Mystery Western Historical Fiction

A richly imagined novel of the Old West, as spare and vivid as a high plains sunset, from one of the world's most talented performers. It was a long time ago, now, and there were many gunfights to follow, but I remember as well as I remember anything the first time I saw Virgil Cole shoot. Time...

A hard term in Yuma Prison gave Ralph Tinsdale and his gunhawk sidekicks time to nurse a deep hatred for Smoke Jensen - the man who put them there. A bloody escape gives them the chance to get even. Their posse is already 40 strong, the price on Smoke's head is up to 20 grand, and with Jensen's own wife shanghaied into Tinsdale's deadly trap, this time there's more at stake than Smoke's own life....

Big Red and Old Red Amlingmeyer’s dream has come true: The Sherlock Holmes-worshiping cowboy brothers are finally in business as professional detectives. But their fledgling A.A. Western Detective Agency faces a few challenges. Their partner, Col. Crowe, is almost as cantankerous and secretive as Old Red himself. The colonel’s daughter, Diana, insists on tagging along for the Amlingmeyers’ first assignment, which lands them smack dab in the middle of a range war - with Big Red and Old Red expected to shoot it out with rustlers rather than rustle up clues and solve a mystery.

Colorado! Some came for freedom; others, to build a new life. But in 1858, when gold is discovered in the Colorado region, thousands of desperate men and women descend on Denver like a hungry swarm. Homesteaders struggle to hold onto their claims, but none are immune to the effects of gold fever. Wagon train veteran Chet Harris risks his life to repeat the success he found in the California gold fields. Mineral expert Luke Brando masquerades as a banker, while his wife hides a yearning for riches of her own. And young Cathy Blake discovers just how far she’ll go to defeat a voluptuous rival.

Smoke Jensen and his adopted son Matt are cooling their heels in Colorado when they are called to the Dakotas. Preacher, the legendary mountain man, is in the midst of a vicious struggle. Someone has kidnapped a proud Indian chief’s daughter and grandchild. When the kidnapping turns to murder, and Preacher vanishes after clashing with a ruthless Union colonel turned railroad king, Matt sets out to infiltrate the Colonel's gang of killers.

Hank Fallon knows what it's like to rot behind bars. To wallow in the filth of a rat-infested cell. To smell the pent-up rage of cutthroat killers and thieves. Fallon earned his freedom the hard way. He saved the lives of four guards, got released early, and became a detective. Then he went undercover, infiltrated a prison gang plotting to bust out - and barely made it out alive. Now they're sending him back. Behind the iron. Straight to hell...

Higbee, Colorado, population 147, is about to become a boomtown. The visionary General Wade Garrison is building a railroad to connect Higbee to the renowned Santa Fe Rail. But a rancher named Ike Clinton has his own selfish reasons for making sure these bands of steel go nowhere - and he’ll go to any lengths to derail Garrison’s plans. Falcon MacCallister owes a war-time debt to the General and answers the call to aid the man in his fight with the Clinton brood.

In the Mongollon Rim country of Arizona, Frank Morgan walked into a blood feud between two powerful cattle barons. When the shooting stopped and the smoke cleared, Morgan had killed one of the men. Now, the dead man’s family wants revenge and the surviving rancher wants to silence Frank Morgan forever. Suddenly, the last gunfighter is on his own against a devil’s brew of murderous enemies. And amidst the lying and the killing is the beautiful young woman whose father Frank shot down - and one last thing worth dying to defend....

When Falcon MacCallister buys a silver mine in the Arizona Territory from his old friend Doc Holliday, he gets more than he bargained for. On the way to inspect the mine, Falcon's stagecoach is robbed and two passengers are killed. One of those passengers is Cloud Dancer, the daughter of Apache chief Keytano, nephew to Naiche, Falcon's old nemesis.

"Kill or be killed historical romance with bandits, Pinkerton agents, bounty hunters, mystery and more. Melissa Lenhardt writes with passion and does not hold anything back." -RT Book Reviews Laura Elliston and William Kindle are on the run-from the Army and from every miscreant in the West...

Cotton Pickens made it through fifth grade. That and a tin star were good enough to make him the sheriff in the boomtown of Doubtful, Wyoming. And Doubtful's name is no accident. The saying around town is, "If you're a lawman, it's doubtful you'll last a day." Spoiled, brash King Bragg is going to hang for the murder of three men in a barroom. But King's arrogant father - and his beautiful sister - use their powers of persuasion to convince Cotton to look into the shooting.

Conrad Browning, aka The Loner, knows what it’s like to a have a family and a home. And he knows what it’s like to lose it all. Now, he has met a man living on the edge of sanity: a good man, a flawed man, a solitary man who might just cost The Loner his life.... Jared Tate is an aging US marshal who has saved lives, made enemies, and planted a lot of bad men in hallowed ground. But Tate is in deep trouble, the kind that comes from a troubled mind. Not remembering as much as he wants to, not forgetting as much as he should, Tate has one person to trust.

In 1893, the Amlingmeyer boys venture forth from the west in response to a summons from Otto's ("Big Red") publisher - they are to come to Chicago immediately, to the World's Columbian Exposition, and compete with some of the most famous detectives in the world. Set to coincide with the closing days of the first World's Fair and the publication of the story revealing the death of Sherlock Holmes, Gustav ("Old Red") will be competing for the title of World's Greatest Sleuth!

Almena Guillory, better known as the Grizzly Queen of the West, has plenty to recommend her for the noose, but US Marshal Apostle Richardson enforces the law, he doesn't decide it. When a posse tries to lynch Almena ahead of her trial, Apostle refuses their form of expedited justice - and receives a bullet for his trouble. Before escaping, however, Almena unexpectedly saves his life by absorbing his wound through the use of dangerous flesh magic.

Hoping to escape the shame of her street urchin's life in Boston, Anna Reardon plotted a desperate scheme - to become Karl Lindstrom's mail-order bride in the beautiful, dangerous frontier of Minnesota. A kind and gentle man, Karl forgave Anna for her deceptions. But there was still one burning secret she had to hide from him, knowing its revelation would destroy the love they had come to cherish.

Trueman Rock is a daring young cowboy and rider. Six years ago he had to leave the cowtown of Wagontongue because of a history of gunfights and run-ins with bad hombres. Since then, he's become a man who only uses his gun when he needs to, on rustlers and crooks. Now, he's returning to his hometown. But things have changed. The town and its people aren't what they used to be. He expects to find some of his enemies there to welcome him, but instead finds they're all dead. In their place is the Preston family.

They are just about as bad and evil as outlaw gangs come. But in the end, they finally go straight.

On assignment for the Bureau of Investigation in the summer of 1927, Trey Ramsey seeks information regarding the disappearances of young Sioux women from their reservations in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Meanwhile, young rancher Kate Connolly is at the right place at the right time to thwart an assassination attempt on the president of the United States, who has made the State Game Lodge in South Dakota his "Summer White House".

One of the bestselling novelists of the American West brings us a gripping tale of gold, greed, and vengeance.

"An all-out women-driven, queer, transgender, multiracial takeover of the Old West . . . and that's exactly what Melissa Lenhardt delivers in her unapologetically badass western, Heresy." - New York Times "Lenhardt has created a bold new story where women have taken their rightful place in the...