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.

He was 15 when he killed his first man. Before his murderous ways ended, Hardin killed 42 men in cold blood - one, the legend goes, because he snored too loudly. From then on, John Wesley Hardin stayed true to his calling, killing man after man after man, spending most of his life being pursued by both local lawmen and federal troops.

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.

Parker was the last thing I expected when I packed my bags and moved to small-town Texas after learning my then-ex cheated two months before our wedding. All I knew is that I wanted to be far away. With my savings and a broken heart, I purchased a fixer-upper and took the next plane to a place where only one person knew my name. It was supposed to be my perfect opportunity to start over and scrub the male species from my mind. And it would have worked had Parker not smiled at me from the other end of the bar with eyes so blue they'd make a nun swoon.

Sarah Prescott has never known a respectable life. Just a hardscrabble childhood and brothers who taught her to shoot first and ask questions later. Justin Wells left Boston in disgrace, heading out alone on the dusty trail to Texas. But when the once-respected clergyman encounters a feisty redhead in handcuffs with a dying US Marshal at her side, their journey takes a dramatic turn. His high-society expectations and Sarah's outlaw habits clash from the start. With a price on her head and recused orphaned baby, Justin and Sarah make the difficult journey toward Rocky Creek.

Oh yeah. A single look at the leggy blonde in the stands and Tucker Jenkins is ready to buck all night long. It's time to forget all about his cheating ex and his usual hands off policy. Becca Hart is an East Coast professor. Not a buckle bunny. But no degree can prepare her for the moves of the sexy bull rider she hooks up with at her first rodeo… or the shock of finding him at her first Oklahoma State University staff meeting. Tuck knows it's all about holding on, no matter how wild the ride.

The Scottish Highlands, 1885. Two men, brandishing knives, attack a young woman outside a pub. Duff MacAllister steps in and saves her - killing one of the assailants. Big mistake. The attacker was the sheriff's son, and now MacAllister is marked for death. His only hope: America. Here, in the sprawling land of dreams, Duff hopes to start a new life with his American cousins. Unfortunately, the sheriff's deputies are tracking him down - with nine of the deadliest cutthroats money can buy.

Luke Jensen, Bounty Hunter is the first in an exciting new series starring Smoke's long-lost brother. During the Civil War, Confederate soldier Luke Jensen is ordered to smuggle gold out of the city - but he ends up robbed and shot. Taken in by a Georgia farmer, Luke slowly recovers. Though he plans to rejoin Smoke, a budding romance with the farmer's daughter delays his departure - until a tragic event changes everything.

A religious miracle: The Cahokians believed that the divine hero Morning Star had been resurrected in the flesh. But not all is fine and stable in glorious Cahokia. To the astonishment of the ruling clan, an attempt is made on the living god's life. Now it is up to Morning Star's aunt Matron Blue Heron to keep it quiet until she can uncover the plot and bring the culprits to justice. If she fails, Cahokia will be torn asunder in warfare, rage, and blood as civil war consumes them all.

He came west to the Rockies as a young runaway and grew into a legend among the already legendary frontier mountain men. They called him Preacher - a name that would become a monument to all who sought adventure in the savage wilderness of America's untamed west. The only man with the skills to lead a wagon train on the last leg of the rugged Oregon trail, Preacher knows they're headed into trouble. It's hard enough for a hundred greenhorns to survive the wilds of the northwest; being pursued by thieving renegade outlaws and Indians with a thirst for gold makes it damn near impossible.

"Bloody" Joe Mannion is a town tamer of great renown. Known as the most uncompromising lawman on the Western frontier, he's been the town marshal of Del Norte in the Colorado Territory for the past five years. One day in Del Norte, he loses his famous temper and badly beats Whip Helton, the son of a prominent rancher. That night, the son and his outlaw pards burn Joe's house and kidnap and rape his daughter. Joe goes on the warpath, getting crossways with the son's father, prominent rancher Garth Helton.

Pursued by a Texas bounty hunter, Matthew returns to Fountain Creek, Colorado, to apologize to his brother for insulting his wife Annabelle and to share his Idaho homestead. Learning that his brother has left already, he answers an ad for someone to guide a widow to Idaho. But he's shocked to see the widow is Annabelle, a woman whose sordid past repulses him.

For outsiders, Painted Canyon, Montana might simply be a picturesque western town, but for rancher and horse trainer Cord Hollister, it's meant salvation. That's why he recognizes in newcomer Shallie Fletcher another lost soul looking for a fresh start. But can he convince her that Painted Canyon is the perfect place to put down roots-and that love awaits if she'll just take a chance?

Ride the Cherokee Trail with Callum, three years after a bloody war that divided state against state, town against town, and brother against brother, as he attempts to guide his family from their ravaged horse farm back east to the waiting ranch in Colorado. Accompany him as he battles corrupt officials in Tennessee, greedy thieves in Arkansas, and Indians and bandits on the Great Plains. Will he fulfill his mission to bring his loved ones safely to their new home, nestled in the shadows of the Sangre de Cristo mountains of Colorado?

The Byrnes family came to Texas and carved out a place on the land. Three generations who paid in blood and treasure. Children carried off by Comanche. A brother lost to war. Lives shattered. Chet Byrnes was trying to hold the ranch together through one more winter for one more cattle drive when he hanged three horse thieves this side of the Red River - and a blood feud erupted....

A moving, exciting, and heartfelt American saga inspired by the author's own family memoirs, these words belong to Sarah Prine, a woman of spirit and fire who forges a full and remarkable existence in a harsh, unfamiliar frontier. Scrupulously recording her steps down the path Providence has set her upon - from child to determined young adult to loving mother.

As the father of a young Crow tribesman, Preacher would like nothing more than to see the long-time natives and newly arrived settlers live together in peace. Then, the killing starts.... As a family man and frontiersman, Jamie Ian MacCallister is more than happy to help the officers at Fort Kearny negotiate a peace treaty with the Crow nation. Until it all goes to hell.... This is not the American dream they were looking for. This is a nightmare. A brutal, blood-drenched frontier war that two heroic men must fight and win - or one struggling nation will never come together.

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.

1852 Illinois. Eva Thompson has her future mapped out. Marriage to David Clarke and a family is all she wants. Her Pa has other ideas. He insists on taking the Oregon Trail to a better life and favors Harold Chapman as Eva's suitor. Marriage to Harold will provide Eva with everything she needs except . . . love.

When it was first published in 1979, this novel introduced inspirational fiction to people hungry for well-told stories based on Christian values. Since then, over a million copies have been sold, and it has been made into a popular Hallmark movie. Janette Oke has won the Christy Award, the Gold Medallion, and scores of other awards.