Western Action

On a lively night at the Victory saloon in Trinidad, New Mexico, Sheriff Caleb York interrupts his poker game to settle a minor dust-up that raises the stakes into major trouble. The wounded miscreant he ushers to the hoosegow spills the secret behind the mysterious disappearance of a certain stage coach. Bound for Denver, the stage carried three important passengers - beautiful ranch owner Willa Cullen, lovely temptress Rita Filley, and wealthy banker Raymond L. Parker. But all are gone, with only the corpses of fellow passengers as bullet-ridden clues.

No one tells tales of the frontier better than Louis L'Amour, who portrays the human side of westward expansion - the good and the bad - before the days of law and order. Collected here are seven stories penned by America's favorite Western author.

Nathan Stone returns to his Virginia home to discover that the horrors of the Civil War are not over; his family has been wiped out, and their home burned by seven renegades. Nathan swears an oath on his father’s grave to find and kill each of the men responsible. He begins a lonely journey that will take him south and west, on a vengeance trail that crosses the paths of some infamous figures, including “Wild Bill” Hickok, Roy Bean, and Frank and Jesse James.

Charley Sunday, a sensible, sober-minded Texas grandfather, imparts the American Cowboy legacy to his only grandchild as he and several of his grizzled cronies concoct a 1,000-mile longhorn cattle drive across 21st Century America. Four leathery cowboys, one insightful Indian, two strong-willed women, a two-gun oddball, a dog, and a little boy make an unlikely team as they trek from Colorado to Texas, continually running up against the forces of corruption.

He is brave, tough as leather, and has left behind a trail of deadly enemies - outlaws he's hunted down or killed with the cold heart of a man used to violence. A feared bounty hunter and the scourge of bad men everywhere, Flintlock carries an ancient Hawken muzzle-loader, handed down to him from the mountain man who raised him. He stands as the towering hero of a new Johnstone saga.

Army scout, Indian fighter, bounty hunter, and great nephew of the legendary frontiersman, Daniel Boone, Jedidiah hung up his guns and retired to his mountain hideaway. But an Apache massacre and the kidnapping of two young girls changed all that. Jedidiah will need all his skills and more as he battles the harsh elements of the vast New Mexico deserts, and the warriors of the Apache in a desperate attempt to rescue the captive girls before it is too late.

Jedidiah Huckleberry Smith spent his entire life searching for the raider who mutilated him as a child. Finally, giving up on a trail long grown cold, he leaves his outlaw past behind and starts over in a remote town in Wyoming. Now, teaming up with a beautiful but naïve paleontologist, they stand between his adopted town and its destruction by an army of barbaric prehistoric apes and dinosaurs. But Jed’s past has come back to haunt him. The man he searched for is discovered in a position of power, and Jed must choose...

The Civil War made him a man. The battle of Shiloh made him a hero and gave him a nickname that stuck. The notorious Union prisoner of war camp made him a killer of his fellow prisoners in "Gladiator" contests in order to survive. But the killings brought haunting nightmares that wouldn't end until he settled an old score with a Union Colonel determined to see Shiloh dead.

The tales of the Mountain Man represent the best of the Western genre in all its thundering glory—and few gunfighters are as compelling, or as deadly, as Smoke Jensen. In Shootout of the Mountain Man, Billy Ray Cabot is set to hang, but the people planning to string him up haven’t reckoned on his old association with Smoke Jensen.

On the West Texas border, a behemoth is bellowing smoke, fire, and death. This monster is the infamous Abaddon Cannon Foundry, whose weapons of war have spread death and destruction around the world - and made a few men in Big Buck, Texas, incredibly rich. Now, a Mexican-born teenager has disappeared into this fortress factory where men work and sweat as slaves. This boy's sister wants to learn her brother's fate, and she just happens to know a man named Shawn O'Brien, the town tamer.

The tender tale of a woman without choices who risks everything for one last chance at happiness. "Rancher Seeking Wife" - for Kate Whittington, the modest words in a newspaper ad are the answer to her desperate prayers. Daughter of a dockside harlot and raised in a bleak orphanage, she has no prospects in the unforgiving Maine village of her birth. Correspondence from the lonely Texas widower looking for a mail order bride sparks tempting dreams of a house, a family and a future in a land filled with possibilities.

Deadwood, South Dakota. Miners flock there seeking fortunes, while cardsharps, bandits, and businessmen seek to deprive those who strike gold by means fair and foul. Legendary former lawman Seth Bullock plans to keep the peace by any means necessary—especially when his good friend, President Theodore Roosevelt, is expected in town to celebrate the anniversary of Deadwood's founding.

Caleb York has made up his mind and packed his bags. He'll be on the next stage, bound for San Diego and a new life as a Pinkerton man. But before Caleb can say a proper good-bye to his sweetheart, Willa, a peaceful morning erupts into blazing gunfire. Someone has to bring law and order to the wild little town of Trinidad, even as a band of outlaw brothers rides the vengeance trail and a new cattle baron sets his sights on more land...and on Willa, too. Looks like Caleb will be staying on for a while.

In Tennessee, 17-year-old Breckinridge Wallace knew the laws of nature. When his life was in danger, he showed a fearless instinct to fight back. Killing a thug who was sent to kill him got Breckinridge exiled from his Smoky Mountain home. Brutally wounding an Indian attacker earned him an enemy for life...Now, from the bustling streets of St. Louis to the vast stillness of the Missouri headwaters, Breckinridge is discovering a new world of splendor, violence, promise and betrayal. Most off all, he is clawing his way to manhood behind the law of the gun.

Reina de los Angeles is being terrorized by a masked swordsman who marks the faces of his victims with Zorro's trademark Z. But is this the real Zorro? The governor of California offers a reward for the capture of Don Diego Vega (who is known to have previously been Zorro) dead or alive, while an army - led by the ruthless Captain Rocha - is in hot pursuit of the outlaw. Assisted by a coterie of allies and the native Cocopah tribe, Don Diego seeks to establish his innocence and unmask the evil imposter.

A vicious killer is on escape. A town fears he'll return for vengeance. Now, to save his town and secure his own future, the Marshal from Ocate must face a past he'd rather forget. Black Jack Dorsette and his gang of outlaws are looking to settle some debts, and the only payment they'll accept is Rankin's Blood.

Captain Peter Joseph Kellerman was once a promising career soldier who’d proven his mettle in battle time and again. Now he’s fighting a battle with a whiskey bottle. He’s also in charge of Fort Benjamin Grierson, located west of hell, deep in Arizona Territory’s Mohawk Valley on the arid edge of the Yuma Desert. The men under his command aren’t fit to wear the uniform. Killers, thieves, and ravagers condemned to death but who’ve chosen to serve, holding down the hated Fort Misery.

Texas Ranger Bo Hawkins sets out hunting the Evans boys after they murder his wife and daughter. Following their trail, he rides into the town of Calico after killing a man who sneaks into his camp with murderous intent. That sets in motion a series of events that require all of his time and skill to handle. As he walks the streets of and area around Calico, he tries to sift facts from lies. There seems to be more lies than anything else. Rustling, robbery, and murder are taking over the town.

When the Salish war leader Spotted Eagle appeared in the clearing before their cabin, lifelong friends Gabe and Ezra weren’t sure what to think. This man had shown himself to be their friend, and now he invited them to join him and the village on a buffalo hunt. With winter just around the corner, it seemed the likely thing to do, but had they known what the journey would bring, they might have had second thoughts. Gabe and Ezra’s discovery of the massacre of the Paiute village and the three survivors was just the beginning of the fight against the warring Waiilatpus.

Falcon MacCallister never thought he’d wear army brass. But Colorado is about to join the Union — and the would-be state has just made him Lt. Colonel in its Home Guard. Then, before his military career can take off, Falcon loses one of his men and two deadly new Gatling guns to a murderous ambush. Falcon is going to get those Gatling guns back — before they kill the wrong people.