Classic Western Literature

Long Road to Abilene is a classic hero's journey, a western adventure that exemplifies the struggles, the defeats, and the victories that personify the American West. After surviving the bloody battle of Franklin and the hell of a Yankee prison camp, Cade McCall comes home to the woman he loves only to find that she, believing him dead, has married his brother.

In 1876 the seemingly impossible happened in San Antonio, Texas - Emmett Strong, a prodigy of a pistolero, accidentally shot his own young wife in a showdown gone awry. Five years later, death again visits Emmett's family, and now - want to or not - he's going to have to overcome his reluctance to draw his six-gun if he's to catch and bring to justice the crazed gunman who murdered his brother.

Sheriff Ben Stillman knows that every lawman could face sudden death. But that doesn't ease his anger over Marshal Charlie Boomhauer's brutal murder. And ol’ Charlie's shoes have already been filled by his brash, young deputy - who isn't exactly out shaking the bushes to find Charlie's killer or killers. The new marshal is blaming the murder on a band of Gypsies who moved north - or was it south?

America's richest legends come from the frontier - from the land where the events of a single moment might erase the lines between law and lawlessness, between safety and mortal danger, between heroes and villains. The carefully selected stories in this collection are vibrant proof that the great American West is a fertile ground to storytellers. Here's the most varied collection of short stories, by 17 highly acclaimed Western writers.

Robbers and cold-blooded killers won't stop Stillman.... He’s desperate to overtake the robbers and cold-blooded killers before they murder his wife and the doctor. He doesn’t realize just how badly Triber wants that money returned to him...nor what it is for.

When Sheriff Ben Stillman accompanies Judge John Bannon and friends to a wedding in Sulfur, Montana Territory, he aims to have a nice long weekend of rest and respite from law dogging. But Angus Whateley has other plans. The crazy ex-Confederate has just been released from prison, and he’s out to avenge the hanging of his cattle-rustling sons--hangings ordered by Bannon.

Sheriff Ben Stillman has enough of a hard time keeping the peace in the town of Clantick without having to worry about the likes of Matt Parrish. Since his father died, Matt has been responsible for the Circle P Ranch in the Two-Bear Mountains - and his hotheaded streak has been responsible for a lot of trouble with other ranchers...including his future father-in-law, Tom Suthern.

Wild mustangs, ghosts on the ranch, gun-toting outlaws and trailblazing cowboys roam the pages of this collection of 8 classic stories about the American frontier. Travel down "The Road to Hell" with a mysterious ranch builder, face down the "Yellow Devil" mountain lion, travel "Where the Wind Blows Free," and join in on a herd of other adventures that will keep you reading until long after high noon.

Marian Forrester arrives in Sweet Water as the treasured bride of a retired builder. To her husband she embodies the idealism of this railroad town on the Western plains. And to Niel Herbert, a smitten young local boy, she’s so perfect as to belong to a different world. But as Niel comes of age, the fortunes of Sweet Water decline, and as the promise of the frontier fades, his perception of the fallible woman he has idolized since boyhood is shattered.

Follow Cade McCall as he rides the Chisholm Trail, crosses raging rivers, faces cattle rustlers, and fights marauding Indians while taking a herd of longhorns north to Kansas. He reaches his destination only to be devastated by the most heinous act he has ever encountered. Driven by a rage-filled determination, Cade begins his search for justice, a search that ends with Cade's Revenge.

A dying man, Hank Peyton, tells his son Jerry Peyton that, after a lifetime of evil deeds, his only gift to his son will be his extremely valuable gun called The Voice of La Paloma. When Jerry is wrongfully accused of horse thievery, a cunning sheriff blackmails Jerry into stealing the gun from his father in exchange for a clean slate, even though the sheriff has already found the real horse thief.

Black Jack Hollis was a daring outlaw before he was shot down. In the wake of his death, it's discovered that Hollis left behind an infant son. Elizabeth Cornish, coowner of the Cornish Ranch alongside her brother, Vance, takes it upon herself to raise the child as her own. Elizabeth names the boy Terry Colby and gives Terry a fictitious aristocratic background, believing the way the boy is raised will determine the man he will become. But Vance is convinced that Terry is destined to become an outlaw himself.

Fae Prince Alrick of Rune accepts a quest to another time and place with hopes of becoming sole heir to the throne. He must save a Texan beauty whose recent widowing had made it impossible to run her ranch. Little did she know she was being threatened by dark sorcery. Alrick would protect her and fate had brought them together. Fate and Lone Star Magic.

Love and death, bullets and blood.... Sheriff Ben Stillman finds himself in the unenviable position of having to arrest a young man for murder on suspicious evidence. But the cards are stacked against the young firebrand who calls himself Johnny Nevada. One, Johnny has gotten Judge Hoagland’s daughter pregnant, shaming and enraging Hoagland himself. Two, Johnny warned Dave Bliss he was going to kill him because Bliss ordered Johnny to stay away from Bliss’s daughter, Sarah, whom the young Casanova was also sparking. Johnny made the warning public and two weeks later Bliss was dead.

Doing time in Texas is no picnic. But getting sent to The Walls in Huntsville is a fate worse than hanging. If the guards don't kill you, the prisoners will. And if it weren't for the fact that the man who framed Hank Fallon and murdered his family could be inside The Walls, Hank would never step one foot in that heinous helltrap - let alone go undercover as an inmate. But this isn't just another assignment. This is his chance for revenge.

The Classic Sheriff Ben Stillman Series Begins...Playing poker, smoking cigarettes, drinking whiskey - retirement was treacherous business for ex-lawman Ben Stillman. The best of life seemed to be past, but then the past came looking for him. The son of an old friend rides into Ben's life with a plea for justice and a mind for revenge. Up on the Hi-Line in Montana, a rich Englishman is rustling ranchers out of their livelihoods...and their lives. The boy suspects these rustlers have murdered his father, Milk River Bill Harmon, and the law is too crooked to get any straight answers.

Maybe it was a moment of insanity. Maybe it was revenge. Or maybe the Metis Indian, Shambeau, finally had enough of the white man's hatred. Whatever it was, Sheriff Ben Stillman now has a murder case on his hands - and, as the law dictates, he must hunt down and hang the outlaw. But nobody knows the land better than Shambeau. He could be anywhere. Then again...nobody can track a bloodthirsty killer like Sheriff Ben Stillman. And there's no hiding from his swift brand of justice.

America's richest legends come from the frontier - from the land where the events of a single moment might erase the lines between law and lawlessness, between safety and mortal danger, between heroes and villains. The carefully selected stories in this collection are vibrant proof that the great American West is a fertile ground to storytellers. Here is the most varied collection of short stories by 17 highly acclaimed Western writers.

Tiny yet prospering Benficklin, Texas, wants a clean, respectable town marshal to safeguard their pristine community from the kind of riffraff that turned neighboring Santa Angela into a raucous string of blood-spattered saloons and bawdy sporting houses. Former Texas Ranger Emmett Strong seems to be just the man Benficklin’s town fathers are looking for. Reputations aside, Benficklin - not Santa Angela - is the town with the next scandal on its hands, when the ravaged body of a young, murdered Mexican girl is found lying in the middle of Main Street.

From the current king of the sexy, hard-driving, Western adventure! The legendary Sheriff Ben Stillman series continues.... Things have heated up since the last time Ben Stillman brought peace to Clantick, Montana Territory. It's been two years since he left to join the Pinkerstons, and now there's a group of bloodthirsty cowboys who think they own the town. When the ruthless desperados shoot down a helpless, feeble-minded friend of Jody Harmon, it's the last straw. Something's gotta be done.