U.S. Marshal Shorty Thompson: Bullets and Determation


Paul L. Thompson - 2017
    He told his boss Mister Orlando Montano, he wanted to travel a bit before he got too old to stay in a saddle twelve hours a day. “Now Tim, you know this will always be your home. Come back anytime and we will be happy to see you.” Tim slowly rode out headed toward Raton, but looked back several times. Was he doing the right thing? A week later when he got within a few miles short of La Veta Colorado, and found a rancher sitting beside a Ponderosa Pine with a bullet in his leg, he guessed maybe God had sent him on this route.

High Plains Ambush


John D. Fie Jr. - 2017
    Thomas, WL Cox, and Duane Boehm filled with action, adventure and plot twists such as C. K. Crigger, Robert Vaughan, and C.M. Curtis! This is a book that is filled with the bodies of those who stand again law, order and patriotism! Matt Hutchins, the lone survivor of a wagon train massacre takes on the world to do what is right, and must use guts, guns and glory to bring peace to his people. Found and raised by the Sioux, Matt not only learns the ways of the Sioux, but his survival skills are keenly honed with his tracking abilities used by both the Army and later by the sheriff of a town named Buffalo Flats Matt lives alone on the open plains with his trusted friend and horse ‘Ole Friend, a gift given to him by the Chief Buffalo Robes, the one who taught him how to survive. If you love great Western writing—and you love classic Western movies—you will LOVE “High Plains Ambush.”

Mountain Man


Mike Mackessy - 2018
    His early home life, until age 17 where he heads west, to the mountains. His journey is told through his meetings with both bad and good elements of typical westerners of that time, Indians, Mountain Men, and Outlaws. Reaching the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains in the company of seasoned Mountain Men his goal is in sight, Rendezvous. His adventures include encountering grizzly bears, hunting buffalo, and typical arms, weapons, and accessories associated with mountain men and trappers. An encounter with a golden eagle, held sacred by the Crow people, wins favor with a party of Crow warriors returning from Rendezvous. Succeeding as a hunter and a warrior earns an invitation from the Crow warriors to winter over with their small band. While living in the Crow village we follow this band to summer and winter camps, buffalo hunts, horse stealing adventures, and with fighting their mortal enemies, the Blackfoot.

Yancey's Ride


C. Wayne Winkle - 2021
    He’s been successful thus far in putting his wild years and the death of his wife behind him. Then he gets news of his granddaughter losing cattle to rustlers. So, in the beginning of a winter that promises to be extra cold, Yancey quits his good winter job on the ranch and sets off for New Mexico to help Cassie, his granddaughter. The old ways come back to Yancey, including the feeling that someone’s following him. That someone is Laredo Dodson, a bounty hunter. Armed with an old wanted dodger, Dodson tries to catch up to Yancey and capture him. Unless Yancey objects, then he’ll kill him. Along the way, Yancey meets up with Nathaniel Landrum, Nate, a young man who doesn’t seem to know much about living in the wild. He’s also running away from something. As they travel, Yancey teaches him things like building a fire that will at least keep him alive. He also finds out Nate is running away from a failed relationship. As they travel, they help out an older man, Brother Alphonse, who invites them to spend the night at the compound where he lives. There, they meet Father Josiah and learn this is not a place they want to stay. As they leave, Yancey sees Walter Graves, a gunfighter. Dodson continues to follow Yancey. And gets into a bit of trouble along the way.

Preacher's Corner


Bruce G. Bennett - 2016
    The door opens and you find a man holding a book. That book is called “Preachers Corner: Gunfighter of the West Book 1,” and the owner tells you this is the latest western bestseller from Bruce G. Bennett. You are stuck in Cheyenne for the day—you sit down and you start to read. Why is railroad magnate, Leonard Green, suddenly so interested in sleepy little Preacher’s Corner? Find out in this action packed story about the Wild West when it was really wild. Are Apaches behind burning out and murdering settlers or is some insidious plot afoot? It’s going to take cavalry Major Gabriel Torrent and a host of colloquial characters to figure out the puzzle. Throw in renegade Apaches and you have a great mix of Americana reminiscent of Zane Grey. Be there when the moment of truth is revealed in Preachers Corner. Filled with action-packed drama, great gunfights and the writing of Bruce G. Bennett you will not be able to put down “Preachers Corner.” Stake your claim now, and spend your hours with one of the best western books of the year.

Gideon Johann


Duane Boehm - 2018
     Gideon Johann is a man tortured by his past. Staying on the move is the only thing that keeps his demons at bay. As Gideon tries to outrun his past, he arrives in the rough and tumble cow town of Ellsworth, Kansas. He takes a job as a deputy and finds he has his hands full dealing with all the mayhem in the town and a young woman that could change his life. Will the love of a woman bring Gideon peace or will his demons keep him running? Duane Boehm has written another western novel with enough humor, heartbreak, love, and outlaws to keep you turning the page.

Jacob Chance, U.S. Marshal


Johnny Gunn - 2015
    Unless of course, people are shooting at you because of them. The Civil War has disrupted thousands of lives, including that of Sarah Jackson, whose husband was killed for not joining the Confederate Army in Georgia. Sarah and her daughter flee to Nevada Territory and are eligible for homestead rights. After claiming her one hundred sixty acres in the lush Golden Valley, her world crumbles again.Banker Preston Miller claims he owns the entire Golden Valley and all the water in the Good Hope River. Jackson cries foul in a letter to the U.S. Attorney in San Francisco, and Jacob Chance, U.S. Marshal rides to Preston, Nevada Territory to “settle this little land dispute.”He finds many in the town fear for their lives and livelihood, but it takes just a few shots from big guns to convince them to back the marshal. Lives are lost, buildings are burned, the town itself is in jeopardy, and the U.S. Marshal finds himself up against an army. Anarchy is the rule in the Golden Valley.Fighting the bad guys is hard enough, he also finds himself fascinated by the daughter of one of the ranchers whose property he is trying to save. Will the town survive? Will the ranches survive? Is romance in the air? All the answers are inside these covers.

The Storm (Clay Brentwood Book 5)


Jared McVay - 2017
    He's looking forward to an easy job, and then settling down for a bit. At least that’s the way he had it figured. What he hadn’t considered was how plans could change in a heartbeat, bringing him closer to deaths door than he ever wanted to be. Excerpt from Book 5: The Storm It was late afternoon of the first day and they were still several miles inside the Kansas border, when Clay found a place to camp for the night, near a small lake that would provide enough water for the herd. They would have to camp out in the open, but the weather was decent enough so that it shouldn’t be a problem. By tomorrow noontime, they should reach the Panhandle of Oklahoma where water was scarce. Clay didn’t want to push the herd too hard. He wanted them in good shape because it would be at least two more days before they could reach the Cimarron River and cattle don’t travel well without water. He figured they would lose a little weight during the three-hundred-and-fifty-mile drive, but once they got to his land, it wouldn’t take them long to put the weight back on. The White River ran through his property with several small tributaries, and there was plenty of tall grass. The cattle weren’t used to walking all day and were more than ready to settle down for the night when the time came. No one knew how Mrs. McIntyre did it, but that evening for supper, they feasted on corned beef and cabbage with soda bread and large slabs of butter, and blackberry pie. She’d seen some blackberries growing wild and since the herd was moving slow, she’d stopped and picked enough for six pies. “Ya know, boss,” Riley, a tall young man from Texas, said, “if this is the way we’re gonna eat, I don’t reckon you’ll ever be wantin’ fer hands. Women or not, this is the best trail drive I’ve ever been on, and if my work suits ya, I’ll be stayin’ on when we get to yer ranch.” Riley was young, just seventeen, but he’d been around cattle drives most of his young life and he knew his business. Clay was lucky to have him. Young he might be, but Clay was guessing the young man would ride for the brand, should trouble arise. Clay looked out across the herd and watched as his men worked the cattle. There was a mixture of ages, which was good as far as he was concerned. The men new to this kind of work would learn from the more experienced riders. Colleen blushed and waved the end of her apron at him. “Ah, go on with ya now. You and yer silver tongue. Ah man works hard, he needs ah good meal, that’s all.” Bert took his slice of blackberry pie and backed away, saying, “Yes ma’am. Whatever you say, ma’am.” After the evening meal, Cindy brought out her guitar and sat on the tailgate of the wagon and to everyone’s surprise, began to strum a slow, song of home. Then she began to sing and as if by magic, the cattle settled down. Singing was what cowboys did while riding night herd to help keep the cattle calm, but none of them had a voice as soothing as Cindy McIntyre. Clay had just poured himself a cup of coffee and was enjoying Cindy’s singing, when a young man came riding up to the camp and got down. He took a double take when he saw the two women, then spied Clay and walked up to him. “Mister Brentwood?” Clay smiled. He was just a boy, no more than fourteen and dressed in town clothes. “Sorry son, but I got all the wranglers I need. The boy grinned. “I’m not a cowboy, sir. I’m Ben Masterson and I work for the railroad. I’m training to be a telegraph operator.”

West of the Dead Line: Tales of an Indian Territory Lawman


Phil Truman - 2017
    It ran straight south from Caldwell, Kansas to Fort Reno, I.T., then down through the Cheyenne and Comanche and Kiowa lands, crossing the Red River into Bowie, Texas. It was a line on the map, a demarcation. West of it no law existed, only outlaws. On trails out there, outlaws put notes on trees and posts to let lawmen know they'd be killed if they continued their pursuits west of the Dead Line.In the storied times of the American West, in what was called Indian Territory, no place came close to matching the dangers and mortality U.S.marshals faced doing their jobs. Those who survived became titans in the legends of the West, particularly one man called Bass Reeves. These stories are fiction; the encounters this lawman faced, and The Dead Line, were not.

Right Thing to Do


Lou Bradshaw - 2017
    By its third year, the war had already produced tails of brothers and friends meeting on the field of battle wearing different uniforms. Often those encounters ended in tragedy, where one man would spend his hours with ghosts and nightmares, and the other in a cold shallow grave. This story concerns two longtime friends, both new to America from across the sea. Captain Riley Blue, a Confederate cavalry officer finds his boyhood friend washed ashore from a destroyed Union gunboat. The brief artillery battle which sunk Padrick Haggerty’s gunboat had cost Cpt. Blue his horse, his hearing, contact with his company, and for a while his senses. When the smoke and his mind had cleared, Riley knew he couldn’t be responsible for his friend sitting out the war in a hell hole prisoner of war camp. Riley Blue knew he could be shot as a deserter if he was captured by his own forces, and shot as a spy if captured by the Union forces. He also knew the nearest safe haven for his friend, Paddy, was hundreds of miles away.

Revenge Of The Damned (The Montana Series)


L.J. Martin - 2017
    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.

The Ordeal of Andy Dean


Douglas Hirt - 1993
    Now Franklin Dean is searching for his daughter with a U.S. Marshal. Dean and the lawman know that Andy has been picked up by the notorious Neville Hallidae gang. But what the manhunters don't know is how the presence of little Andy Dean is changing each one of the hard-bitten bank-robbers, and setting off a struggle among them. Now, as the law closes in on two sides, Andy is caught in between. Each outlaw knows Andy can identify them and that their final choice must be between her life...or theirs.

Showdown At Apache Butte


R. Cameron Cooke - 2018
    Cameron Cooke... Mountain man and army scout Jacob Utah is called to guide a cavalry patrol across the harsh, relentless Arizona Territory. The purpose of the mission is a secret, known only to the soldiers. That suits Utah just fine, until the seemingly simple job takes a deadly turn. A mysterious sharpshooter begins shadowing the patrol, killing the soldiers one-by-one. Utah soon discovers the men he rides with are not what they seem, that they have a dark history which is coming back to haunt them. With fierce Apaches on the warpath and a sadistic gunman doggedly pursuing them at every turn, Utah must lead his dubious companions through scorching desert sands, treacherous canyons, and narrow mountain passes to reach an abandoned outpost at a place called Apache Butte, where old scores will be settled, and blood will be spilt...

The Last Man Standing: An Action Packed Western


John Buzzad - 2018
    Now why don’t you let them be, and I’ll buy you a glass of milk.” “You should really mind your own business, mister,” Red hissed. “Now I call that pretty bold talk for a man not carrying a gun.” Tom’s finger tips drummed against the side of his holster. “Who says I ain’t?” Red’s eyes were wide as saucers and his lower jaw jutted out. “What’s your name, friend?” Tom loudly asked the man in the noose. While trying to maintain his balance on tiptoes, Ed answered, “Ed Tew.”

The Brotherhood of Blood: The Continued Adventures of Hayden Tilden (Hayden Tilden Westerns Book 3)


J. Lee Butts - 2016
    But none of their crimes were as heinous as the brutal murder of Mary Beth Tall Dog and the kidnapping of her young daughter. Gathering a group of hardened men as a posse, Deputy U.S. Marshal Hayden Tilden sets out to face the vicious foes in a fight for right—and his very own life . . .Praise for Lawdog: The Life and Times of Haydon Tilden“Lawdog should assume its rightful place beside other Western classics.” —Peter Brandvold, author of Once Hell Freezes Over“Lawdog has it all. I couldn’t put it down.” —Jack Ballas, author of West of the RiverAbout the Author:J. Lee Butts is the author of 22 published books and numerous magazine articles and short works. Brotherhood of Blood was runner-up for the Western Writers of America Spur Award in 2005. He’s worn many hats over the years (teacher, administrator, pool manager, IBM supervisor, and western author), and he and his late wife lived everywhere from Los Angeles to Dallas. Currently he’s hanging those hats back in White Hall, Arkansas.