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Sergeant Rutledge by James Warner Bellah


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The Bells of El Diablo


Peter Brandvold - 2012
    But during a guerilla mission in the north Georgia mountains, he learns first-hand how horrific and destructive the war really is. Having lost his taste for bloodshed after a brutal act on a night-cloaked bridge, he goes AWOL…and he isn’t alone.Crosseye Reeves, a former sharecropper on the Dunn plantation, was there to witness James’ moment of horror. And he’s had his own bellyful of war. Together, the men make for Denver, where a tale of treasure in Mexico gives them a new destination…perhaps even a new life.“Brandvold’s writing is fast-paced yet so richly detailed you can smell the gun smoke and taste the dust. Not to be missed!”—Wayne D. Dundee

The Stalking Moon


T.V. Olsen - 1965
    Original.

The Dispatch Rider (K Company Book 3)


Robert Broomall - 2013
    He's also the guy you want next to you when things go bad. While carrying dispatches, Link meets Prudence Wainwright, a pious Eastern woman whose husband has been murdered and whose daughter has been kidnapped by a gang of renegade Jayhawkers. Teaming up reluctantly, Link and Prudence must cross hundreds of miles of hostile territory and recapture Hope before her kidnappers sell her to the Comancheros and she is lost to them forever.

Cowboy


Frank Roderus - 1981
    He had been saving the pay he sweated so hard for, and he reckoned there was enough to set himself up with a spread of his own. He thought he might look into the Triple X Ranch, the one they called the Whiskey Brand. It had prime cattle land and was a bargain... or so it seemed.

Wings of the Hawk


Charles G. West - 2000
    But he was saved by a pair of grizzled old fur trappers, and he learned to fend for himself and live off the land.When Jim finally returns home to St. Louis, he finds that there was more to his father's murder than he'd thought. Though the Indians did the killing, someone else did the planning--someone too close for comfort. Now young Jim must untangle a thick web of lies, and when the dirty dealings come to light he will come face-to-face with a murderer. But if he tastes the vengeance owed him, it won't be as the boy everyone knew as Jim--it will be as a man named Trace McCall...

The Long Shooters


Daniel C. Chamberlain - 2011
    Ballou perfected the art of the judicious killer. His ability with his cherished Stephens target rifle is legendary, making a nearly miraculous shot that no one else – North or South – could accomplish. After the war, he disappears… Samuel Roark is a small-time rancher and part-time lawyer. One personal tragedy after another leaves Samuel gripped by periodic bouts of depression. When a hidden marksman of uncommon skill murders his son, the death leaves Samuel on the brink of total madness.Roark’s wife Sarah, a woman of strength, grace and startling beauty is now both emotionally and physically exhausted by the tragic circumstances that have beset her family. After discovering her husband’s quest for revenge, she does everything in her power to prevent what she fears will ultimately destroy him.Matthew Shaw is a known manhunter and soldier of fortune that people call on when they’re willing to pay someone else to deal with obstacles in their lives. When required, Shaw reluctantly uses his considerable marksmanship to achieve those ends. Now Shaw finds himself caught between a job he truly believes in, and a very good reason to walk away when he realizes he’s falling in love with Sarah, the wife of the man who hired him.

Apache Ambush


Chet Cunningham - 2015
    As a boy, he had seen his Indian mother gunned down by the hated bluecoats during an attack on his village. Now, years later, here he was, Wade Chisholm, scout for the U.S. Cavalry, alone in Apache country, asked to locate the hostiles - his people - then decide if he had the stomach to lead soldiers in the massacre of another village. But "Longknife" knew the Apaches had already filled the desolate desert. The Apache death chant. Chisholm was as good as dead!

A Matter of Honor


Brian Gore - 2010
    The task is ever harder, when you must do your building, carrying the ghosts of a long dead war. The burden gets unbearably heavy when you find yourself the last target of the most powerful megalomaniac in the territory. When you've been beaten, burned out, had your herd rustled, shot, and pursued across the high country, you end up in a pretty poor mood, and go hunting for revenge. The only thing that can save your soul, and keep you from sinking into the abyss, are the friends who find you along the way, and the unexpected, lusty, passion of the woman who heals your heart.

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.

Montana Rose


Deann Smallwood - 2016
    There’s no doubt in her mind that if given another chance, she can make a success of homesteading. She will not fail this time. People scoff, saying ranching is too much of a job for a lone woman to undertake. But Rose is no ordinary woman. She may be petite, stylish, and beautiful, but she is also strong and driven. Every aspect of ranching brings joy to her heart. Then why is she here in Wise River, Montana, taking orders from a mean-spirited school board and attempting something she has no clue how to do? Teaching? Jesse Rivers carries his own baggage on his wide shoulders. He’s been called home by a dying stepmother to take over the Rocking R Ranch and the care of a belligerent and wounded brother. A rugged, lanky cowboy, Jesse is also demanding, surly, and afraid to love. No, he can’t love. What if he has buried inside him the same volatile anger as his father, resulting in brutality by strong fists or a whip? Then Jesse meets Rose. Strong willed, outspoken, determined, and oh-so-desirable.

Fargo


John Benteen - 1969
    Fargo lives with a gun in his fist. Guns and killing are all he knows. And Fargo likes what he knows. Want to start a revolution? Want to stop one? Send for Fargo. Want to blow a bridge, stage a prison break, rob a bank? Fargo's your man. The Army taught Fargo how to kill with pistol, rifle, machine gun. He became an expert with knives, shotguns and women on his own time. Fargo hates the quiet life. He knows he's going to get it sooner or later. He hopes it won't be too much later because he wouldn't know how to be old and comfortable. So while it lasts, Fargo plans to grab the world by the throat and take what he wants. If the world doesn't like that, it can try to stop him ... if it can.

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?

Goodbye, Enorma


John Locke - 2013
    Enorma, coveted by every man within 100 miles of Dodge City -- and every Indian Tribe -- is a handful in every sense of the word.

Blood, Guts, and Glory: Smoke Jensen: American Legend


William W. Johnstone - 2021
    Two of the wildest tales of frontier vengeance from William Johnstone's classic bestselling saga. This is how Smoke Jensen became a legend.REVENGE OF THE MOUNTAIN MANThey came in the dead of night like a pack of wolves. They invaded Smoke Jensen's ranch. They destroyed Smoke Jensen's dream. Then they finished the job by putting three bullets in Smoke Jensen's wife. By the time Smoke arrived on the scene, it was too late to save her. Now he lives for revenge. Ruthless, righteous, merciless revenge...VENGEANCE OF THE MOUNTAIN MANWith his darkest days behind him, Smoke Jensen hopes to return to a normal life. Unfortunately, he can't escape his past. A vicious young gunfighter named Sundance holds an all-consuming grudge against the mountain man. He's got backup from Mexico, bullets to spare, and bloodlust in his eyes. Tonight, the past is coming for Smoke Jensen. With a vengeance...

The Iron Horse


James Reasoner - 2021
    Hired to find out who is stirring up the Sioux and sabotaging the Kansas Pacific line as it builds westward, Faraday sends tough young agent Daniel Britten to the railhead, where he finds himself embroiled with surveyors, track layers, buffalo hunters, and a pair of beautiful young women. But there’s a killer stalking the railhead as well, and not only the fate of the railroad but also Britten’s very life depends on him uncovering the truth.An epic Western adventure full of historical sweep and gun-blazing action.