Western Fiction

Outer Dark is a novel at once fabular and starkly evocative, set is an unspecified place in Appalachia, sometime around the turn of the century. A woman bears her brother's child, a boy; he leaves the baby in the woods and tells her he died of natural causes. Discovering her brother's lie, she sets forth alone to find her son. Both brother and sister wander separately through a countryside being scourged by three terrifying and elusive strangers, headlong toward an eerie, apocalyptic resolution.

1893 is a tough year in Montana, and any job is a good job. When Big Red and Old Red Amlingmeyer sign on as ranch hands at the secretive Bar-VR cattle spread, they're not expecting much more than hard work, bad pay, and a comfortable campfire around which they can enjoy their favorite pastime: scouring Harper's Weekly for stories about the famous Sherlock Holmes.

Keith watched his young cousin ride away and shook his head. He would be leading a party into the wilderness which was what they both did for a living. But Angus wasn’t escorting a typical hunting party. He was taking a newlywed couple into the deep forests of Washington Territory because they wanted to find a fabled sasquatch.

After a lifetime of robbing banks and holding up trains, Jimmy “Slash” Braddock, and Melvin “Pecos Kid” Baker are ready to call it quits — though not completely by choice. Sold out by their old gang, Slash and Pecos have to bust out of jail and pull one last job to finance their early retirement....

Ten years have passed since Joe Lakota left Laurel Creek, Oregon, for the allure of the big city and a career in professional football. Now a single father, Joe returns to Laurel Creek hoping to rekindle his romance with Marilee Nelson. But their separation was painful, and Marilee is wounded deeper than anyone knows. Her head tells her to resist Joe's advances, but can she ignore her deepest desires?

More than any writer before or since, Louis L'Amour brought the American West to life. His action-packed stories deal with eternal themes: honor, deceit, passion, betrayal, loyalty, courage, love. His settings are historically accurate, his prose riveting, and his characters colorful: good guys, bad guys, toughs, roughs, sidekicks, and saints.

Ambition drove Joe Dollarhide across the parched plains from Fort Sam Houston to Dodge City. One day, he was determined to have a spread every bit as vast and impressive as his employer's. But when a wild stampede separates him from the cattle drive, it is survival that keeps him going when most would have given up. Survival and a burning need to settle the score with Benteen Calder, the cattle boss he used to worship, the man who left him for dead.

He's the one who got away. The cowboy who claimed Natalie Haskell's heart before taking off on a tour of duty, planning never to return. But Beau Tyler is back, and she feels defenseless against the powerful pull of the brawny soldier. Especially when, suddenly widowed, she needs the shelter of his strong arms. Natalie's the girl Beau left behind but never forgot, despite his battle-scarred soul. And now she's the real reason he's staying on at the ranch.

Scarred and battered loner Zane Taylor has a gift with animals, particularly horses, but he's at a total loss when it comes to knowing how to handle women. Even though he's sworn off love, he can't seem to stay away from Bryn Callahan. He's known for being a horse whisperer, but can't seem to find his voice at all where Bryn is concerned. Bryn Callahan has a heart for strays, but she is through trying to save damaged men. She vows to only date nice guys, which is a category that does not include Zane Taylor. Too bad he's the one who sets her pulse racing every time she's around him.

Call him man-hunter, tracker, or bounty hunter. As long as the cash was cold and the trail was hot, Lou Prophet would run his quarry into the ground before giving up the chase. He loved his work - it kept him in wine and women, and was never, ever dull. And his newest job sounds particularly attractive....Her name is Lola Diamond. She’s a showgirl, a chanteuse, and a prime witness in a murder trial that’s going on without her. Prophet is supposed to find her and "escort" her to the courthouse, whether she likes it or not.

Sadie Stephens has loved her brother's best friend, Lincoln Carver, since she was a girl, but a family feud involving a runaway bride closed any options for a romance. Lincoln's only interest in her now is one of obligation and guilt. After all, he's the one responsible for the lassoing "incident" (don't ask. Lincoln's life was perfect until his matchmaking granny stuck her nose in his business. Now, he's accidentally injured his best friend's sister, the woman partly responsible for a family feud.

'Tis the season for ex-Navy SEAL Clayton East to come home for the holidays - even if the mood at home is anything but festive. His father is ill. The East Ranch is in financial trouble. And now it's on Clayton, the prodigal son, to make sure his family doesn't lose everything. Headstrong Abby Harper is like a mother to her younger brothers, who she's helped raise since she was a teenager. Keeping them in line is no small task while she's also working toward her college degree.

Former outlaw Clay Colby is abuzz with his mail-order bride's expected arrival. He's fought long and hard to drag Devil's Crossing out of lawlessness...so when his homestead is set ablaze by a bitter rival, he's heartbroken. There's no woman in the world who'd stand by him now. But Tally Shannon is no ordinary woman. After escaping the psychiatric hospital in which she was wrongfully detained, Tally only wants someone to protect her and the little girl under her care.

I'm a man who knows what he wants and what I want is Birdie. It hurt like hell to watch her leave our small town to set off and chase her college dreams. I let her go once, I'm not letting it happen again. Now she's home for good, and I'll stop at nothing to keep her with me, always. Even if that means tying her to me in every way possible.

Years ago, police chief Travis Kincaid, a former Navy SEAL, learned the hard way that breaking the rules only leads to disaster. Since then, he's followed strict rules to stay focused on his career and keep his heart locked away where it won't cloud his judgment. Too bad the woman he's fallen for was a born rule-breaker.

Because of the unrestrained slaughter of cougars on Buckskin Mountain, the deer population has increased so fast that they begin to starve. But when Thad Eburne, chief forest ranger, hears the government's plan to open a massive deer hunt to hundreds of indiscriminate hunters, he worries that it will only worsen man's dangerous meddling with nature. Then, when Eburne decides to save a deer herd from a cattleman bent on selling illegal deer meat for easy money, he finds himself up against the deadliest outlaw in the West.

The last thing Ruby McGavin thought she would be doing after her husband, Cole, died was meeting his family. He had claimed his relatives were all dead, and she didn't know him long enough - they were only married one year - to think otherwise. But it turns out that members of Cole's family, from a small ranch town in California, are very much alive, and they show up on Ruby's doorstep with the news that she has inherited some land from her husband.

Rockford James was raised as a tried and true cowboy in a town crazy about ice hockey. Rock is as hot on the ice as he is on a horse, and the NHL snapped him up. Now, injuries have temporarily benched him. With his body and pride wounded, he returns to his hometown ranch to find that a lot has changed. The one thing that hasn't? His feelings for high school sweetheart and girl-next-door Quinn Rivers. Quinn had no choice but to get over Rock after he left. Teenaged and heartbroken, she had a rebound one night stand that ended in her becoming a single mom.

Mattie Ross, a 14-year-old girl from Dardanelle, Arkansas, sets out to avenge her Daddy who was shot to death by a no-good outlaw. Mattie convinces one-eyed "Rooster" Cogburn, the meanest U.S. marshal in the land, to ride along with her. In True Grit, we have a true American classic, as young Mattie, as vital as she is innocent, outdickers and outmaneuvers the hard-bitten men of the trail in a legend that will last through the ages.

Audie Award, Literary Fiction, 2016. The story of Jack Crabbe, raised by both a white man and a Cheyenne chief. As a Cheyenne, Jack ate dog, had four wives, and saw his people butchered by General Custer's soldiers. As a white man, he participated in the slaughter of the buffalo and tangled with Wyatt Earp.