Literary Fiction Western

Eldon Quint toils as a farmer on the Dakota frontier. The widowed father leaves the faintest impression as he moves through the world, wishing to shield his sons from the violence that shaped his own childhood. His twin brother, an outlaw known by his chosen name - Jack Foss - leaves only bloodshed in his wake. After years of estrangement end in violence on a winter morning in 1883, the farmer Eldon Quint sets off to rid the world of the outlaw Jack Foss once and for all.

After an attempted horse theft goes tragically wrong, 16-year-old Caleb Bentley is on the run with his mean-spirited older brother across the American Southwest at the turn of the 20th century. Caleb’s moral compass and inner courage will be tested as they travel the harsh terrain and encounter those who have carved out a life there, for good or ill.

In Eden Mine, the award-winning author of Black River examines the aftershocks of an act of domestic terrorism rooted in a small Montana town on the brink of abandonment, as it tears apart a family, tests the faith of a pastor and the loyalty of a sister, and mines the deep rifts that come when the reach of the government clashes with individual freedom.

In the dusty desert town of Pecos, New Mexico, a unique and strange friendship blossoms. Bracket, a self-proclaimed intergalactic spy, encounters Gabriel. Gabriel, a world traveler, has returned home after a family tragedy and is now looking for hope in the bottom of the bottle. The desert and its majestic mesas bear witness to a grand escape and what is to be a friendship for the ages.

Young Texas Ranger Russ Sittell is undercover searching for the head of a gang of rustlers - working with his ranger mentor and idol, Vaughn Steele. Staying undercover is difficult. Both rangers have difficulty staying focused while falling in love - can they uncover the criminals and keep love in its rightful place? Zane Grey tells the story in The Rustlers of Pecos County.

The Civil War may be over, but in this thrilling historical novel, the battle for the West is only just beginning. Wolves of Eden sets four men on a deadly collision course in a haunting narrative that explores the cruelty of warfare and the resilience of the human spirit.

After a man is murdered during a trip on the Switzerland Trail of America railroad, police officer Harry McBride sorts through the suspects among the passengers in the hope of finding the killer before the train returns to Boulder.

Set on the high prairies of Montana, in small towns scattered across vast landscapes, the distances in Broken Field are both insurmountable and deeply internalized. Life is dusty and hard, and men are judged by their labor. Women have to be tougher yet. That’s what sixteen-year-old Josie Frehse learns as she struggles to meet the expectations of her community while fumbling with her own desires.

When Susannah McKittrick leaves Nantucket for the boomtown of Seattle, she is hardly looking to strike it rich; she is headed west to care for a newborn left motherless after Susannah's cousin died. Although the rigorous trip depletes all of her savings, Susannah is certain she is doing the right thing. She is less sure when she meets the infant's father, wealthy businessman Aubrey Fairgrieve - who seems embittered toward love and marriage, and indifferent toward the precious baby Susannah is so eager to care for.

If things are quiet in the little town of Sweetwater, Marshal Fred Hitch sees no reason to make waves. But when Tyree Johnson shows up, Fred's relaxed nature is put to the test. At 15 years old, Tyree is a tough-as-nails bounty hunter with no patience for anyone calling him "boy." He's come to apprehend a killer who escaped from Cheyenne and has been hiding in plain sight in Sweetwater. Fred must ride with Tyree and his prisoner all the way to Cheyenne. The unlikely pair has a rough trail ahead of them, and as tough as Tyree is, he has some lessons to learn about the evil men do - and how to survive it.

When young Jarret Pekoe aims to bring a band of violent border-jumpers to justice, his sister hires rifleman Lem Beauchamp to scare some sense into him. But when trouble arrives, they must work together to defeat the outlaws once and for all. Jarrett Pekoe cares about two things: his ranch and his family. So when rustlers kill his kin and burn his land to the ground, Jarrett won't rest until the men responsible have their necks caught in the hangman's rope.

In this moving sequel to Big Rock Candy Mountain, Bruce Mason returns to Salt Lake City, not for his aunt's funeral but to encounter after 45 years the place he fled in bitterness. A successful statesman and diplomat, Mason had buried his awkward and lonely childhood and sealed himself off from the thrills and torments of adolescence to become a figure who commanded international respect.

The legacy of legendary Western author Ralph Compton can be heard in the explosive tales penned by Joseph A. West. A ruthless murderer known as the Fat Man is terrorizing Green Meadow, Oklahoma, which sits over a massive store of black gold. The Fat Man will kill anyone who stands in his way. But gambler Chauncey Drake and Pinkerton agent Reuben Withers aren’t the kind to back down easy, and the stars are aligning for a showdown of epic proportions.

Two decades after the Civil War, Josephine Marcus, the teenage daughter of Jewish immigrants, is lured west with the promise of marriage to Johnny Behan, one of Arizona's famous lawmen. She leaves her San Francisco home to join Behan in Tombstone, Arizona, a magnet for miners (and outlaws) attracted by the silver boom. Though united by the glint of metal, Tombstone is plagued by divided loyalties: between Confederates and Unionists, Lincoln Republicans and Democrats.

USA Today best-selling author Ralph Cotton pens gun-blazing tales evoking the glory days of the Old West. In City of Bad Men, Lawrence “Fast Larry” Shaw wants nothing more than peace and quiet after miraculously surviving a gunshot wound to the head. But his hopes for tranquility don’t last long. A powerful businessman needs help defending his mining operation from the likes of the Cut-Jaws Gang, and he thinks Larry is just the man for the job.

In the lawless frontier town of Brownsville, Texas, a boy and his parents ride a carriage down a crowded street - when a kill-crazy band of kidnappers strike suddenly. Now, to rescue his family, veteran rancher Charley Sunday cobbles together a ragtag posse that starts with an outlaw and an Indian - and picks up recruits, weapons, and a lot of trouble all the way down into Mexico.

Award-winning author Mark Spragg writes about the American West with unmatched skill and vision. In Bone Fire Spragg weaves the tale of Ishawooa, Wyoming, a city marred by the realities of modern life. Sheriff Crane Carlson is having enough trouble with his pot-addled and alcoholic wife when he finds a teen murdered in a meth lab. Violence seems to be exploding all over the small town, but even as the situation spirals out of control, Carlson finds moments of compassion and beauty.

McEban looks at the woman sleeping beside him. Her name is Gretchen. She's married to Bennett, and Bennett is McEban's best friend. But McEban has loved Gretchen forever - since they were children growing up on adjacent ranches in Wyoming. What neither man knows is that Gretchen will soon leave her husband in pursuit of a new life. When both decide to follow her on an odyssey across the American West, their journey forces truths and reveals the mystical, sometimes fatal bonds of loyalty and love.

Former army scout Jack Gregory returns from battle to a homestead in ruins. A wanted man with no place to go, he chooses an even deadlier career - as a scout for General George Armstrong Custer. Under a new name, Jack serves bravely in the Seventh Cavalry. When Custer's disastrous leadership ends in devastating slaughter, Jack sets off to forge his own destiny. Winning a small ranch in a card game, he hopes to settle down and live a peaceful life.

A classic work of Texas fiction from M.E.M. Davis, Under the Man-Fig was first published in1895. Part romance, part satire, and part realism, this entertaining novel takes place in the fictional town of Thornham on the Texas Gulf Coast. Under the sprawling branches of the ancient man-fig tree in the town square, all the male gossips of Thornham sit around and spin their colorful yarns - and in so doing, unwittingly weave a folk history of the Old South. This important work resounds with a reading from narrator Sally Darling.