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Norske Fields: A Novel of Southern California's Norwegian Colony by Anne Schroeder
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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.
Mountain Passage
Jason Manning - 1998
Luckily, he is befriended by a legendary Scottish adventurer, whom he accompanies to the wild American frontier. But along the way, new troubles await. The companions are framed for murder in New Orleans, chased by bounty hunters, and escape with a band of fur trappers to the Rocky Mountains. Only then, in the solitude of the wilderness, does the young traveler discover the purpose in life for which he has been searching.
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.
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!
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.
Lone Star Rising
Elmer Kelton - 2003
In the throes of the War Between the States, Rusty joins the Rangers and searches for the renegades who killed his adoptive father.In Badger Boy, the Rangers are disbanded and Rusty returns to his home on the Red River only to discover that the girl he loves has married another. In a time of personal turmoil as well as the post-war uphheaval in Texas, Rusty's childhood returns to haunt him as he rescues Andy Pickard, called Badger Boy by his Comanche captors.Andy and Rusty ride together in the newly reformed Rangers in The Way of the Coyote, in a time when Texas is overrun with outlaws, Confederate raiders, Ku Klux Klansmen, and marauding Comanches.
Trail of the Gunman
R. Cameron Cooke - 2017
Cameron Cooke... Elijah Jones is a man with a violent past ... Setting out for the Arizona Territory, Jones seeks to escape his past and live a quieter, gentler life in the vast wilderness of the Mogollon Rim. But men who once made their living with the gun cannot simply walk away. In an untamed land teeming with Apaches and desperadoes, Jones finds himself unwittingly embroiled in a territorial war pitting him against new foes - and old ones... Through showdowns on dusty streets to savage gunfights in the wild, Jones is dogged by the demons of his former life, and realizes he must face them if he ever hopes to leave the trail of the gunman far behind...
Mac's Way
Reg Quist - 2012
Work on the Santa Fe Trail, and on a Mississippi River boat give him a start, but the years of Civil War leave him broke and footloose in South Texas. There he discovers more cattle running loose than he ever knew existed. Teaming up with two ex-Federal soldiers, he sets out to gather his wealth, one head at a time. While gathering and driving Longhorns, Mac and his friends meet an interesting collection of characters, including Margo. Mac and Margo and the crew learn about Longhorns, and life, from hard experience before they eventually head west. Outlaws and harrowing river crossings are just two of the challenges they face along their way.
A Bad Place to Die
Easy Jackson - 2018
It takes guts, grit, gunslinging--and one hell of a woman . . .MEET TENNESSEE SMITH: SHE SHOOTS FROM THE HIP.There aren't many options for an eighteen-year-old girl in the Old West. Especially an orphan like Tennessee Smith. She can either sell her body in a seedy saloon or take her chances as a mail-order bride. Tennie chooses the latter. Joining a wagonload of women across Indian territory, she arrives in the God-forsaken town of Ring Bit, Texas. Her husband-to-be is surprisingly decent. But after tying the knot in a quickie ceremony, he pops even more surprises on her. First, he introduces Tennie to his three young sons. Then he drops dead on their wedding night . . .Some women would hightail it out of there. Not Tennie. She'll do whatever it takes to save the ranch and raise those boys. Rusty is thirteen, Lucas is ten, and Badger is six. They need a mother. Tennie needs a job. And the town needs a marshal. Sure, the local gamblers, outlaws, and thieves have no use for the law. Then again, they never met a lawman, or woman, like Tennessee Smith . . .
You're in Command Now, Mr. Fog (A Dusty Fog's Civil War Western Book 2)
J.T. Edson - 1973
FOG The Yankee sharpshooter turned out to be a lousy judge of character. He had three officers in his sights, a captain and two lieutenants. If he killed the right one, the Union Army’s victory at the Battle of Martin’s Hill would be guaranteed. So he made his choice and killed the Rebel cavalry’s commanding officer, Captain von Hartz. Big mistake. He should have concentrated on the small, insignificant-looking first lieutenant instead. Because the death of Captain von Hertz put Dusty Fog in command of the Texas Light Cavalry’s hard-riding, harder-hitting Company ‘C’. And with Dusty at their head, there was going to be hell to pay for the Bluebellies. ABOUT THE AUTHOR John Thomas Edson was born at Worksop, Nottinghamshire, on February 17 1928, the son of a miner who was killed in an accident when John was nine. He left Shirebrook Selective Central School at 14 to work in a stone quarry and joined the Army four years later. As a sergeant in the Royal Army Veterinary Corps, Edson served in Kenya during the Emergency, on one occasion killing five Mau Mau on patrol. He started writing in Hong Kong, and when he won a large cash prize in a tombola he invested in a typewriter. On coming out of the Army after 12 years with a wife and children to support, Edson learned his craft while running a fish-and-chip shop and working on the production line at a local pet food factory. His efforts paid off when Trail Boss (1961) won second prize in a competition with a promise of publication and an outright payment of £50. The publishers offered £25 more for each subsequent book, and with the addition of earnings from serial-writing for the comic Victor, Edson was able to settle down to professional authorship. When the comic's owners decided that nobody read cowboy stories any more, he was forced to get a job as a postman (the job had the by-product of enabling him to lose six stone in weight from his original 18). Edson's prospects improved when Corgi Books took over his publisher, encouraged him to produce seven books a year and promised him royalties for the first time. In 1974 he made his first visit to the United States, to which he was to return regularly in search of reference books. He declared that he had no desire to live in the Wild West, adding: "I've never even been on a horse. I've seen those things, and they look highly dangerous at both ends and bloody uncomfortable in the middle. My only contact was to shoot them for dog meat." His heroes were often based on his favourite film stars, so that Dusty Fog resembled Audie Murphy, and the Ysabel Kid was an amalgam of Elvis Presley in Flaming Star and Jack Buetel in The Outlaw. Before becoming a recluse in his last years, JT's favourite boast was that Melton Mowbray was famous for three things: "The pie, Stilton cheese and myself but not necessarily in that order."
War Cry
Charles G. West - 2010
Then he saves the life of Sarah Lawton, a lovely widow with her young daughter, both helpless under Indian fire. And by doing so, he' made mortal enemies with the Cheyenne-who are now out for his blood...
Wade's War
Chet Cunningham - 2010
Chet Cunningham is on top of the heap of western action-adventure writers with over 300 books, and Wade's War is one you won't put down.
Matagorda/The First Fast Draw (Bantam Books Western)
Louis L'Amour - 2008
Now he’s settled on the Texas coast, working a ranch as the partner of his old friend Tom Kittery—and finding himself in the middle of a feud between Kittery and a neighboring family. But the danger from outside is nothing compared to the threat within, as Duvarney suspects Kittery’s woman isn’t all she appears to be. Tap may have to go to war again. But this time will it be with his closest friend?The First Fast DrawEast Texas wasn’t much of a home for Cullen Baker. Few liked him, and some even tried to kill him. Yet after three years of wandering, he’s back to farm the land that is rightfully his. But Cullen’s neighbors have long memories, and his worst adversary has teamed up with a vicious outlaw. With enemies closing in on all sides and threatening the woman he loves, Cullen will have to be faster than lightning—and twice as deadly—just to survive.From the Paperback edition.
The Rocking R Ranch
Tim Washburn - 2020
. . THE LEGEND BEGINS When the Ridgeway family staked their claim on more than 40,000 acres of land in northwest Texas, they knew they had their work cut out for them. Located on a sharp bend of the treacherous Red River, their new home—the Rocking R Ranch—was just a stone’s throw away from Indian territory. It was as lawless and wild as the West itself, crawling with unsavory characters, cattle rustlers, horse thieves, outlaws, robbers, and worse. But still, the Ridgeways were determined to make the Rocking R a success—and a home—for their four remarkable children: Percy, Eli, Abigail, and Rachel. This is their story. Together, the Ridgeways could endure anything. Floods, tornadoes, Commanche raids in the dead of night. But when one of their own is kidnapped . . . that’s when all hell breaks loose. This is their story. The story of the American West.