as they pulled water out of the deep mines. He knew that one of them would strain when the water became fouled with coal dust and debris from the collapse and if it was pump number two, it would mean that his father and older brothers were probably dead. It seemed like hours as he watched the pump work, but it had only been minutes since the first intense vibrations had struck. He knew that if pump number two began to labor his plans to leave Carbondale would be one more of the coal mine’s victims. Just when he planned to check on pump number one, he saw the pipe to the second pump begin to pulse before the belt on the drive wheel squealed in protest and his worst nightmare had come to pass.

Blood Trail (Fannin County, Texas)


G.H. Lambert - 2014
    Dylan Ryan arrives in Texas just as the Runaway Scrape is in full swing and the Battle at San Jacinto nears. He misses going to war when he comes to the aid of Mort Lems, severely wounded by outlaws who seek information on the location of an old trail used by the Spaniards to transport gold bullion from Texas to New Orleans. It is said gold bars are still buried along that trail. Dylan and Mort escape to the prairie of North Texas and the safety of the Red River Wilderness. But instead of having the land to themselves, they discover peaceful settlements springing up around trading posts all along the river. Peace is fleeting, as Indians grow angry at the homesteaders breaking the soil with their plows on land that was promised to them for hunting grounds. The newly organized Republic of Texas is unable to provide the settlements protection, so it is the trading post owners who hire gunmen to act as ranger forces to repel the hostiles. A new war has begun, this time with an unpredictable enemy. Dylan, Mort and the settlers watch their dreams for a new beginning end as clouds of dark smoke rise into the clear blue sky as homesteads burn. Indians begin to raid every community, burning, stealing horses and taking women and children as slaves. Overnight the promise of a better life in Texas has been replaced with one of a living hell. Blood Trail is the first in a series.

Hickory Jack


Lou Bradshaw - 2013
    Some of those lives were changed forever, some were ruined beyond redemption, and yet others were merely snuffed out. Hickory Jack is a tale of two young lives which were changed beyond any hope of ever being the same. Andy Moore age fourteen and Ben Blue age twelve came face to face with violence and evil as boys, and they responded as men. As they grew in size and years, they also grew in the knowledge of what it took to be a man and to walk in a man’s boots. They gained the knowledge that life was hard, and fairness had never been a promise. They also learned that some men do things for no other reason than they can, and they respected no law higher than what rested in their holsters.

Ambush in Dust Creek (Lincoln Hawk, #1)


Scott Connor - 2005
    In a wave of rightful vengeance, Lincoln’s deadly Peacemaker did just that. But some of the outlaws escaped the marshal’s justice. Years later, when Lincoln rides into Dust Creek again, the town seems to have been abandoned. But it hasn’t. Mason Black and his ruthless outlaw band are waiting for him. From behind every broken window of the tumbledown ghost town, Mason’s guns are aimed at Lincoln’s head. To see another dawn, Lincoln must face a desperate battle for survival in a world where he can trust nobody and the only law that matters is the law of the gun.

Red Runs the Plain


W.R. Benton - 2007
    Army Scout'Escaping from the Oto Indians who brutally slaughtered his whole family, fifteen-year-old Jarel Wade runs aimlessly into a snowstorm. On the verge of death he's rescued by a pair of cantankerous old mountain men as rugged as the mountains off which they live. Taken under their wing, Jarel proves himself worthy of the trail, but something's coming; something far more sinister that will test every ounce of his newly earned skills and mettle. A rogue former British Army officer is systematically exterminating the free trappers. He wants to corner the fur trade for himself, and he commands a pack of thieves, murderers and outcasts who know the mountains as well as they know how to dig Jarel a grave."RED RUNS THE PLAIN is a crackerjack story written by a craftsman at the top of his form. A whirlwind of a tale that will keep you turning pages."— Matt Braun

Tremain (Texas Ranger Book 1)


Brad Dennison - 2013
    And then a mysterious gunfighter wanders into the middle of things, bringing with him a new brand of justice. A story of love and vengeance, and the sometimes painful path of self-discovery. By the author of THE LONG TRAIL. and ONE MAN'S SHADOW. Also, following the story is a preview of the sequel, WARDTOWN, coming soon.

The Bank Robber


Robert Broomall - 1985
    While he was away at the War, his parents had their land stolen by the railroad, and they died in poverty. After that, Swede went bad. John Kirby was Swede's boyhood friend, now he's a Texas Ranger famous for bringing his men in dead. He's vowed to put an end to Swede's depredations. He also married the girl Swede loved. When Swede robs the bank is Temperance, Kirby leads the posse after him. In his flight, Swede encounters a girl named Rosie, a prostitute, the only survivor of an Indian raid. If Swede leaves her, she'll die, so he takes her with him, even though that means the posse will catch him . . .

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.

The Tall Men (The Classic Film Collection)


Will Henry - 1900
    Seeking riches, vengeance and violence, they struck out from Texas for the gold fields of Montana. And then they met Nathan Stark—a man just as bold, and even more cunning. Together, they set out to gain their fortune with an epic cattle drive through the heart of the Sioux Nation. It was a journey never before made by white men...a journey that might never be attempted again.

Ketcham's Land


Douglas Hirt - 2002
    After a card game with Benny Gellerman, a man good with a gun, but bad with cards, Ketcham decides it is time to head out again. He finds a place to bed down on a lonely New Mexico farm run by old Corely Mattlin and his widowed daughter-in-law, Margaret. Ketcham has his eye on pretty Margaret, but he'd better keep his eyes open wide for trouble. A local rancher named Jeb Ollfinger is trying to run the Mattlins off their land, and he is not above using violence, even murder, to get what he wants. Margaret is sure her husband's killer was one of Ollfinger's men, a gunman named Gellerman. If Ketcham knew what was good for him, he would head out again. But this time he has a job to do first.

Buffalo Wagons


Elmer Kelton - 1957
    A year ago he felled sixty-two buffalo in one stand, but now the great Arkansas River herd is gone, like the Republican herd before it.In Dodge City, old hide hunters speak is awe of a last great heard to the south--but no hunter who values his scalp dares ride south of the Cimarron and into Comanche territory. None but Gage Jameson....

Incident at Diamond Springs


Kendall Hanson - 2015
    When his stagecoach is caught between an outlaw militia and renegade braves, a veteran driver must figure out how to save his passengers and the lone survivor of a massacred way station.